GoatCounter vs Medama (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, GoatCounter grades higher than Medama: 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 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 Medama if
- Fits if you want a light analytics server with no cookies
- Works for developers who can run a binary or Docker
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you don't want to host anything, as there's no hosted plan
- Too light for funnels, heatmaps or session recordings, none of which are listed
- Watch out: the binary guide covers Linux and macOS only
- Watch out: updates are your job
How we grade them
| 2.8GPAGoatCounterGood | 2.0GPAMedamaFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CFree and open source, but only if you host it, which needs a server. |
| Free plan and trial | AFree outright, with no cap a normal site would reach. Millions of pageviews a day are out of scope. | BNo paid edition and no limits listed, once you've deployed it yourself. |
| 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. | CPage views, referrers, UTM sources, locations and custom properties. No heatmaps or recordings, and it's a small job. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You sign up and add one script, or self-host. | DYou run the binary or container yourself, on a VM, Docker, Fly.io or Railway. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, with an API and a couple of static-site tools (Gatsby, Publii). | CWeb only. Linux, macOS or containers on the server side. |
| Best for | free, privacy-minded visitor stats | cookie-free page counts on your own server |
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 Medama. 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. Medama has no paid plan and scores 1.7.
GoatCounter scores higher 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 Medama 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
- Medama also covers dashboards.
At a glance
| GoatCounter | Medama | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | GoatCounter | Medama |
| Price read from | goatcounter.com | oss.medama.io |
| 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.
Medama
- It is self-hosted only on the pages read; there is no hosted plan, so you run the server and updates yourself.
- The single-binary guide covers Linux and macOS; Docker images, Fly.io and Railway are the other documented routes.
- Reports center on page views, referrers, UTM sources and location; no heatmaps or session recordings are listed.
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.
Medama
- Cookie-free tracking
- A tracker under 1KB that uses no cookies, IP addresses or other identifiers, which the project says supports GDPR and PECR compliance.
- Real-time page view stats
- Page view tracking is on by default once the snippet is added, with referrer, UTM source, location and time statistics.
- Custom properties
- Page events and click events can carry custom properties, so actions beyond page views can be recorded.
- Single-binary self-hosting
- No separate database to set up; the project says most small sites run on a VM with 256MB of memory.
- OpenAPI-based API
- A documented API covers login, websites, events and stat summaries for building your own dashboards.
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.
Medama
Self-hosted$0
Open-source server you run yourself as a single binary or container. The documentation lists no paid edition.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, GoatCounter or Medama?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both GoatCounter and Medama are free to use.
Which has a free plan, GoatCounter or Medama?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both GoatCounter and Medama 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.