Counterscale vs GoatCounter (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, GoatCounter grades higher than Counterscale: 2.8 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
GoatCounter grades higher on value for money, the free plan and ease of use. They get the same grade on features 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 Counterscale if
- Fits if you already use Cloudflare and want simple traffic counts
- Works for developers who like a command-line install
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you don't have a Cloudflare account, as it needs one
- Watch out: data is kept for only 90 days
- Too light for funnels or session replay, which aren't listed
- Watch out: costs beyond the free Workers plan are billed by Cloudflare
- Not for you if you want a hosted version, because there isn't one
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
| 2.0GPACounterscaleFair | 2.8GPAGoatCounterGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CThe code is free, but you bring your own Cloudflare account and host it yourself. | 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 | BNo paid plan and no limits listed, but beyond Cloudflare's free tier you pay Cloudflare. | AFree outright, with no cap a normal site would reach. Millions of pageviews a day are out of scope. |
| Features | CLive traffic, referrers and engagement. No funnels or session replay, and it's a small job. | 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 | DYou deploy and update it yourself with a command-line installer. | CNo store rating on record. You sign up and add one script, or self-host. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, running on Cloudflare Workers. | CWeb only, with an API and a couple of static-site tools (Gatsby, Publii). |
| Best for | cookie-free stats on your own Cloudflare account | 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: Counterscale and GoatCounter. How we grade
Price against what you get
Counterscale 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 Counterscale 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
- Counterscale also covers dashboards.
At a glance
| Counterscale | GoatCounter | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Counterscale | GoatCounter |
| Price read from | counterscale.dev | goatcounter.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Counterscale
- Needs a Cloudflare account; costs beyond the free Workers plan are billed by Cloudflare.
- Data is kept for only 90 days.
- You deploy and update it yourself; there is no hosted version.
- Covers web traffic only, with no funnels or session replay listed on the site.
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
Counterscale
- Live traffic stats
- Shows pageviews, referrers, user engagement and similar web analytics essentials in a dashboard, with a public demo to browse.
- No cookies or fingerprinting
- The site says it uses no cookies and no browser fingerprinting, and that you control the data end to end.
- Five-minute CLI install
- A command-line wizard deploys the server to Cloudflare, after which a lightweight JavaScript reporter goes on your site.
- Runs on Cloudflare's free tier
- Records up to 50k pageviews a day on Cloudflare's free Workers plan, and scales to millions of views for a small cost.
- 90-day data retention
- Data is retained for only 90 days, which limits how far back you can look.
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
Counterscale
Self-hosted$0
Free open-source code; you bring your own Cloudflare account and host it yourself.
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, Counterscale or GoatCounter?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Counterscale and GoatCounter are free to use.
Which has a free plan, Counterscale or GoatCounter?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Counterscale 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.