GoatCounter vs Smartlook comparison

Compare pricing, deployment, product fit, integrations, and capabilities side by side.

Which platform fits your needs?

Choose GoatCounter if

Website owners who want simple, privacy-focused analytics

Capabilities only listed for GoatCounter

Privacy-first Self-hosted Open source Free plan Cookieless GDPR compliant CCPA compliant Real-time data Audience insights Data ownership Custom reports

Important considerations: Hosted use is donation-supported with a reasonable-use policy; high-volume or specialized deployments should be self-hosted.

Choose Smartlook if

Existing Smartlook customers planning a move to another web or mobile behavior analytics platform

Capabilities only listed for Smartlook

App analytics Behavior analytics Funnels Error tracking Session recordings Heatmaps Retention analytics Cross-device tracking

Important considerations: Paid support ends August 31, 2027. Export required data before your paid plan expires: historical data does not migrate to Splunk automatically. The platform and remaining data are scheduled for removal on September 30, 2027.

Shared capabilities

Event tracking User segments Data export Integrations

Attribute	GoatCounter	Smartlook
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 web and mobile behavior analytics product with session recordings, heatmaps, funnels, events, and crash reports. Smartlook reached end of sale on May 31, 2026 and is no longer available to new customers.
Pricing	Hosted service is donation-supported and free for reasonable public use; self-hosting is free and open source	No new subscriptions since May 31, 2026. Renewals and expansions end August 31, 2026.
Deployment	Self-hosted and hosted options	Vendor-hosted cloud
Best for	Website owners who want simple, privacy-focused analytics	Existing Smartlook customers planning a move to another web or mobile behavior analytics platform
Operator	Martin Tournoij Independent project	Smartlook, s.r.o. Subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.
Company base	Ireland · European Union	Brno, Czechia · European Union
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.	platform integration Recent official evidence shows a focus on platform integration.
Key features	Cookieless visit counting Open-source self-hosting Hosted service Referrer and campaign reports Browser and location reports JavaScript-free tracking pixel Data export	Web and mobile session replay Heatmaps Funnels Event analytics Crash reports User identification Mobile app analytics
Important considerations	Hosted use is donation-supported with a reasonable-use policy; high-volume or specialized deployments should be self-hosted.	Paid support ends August 31, 2027. Export required data before your paid plan expires: historical data does not migrate to Splunk automatically. The platform and remaining data are scheduled for removal on September 30, 2027.
Integrations	Ghost, Hugo	Shopify, WordPress
Fact check	We checked this information against official vendor sources on 2026-08-27.	We checked this information against official vendor sources on 2026-08-27.

Capability matrix

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	Smartlook
App analytics	Not listed	Listed
Audience insights	Listed	Not listed
Behavior analytics	Not listed	Listed
CCPA compliant	Listed	Not listed
Cookieless	Listed	Not listed
Cross-device tracking	Not listed	Listed
Custom reports	Listed	Not listed
Data export	Listed	Listed
Data ownership	Listed	Not listed
Error tracking	Not listed	Listed
Event tracking	Listed	Listed
Free plan	Listed	Not listed
Funnels	Not listed	Listed
GDPR compliant	Listed	Not listed
Heatmaps	Not listed	Listed
Integrations	Listed	Listed
Open source	Listed	Not listed
Privacy-first	Listed	Not listed
Real-time data	Listed	Not listed
Retention analytics	Not listed	Listed
Self-hosted	Listed	Not listed
Session recordings	Not listed	Listed
User segments	Listed	Listed

Full details: GoatCounter Full details: Smartlook