GoatCounter vs Histats (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, GoatCounter and Histats share a 2.8 GPA, both are free, so the choice depends on which features you need.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on all five counts.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Which one is for you
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
Pick Histats if
- Fits if you run several small sites and want free stats
- Works for people who want a visible hit counter on the page
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you need support, as it is a forum or Facebook
- Watch out: the log analyzer covers only the last 20,000 hits
- Watch out: the site lists no paid tier, so no business support terms are published
- Watch out: check its privacy and cookie policies before using it where consent rules apply
How we grade them
| 2.8GPAGoatCounterGood | 2.8GPAHistatsGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AFree for personal sites and small-to-medium businesses, or free to self-host. It's donation-supported, with no paid plan. | AFree for every feature, with no paid tier, and the features page says no limits up to 10 million hits a day. |
| Free plan and trial | AFree outright, with no cap a normal site would reach. Millions of pageviews a day are out of scope. | AFree outright, with up to 300 sites per account and no cap a normal person would reach. |
| Features | 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. | CReal-time stats, traffic reports, tags and custom events and counters cover the basics, but the log analyzer only keeps 20,000 hits. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You sign up and add one script, or self-host. | CA snippet to add to each site and a control panel to set up, and no store rating on record. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, with an API and a couple of static-site tools (Gatsby, Publii). | CWeb only, with no integrations or apps listed. |
| Best for | free, privacy-minded visitor stats | free hit counters and 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: GoatCounter and Histats. How we grade
Price against what you get
GoatCounter has no paid plan and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Histats has no paid plan and scores 2.0.
On this chart the two sit in the same place: the same score for the same starting price. Of the other website and product analytics tools on the chart, none scores higher than GoatCounter for less, and none scores higher than Histats 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 open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Histats also covers reports.
At a glance
| GoatCounter | Histats | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | None | Everything is free: the features page says there are no service limits up to 10 million hits a day and keeps statistics for 10+ years. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | GoatCounter | wisecode srl unipersonale |
| Price read from | goatcounter.com | histats.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
Histats
- Support is through a forum or Facebook, per the features page.
- The log analyzer covers the last 20,000 hits.
- The service is web-only and the site lists no paid tier, so no business-level support terms are published.
- The site shows a widget opt-out and policy page, so check its privacy and cookie policies before using it where consent rules apply.
Key features
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.
Histats
- Real-time statistics
- Online visitors, recent and most active visits, popular pages and referrers, and geolocation update as traffic arrives.
- Log analyzer
- Covers the last 20,000 hits with IP tags, visitor paths and segmentation by IP, country, city, referrer, search keyword, entry page and hardware. Saved filters can be reloaded.
- Traffic reports
- Hourly, daily and monthly analytics for referring sites, search engines, social networks, browsers, operating systems, languages and visited URLs.
- Tags and custom events
- Page titles and tags, custom events and variables, and downloads or clicks can be tracked.
- Counter styles
- A hidden tracker, or a visible counter chosen from 500 or more styles, with configurable starting values.
- Multi-site control panel
- One account manages up to 300 sites, with user access management and privacy settings for each site's stats page.
Plans
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.
Histats
Free$0
All features, up to 300 sites per account, with no service limits up to 10 million hits a day.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, GoatCounter or Histats?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both GoatCounter and Histats are free to use.
Which has a free plan, GoatCounter or Histats?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both GoatCounter and Histats 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.