Compare pricing, deployment, product fit, integrations, and capabilities side by side.
Website owners who want simple, privacy-focused analytics
Important considerations: Hosted use is donation-supported with a reasonable-use policy; high-volume or specialized deployments should be self-hosted.
Tech-savvy users who want a free, self-hosted analytics solution
Important considerations: Community-maintained software requires self-hosting and technical upkeep; official product documentation and release communication are less active than major alternatives.
| Attribute | GoatCounter | Open Web Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | A lightweight, privacy-aware open-source web analytics service with cookieless visit counting, referrers, campaigns, browser and location reports, exports, and JavaScript-free tracking options. | A GPL-licensed, self-hosted web analytics framework with pageview and event tracking, conversion goals, funnels, segmentation, click heatmaps, visitor paths, and WordPress support. |
| Pricing | Hosted service is donation-supported and free for reasonable public use; self-hosting is free and open source | Free, open source |
| Deployment | Self-hosted and hosted options | Self-hosted |
| Best for | Website owners who want simple, privacy-focused analytics | Tech-savvy users who want a free, self-hosted analytics solution |
| Operator | Martin Tournoij Independent project | Open Web Analytics project Independent project |
| Company base | Ireland · European Union | Distributed organization |
| Organization scale | 1 maintainers · operator, as of 13 Aug 2026 | No comparable official organization-size figure was publicly disclosed. |
| Recent direction | self-hosted expansion Recent official evidence shows a focus on self-hosted expansion. | operational reliability Recent official evidence shows a focus on operational reliability. |
| Key features |
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| Important considerations | Hosted use is donation-supported with a reasonable-use policy; high-volume or specialized deployments should be self-hosted. | Community-maintained software requires self-hosting and technical upkeep; official product documentation and release communication are less active than major alternatives. |
| Integrations | Ghost, Hugo | WordPress |
| Fact check | We checked this information against official vendor sources on 2026-08-27. | We checked this information against official vendor sources on 2026-08-08. |
This matrix shows capabilities recorded in our catalog. Not listed means we have not confirmed the capability here. Check the linked vendor sources for plan, deployment, and usage limits.
| Attribute | GoatCounter | Open Web Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Audience insights | Listed | Not listed |
| Behavior analytics | Not listed | Listed |
| CCPA compliant | Listed | Not listed |
| Cookieless | Listed | Not listed |
| Custom reports | Listed | Listed |
| Data export | Listed | Listed |
| Data ownership | Listed | Listed |
| E-commerce tracking | Not listed | Listed |
| Event tracking | Listed | Listed |
| Free plan | Listed | Not listed |
| GDPR compliant | Listed | Not listed |
| Goals | Not listed | Listed |
| Heatmaps | Not listed | Listed |
| Integrations | Listed | Listed |
| Open source | Listed | Listed |
| Privacy-first | Listed | Not listed |
| Real-time data | Listed | Listed |
| Retention analytics | Not listed | Listed |
| Revenue tracking | Not listed | Listed |
| Self-hosted | Listed | Listed |
| User segments | Listed | Listed |