GoatCounter vs Statcounter 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 Cookieless GDPR compliant CCPA compliant Audience insights User segments 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 Statcounter if

Small businesses and bloggers needing simple web analytics

Capabilities only listed for Statcounter

Behavior analytics Goals Session recordings Heatmaps

Important considerations: Free history is limited to 14 days; session replay is a separate allowance and heatmaps require Premium Plus.

Shared capabilities

Free plan Real-time data Event tracking Data export Integrations

Attribute	GoatCounter	Statcounter
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 hosted web analytics service centered on real-time visitor feeds, traffic trends, landing-page and paid-traffic analysis, conversions, session replay, and higher-tier heatmaps.
Pricing	Hosted service is donation-supported and free for reasonable public use; self-hosting is free and open source	Basic is free for 5,000 sessions/month with 14-day retention; Premium starts at €9/month and Premium Plus at €19/month for 20,000 sessions
Deployment	Self-hosted and hosted options	Vendor-hosted cloud
Best for	Website owners who want simple, privacy-focused analytics	Small businesses and bloggers needing simple web analytics
Operator	Martin Tournoij Independent project	StatCounter Independent private company
Company base	Ireland · European Union	Dublin, Ireland · 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.	operational reliability Recent official evidence shows a focus on operational reliability.
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	Real-time visitor feeds Traffic trend charts Visitor paths Landing-page analysis Conversion tracking Paid-traffic analysis Session replay Heatmaps on Premium Plus
Important considerations	Hosted use is donation-supported with a reasonable-use policy; high-volume or specialized deployments should be self-hosted.	Free history is limited to 14 days; session replay is a separate allowance and heatmaps require Premium Plus.
Integrations	Ghost, Hugo	WordPress, Shopify
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.

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

Full details: GoatCounter Full details: Statcounter