Counter vs GoAccess vs HitKeep

Counter, GoAccess, and HitKeep are all free, self-hostable alternatives to Google Analytics that avoid third-party data sharing, but they take different…

Counter

Freemium (pay-what-you-want) · From Free

Best for: Bloggers and indie developers who want the simplest possible free, no-cookie visitor counter with a tiny script and an optional self-hosted Docker deployment

GoAccess

Open Source · From Free (self-hosted)

Best for: System administrators and DevOps teams who want zero-script, real-time traffic analysis parsed directly from existing Apache, Nginx, S3, or CloudFront logs

HitKeep

Freemium / Open Source · From Free (self-hosted); Pro from €150/year (cloud)

Best for: Agencies and businesses that need fuller privacy-first analytics, including funnels, ecommerce tracking, AI-crawler detection, and multi-client reporting, with both free self-hosting and paid cloud tiers

At a Glance

 CounterGoAccessHitKeep
Primary categoryAnalyticsAnalyticsAnalytics
RatingNot documentedNot documentedNot documented
Pricing modelFreemium (pay-what-you-want)Open SourceFreemium / Open Source
Starting priceFreeFree (self-hosted)Free (self-hosted); Pro from €150/year (cloud)
Free planYesYesYes
Free trialNot documentedNot documentedNot documented
PlatformsWebMacWeb
Team collaborationNot documentedNot documentedNot documented
AI featuresNot documentedNot documentedNot documented
Public APINot documentedNot documentedYes

Standout Differences

GoAccess needs no tracking script at all

Unlike Counter and HitKeep, which both rely on a lightweight JavaScript snippet, GoAccess parses server logs you already generate, sending no data to any third party and requiring no client-side script to install or maintain.

GoAccess

HitKeep goes beyond basic pageview counting

HitKeep adds funnels, ecommerce transaction revenue, AI-crawler and bot detection, and multi-client reporting for up to 50 sites on its Business tier, a materially deeper feature set than Counter's or GoAccess's intentionally narrow scope.

HitKeep

Free self-hosting across all three

Counter, GoAccess, and HitKeep can all be run at no cost on infrastructure the operator controls, though GoAccess has no official hosted SaaS option at all, while Counter and HitKeep also offer optional hosted cloud plans.

Counter, GoAccess, HitKeep

Deliberately minimal footprints

Counter's tracking script is roughly 1.1 KB and its dashboard covers only unique visitors, referrers, and country data, mirroring GoAccess's philosophy of staying lightweight rather than becoming a full product-analytics suite.

Counter, GoAccess

Feature-by-Feature

Tracking Approach

FeatureCounterGoAccessHitKeep
Requires a client-side JavaScript tracking scriptAvailableUnavailableAvailable
Cookie-free, no personal-data collection by designAvailableAvailableAvailable

Deployment Options

FeatureCounterGoAccessHitKeep
Free hosted or cloud option (no self-hosting required)AvailableUnavailableAvailable
Free self-hosting optionAvailableAvailableAvailable

Analytics Depth

FeatureCounterGoAccessHitKeep
Real-time, live-updating dashboardNot documentedAvailableNot documented
Funnel or ecommerce revenue trackingUnavailableUnavailableAvailable
Multi-site or multi-client agency reportingNot documentedNot documentedAvailable

Openness

FeatureCounterGoAccessHitKeep
Fully open-source codebaseAvailableAvailableAvailable

Pricing Compared

Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.

Counter

Hosted — Free N/A
Supporter — From €3/month monthly

GoAccess

Community — Free N/A

HitKeep

Self-Hosted — Free N/A
Cloud Free — Free N/A
Cloud Pro — €150/year annual
Cloud Business — €390/year annual

Pros & Cons

Counter

Pros

  • Free for unlimited traffic on the hosted plan
  • No cookie consent banner typically required due to its no-cookie approach
  • Extremely small tracking script with low performance overhead
  • Fully self-hostable for teams wanting complete data control
  • Simple, uncluttered dashboard focused on essential metrics

Cons

  • Lacks advanced segmentation, funnels, and event tracking found in full product-analytics tools
  • No dedicated mobile app SDK
  • Support is community-driven rather than a formal enterprise contract
  • Metrics are intentionally limited compared to broader analytics suites

