GoatCounter: pricing, features and alternatives

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.

Pricing

Hosted service is donation-supported and free for reasonable public use; self-hosting is free and open source

Deployment

Self-hosted and hosted options

Best for

Website owners who want simple, privacy-focused analytics

Company profile

See who operates the product, where the organization is based, and the scale behind it.

Company facts checked 13 Aug 2026

Operator: Martin Tournoij; Independent project; Official source — Martin Tournoij
Company base: Ireland · European Union; Company location does not show where customer data is stored or which privacy laws apply.; Official source
Organization scale: 1 maintainers · operator, as of 13 Aug 2026; The figure covers the stated organization, not the product team or its support capacity.; Official source

How the platform evolved

Follow verified launches, ownership changes, major releases, and pricing changes from official sources.

15 Dec 2025
GoatCounter released 2.7.0.
Official source
8 Jun 2025
GoatCounter released 2.6.0.
Official source
13 Aug 2019
GoatCounter launched.
Official source

Visit official website Documentation

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

Important considerations

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

Integrations

Ghost, Hugo

Capabilities

Privacy-first Self-hosted Open source Free plan Cookieless GDPR compliant CCPA compliant Real-time data Event tracking Audience insights User segments Data ownership Data export Integrations Custom reports

Fact check

We checked this information against official vendor sources on 2026-08-27. Official source

GoatCounter alternatives

Compare GoatCounter vs Matomo Compare GoatCounter vs Umami Compare GoatCounter vs Rybbit

Matomo

A privacy-focused analytics suite available in self-hosted and cloud editions, designed for organizations that need full data ownership, governance controls, and extensible analytics across websites and apps.

Privacy-first Self-hosted Open source GDPR compliant CCPA compliant Real-time data+20 more

Best for: Businesses and organizations that want full data ownership and privacy compliance

Pricing: Self-hosted open source; Matomo Cloud pricing is traffic-based via its public calculator, with enterprise support and add-ons priced separately

Umami

An open-source, self-hosted or managed-cloud analytics platform with cookieless traffic and event reporting plus newer funnels, revenue, Web Vitals, session replay, and heatmap capabilities.

Privacy-first Self-hosted Open source Cookieless GDPR compliant CCPA compliant+17 more

Best for: Tech-savvy users and businesses prioritizing privacy and simplicity

Pricing: Free self-hosting. Cloud Hobby: $0 for 100K events/month and one website; Pro: $20/month with 1M events; Business: $200/month with 10M events; Enterprise: custom. Paid overages are metered.

Rybbit

An open-source web and product analytics platform with cookieless real-time traffic, custom events, user profiles, funnels, journeys, retention, error tracking, Web Vitals, and session replay in cloud or self-hosted editions.

Privacy-first Self-hosted Open source Cookieless GDPR compliant CCPA compliant+18 more

Best for: Privacy-conscious product, engineering, marketing, and agency teams that want deeper self-hostable analytics with replay and error context

Pricing: 7-day cloud trial; Standard starts at $13/month and Pro at $26/month billed annually for 100,000 monthly pageviews; Enterprise is custom; AGPL self-hosting is free