Counter.dev vs GoatCounter (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, GoatCounter grades higher than Counter.dev: 2.8 against 2.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
GoatCounter grades higher on value for money and features. They get the same grade on the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Which one is for you
Pick Counter.dev if
- Fits if you only want a daily visitor count and referrers
- Works for hobby sites where cookie banners are unwelcome
Look elsewhere if
- Too light for anyone who needs funnels, events or goals
- Not for you if you want published plan limits: the site shows none
- Watch out: tracking code appears only after you create an account
- Skip it if you need support, as none is described
Pick GoatCounter if
- Fits if you want visitor stats with no personal data collected
- Works for personal sites and small businesses on a budget
Look elsewhere if
- Too light for funnels, heatmaps or recordings
- Skip it if your site gets millions of pageviews a day, as the hosted service is not meant for that
- Watch out: it's funded by donations, so no support commitment is published
- Not for you if you need a paid plan with guarantees
How we grade them
| 2.4GPACounter.devFair | 2.8GPAGoatCounterGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BFree hosted, no server needed, with an optional payment. It covers very little, so it can't be an A. | AFree for personal sites and small-to-medium businesses, or free to self-host. It's donation-supported, with no paid plan. |
| Free plan and trial | AFree to everyone, with no plan limits stated on the site. | AFree outright, with no cap a normal site would reach. Millions of pageviews a day are out of scope. |
| Features | DUnique visitors a day and referrals. A very narrow set of numbers. | CPageviews, referrers, browsers, locations, screen sizes and campaigns, plus exports and an API. It does that job fully, a smaller job than most analytics tools. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. You sign up and paste in a tracking snippet. | CNo store rating on record. You sign up and add one script, or self-host. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, with open-source code. No integrations. | CWeb only, with an API and a couple of static-site tools (Gatsby, Publii). |
| Best for | bare-bones visitor counts, free | free, privacy-minded visitor stats |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Counter.dev and GoatCounter. How we grade
Price against what you get
Counter.dev has no paid plan and scores 1.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. GoatCounter has no paid plan and scores 2.0.
GoatCounter scores higher for the same starting price. Of the other website and product analytics tools on the chart, none scores higher than Counter.dev for less, and none scores higher than GoatCounter for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- GoatCounter is self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Counter.dev also covers reports.
At a glance
| Counter.dev | GoatCounter | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Counter.dev | GoatCounter |
| Price read from | counter.dev | goatcounter.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Counter.dev
- The site shows no pricing page or plan limits; payment is described only as optional and made when you are ready.
- The vendor says it keeps things simple and shows only the basics, so there is no feature comparison with larger tools.
- Sign-up and tracking code are found after creating an account on counter.dev.
GoatCounter
- The hosted service is meant for reasonable public use; heavy traffic is pointed to self-hosting.
- Funded by donations through GitHub Sponsors, so there is no paid plan or published support commitment.
- A deliberately small feature set; the vendor presents it as a simpler alternative to Google Analytics and Matomo.
Key features
Counter.dev
- Unique visitors per day
- Metrics are based on the number of unique visitors per day rather than a per-visitor profile.
- Referrals
- Shows which other websites link to your site and send visitors to it.
- No cookies or IP fingerprinting
- The vendor says it uses no cookies, keeps no logs and does no IP address fingerprinting.
- Live demo dashboard
- A demo dashboard can be opened from the homepage before signing up.
- Open-source code
- The frontend, backend and services are published on GitHub under the AGPL-v3 license.
GoatCounter
- No personal-data tracking
- Visits are told apart without cookies or persistently stored personal data. The vendor says no GDPR notice is needed and lets you control what is collected.
- Light script
- The tracking script adds about 3.5KB to a page. A JavaScript-free tracking pixel is also offered.
- Several ways to send data
- Use the script tag, an image-based tracker, your application's middleware, or import server log files.
- Basic visitor statistics
- Reports show browser, location, screen size, referring sites and campaigns.
- Exports and an API
- All data can be exported, and the documentation lists CSV and JSON exports and a JSON API.
- Accessible interface
- The vendor lists accessibility as a high-priority feature, and says the interface works with screen readers.
Plans
Counter.dev
Free$0
The vendor offers the service free to everyone and says you can start paying whenever you want.
GoatCounter
Hosted service$0
Free for reasonable public usage, such as a personal site or a small-to-medium business. Millions of pageviews a day are out of scope.
Self-hosted$0
Run the open source app on your own server for any purpose; you pay only for your own hosting.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Counter.dev or GoatCounter?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Counter.dev and GoatCounter are free to use.
Which has a free plan, Counter.dev or GoatCounter?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Counter.dev and GoatCounter have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.