GoAccess

Pros

  • Completely free and open source with no paid tier
  • Lightweight C implementation that processes even large log files quickly
  • No JavaScript tracking script or third-party data sharing required
  • Works both as a live terminal dashboard and a shareable HTML report
  • Simple installation via standard package managers on Linux and macOS

Cons

  • Requires shell or server access to logs, unlike hosted analytics dashboards
  • Terminal interface has a learning curve for non-technical users
  • No built-in team collaboration, sharing, or user-management features
  • Geolocation requires a separate MaxMind GeoIP database to be configured
  • Single maintainer-driven project means slower response to some feature requests

HitKeep

Pros

  • Free, unrestricted self-hosting with no external database dependencies to manage
  • Cookie-free, privacy-first tracking simplifies compliance without a consent banner
  • Native ecommerce, funnel and AI crawler tracking beyond basic pageview analytics
  • Multi-client reporting makes it well-suited for agencies managing several sites
  • Full data export avoids vendor lock-in

Cons

  • Limited public information on the company, team or funding behind the project
  • Cloud free tier caps retention at 60 days, which may be short for long-term trend analysis
  • Smaller ecosystem and community size compared to established players like Matomo or Plausible
  • EU/US-only cloud hosting regions may not suit all data residency needs
  • Self-hosting still requires basic server management skills despite the single-binary design

Use Cases

Choose Counter: Bloggers and indie developers who want the simplest possible free, no-cookie visitor counter with a tiny script and an optional self-hosted Docker deployment
Choose GoAccess: System administrators and DevOps teams who want zero-script, real-time traffic analysis parsed directly from existing Apache, Nginx, S3, or CloudFront logs
Choose HitKeep: Agencies and businesses that need fuller privacy-first analytics, including funnels, ecommerce tracking, AI-crawler detection, and multi-client reporting, with both free self-hosting and paid cloud tiers

Counter

  • Privacy-conscious website owners — Bloggers and indie site owners who want basic traffic counts without cookie banners or personal data collection.
  • Self-hosted analytics for small teams — Organizations that want to run their own analytics infrastructure on inexpensive servers using the open-source self-host package.

GoAccess

  • Quick server traffic diagnostics — System administrators point GoAccess at a live access log to instantly see traffic patterns, top pages and error rates.
  • Privacy-respecting site analytics — Website operators who want traffic insight without adding a JavaScript tracker use GoAccess to analyze existing server logs.
  • Incident and outage investigation — DevOps and SRE teams use GoAccess's real-time dashboard to spot traffic spikes or error surges during an incident.

HitKeep

  • Privacy-compliant website analytics — Organizations subject to strict data protection requirements use HitKeep's cookie-free tracking to measure traffic without consent banners.
  • Self-hosted analytics infrastructure — Developers and technical teams self-host HitKeep's single binary to keep full control over analytics data and infrastructure.
  • Agency multi-site reporting — Marketing and SEO agencies use HitKeep's Business tier to manage analytics reporting across up to 50 client websites.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does GoAccess require adding a tracking script to my website?

No. GoAccess works entirely differently from Counter and HitKeep -- it parses access logs your web server already produces, whether from Apache, Nginx, Amazon S3, or CloudFront, so there is no client-side script to install at all.

Which of the three is easiest for a non-technical blogger to set up?

Counter and HitKeep's hosted cloud plan are both simpler for non-technical users since they only require adding a small script tag; GoAccess assumes shell or server access to log files and a terminal-comfortable operator.

Which tool supports ecommerce and funnel tracking?

HitKeep is the only one of the three with documented funnel and ecommerce transaction revenue tracking; Counter and GoAccess are scoped to simpler traffic counting rather than conversion or revenue analytics.

Can I self-host all three of these for free?

Yes. Counter offers a Docker-based self-hosted repository, GoAccess is inherently self-hosted open-source software with no company or paid tier at all, and HitKeep's self-hosted binary is free forever with no feature restrictions.

Which is best for an agency managing analytics across many client sites?

HitKeep is purpose-built for this, with multi-client reporting supporting up to 50 sites and 20 team members on its Business cloud tier; Counter and GoAccess do not document dedicated multi-client reporting features.

Do any of these require a cookie consent banner?

None of them are designed to require one. Counter and HitKeep avoid cookies and personal identifiers by design, and GoAccess collects no visitor-side tracking data at all since it only analyzes server logs after the fact.

Read the full Counter review · Read the full GoAccess review · Read the full HitKeep review