vs GoatCounter

GoatCounter is enough for a lot of blogs. That is a compliment.

GoatCounter is the rare analytics tool that is allowed to stay small. Free for non-commercial use, open source, EU, a page you can read. Cookie Free Analytics is what you buy when you want goals, a team login, and a company on the invoice.

What they actually are

GoatCounter counts pageviews without tracking people across days. It is built for personal sites and small projects. The hosted free tier is generous on purpose. Paid exists so the author can keep it alive — not so a sales team can upsell funnels.

When to pick them

A personal site, a docs page, or anything where paying €4 would be silly. Start there. Really.

When to pick us

You need a company on the invoice, goals, first-party install help, or more than a personal project’s worth of traffic and seats.

The honest bit

We are more expensive than free. If GoatCounter answers the question, we would be a downgrade dressed as a brand. Do not switch for us.

Questions

Is Cookie Free Analytics a GoatCounter alternative?

For a commercial site that wants goals and a vendor, yes. For a personal blog, GoatCounter is often the better (free) answer.

Also compared: Google Analytics · Plausible · Simple Analytics · Fathom · Matomo · Cloudflare Web Analytics · All 16