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GoatCounter VS Open Web Analytics

Compare GoatCounter VS Open Web Analytics and see what are their differences

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GoatCounter logo GoatCounter

Easy web statistics. No tracking of personal data.

Open Web Analytics logo Open Web Analytics

Open Web Analytics - Web Analytics – Open Source Web Analytics Framework
  • GoatCounter Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-11-20
  • Open Web Analytics Homepage
    Homepage //
    2024-08-20

GoatCounter features and specs

  • Privacy-Focused
    GoatCounter does not track individual users, use cookies, or collect personal data, making it a suitable choice for privacy-conscious users.
  • Open Source
    Being open source, users can review, modify, and contribute to GoatCounter's code, ensuring transparency and flexibility in use.
  • Simple and Lightweight
    The tool is easy to set up and use, with a lightweight approach that focuses on essential metrics, avoiding unnecessary complexity.
  • Self-Hosting Option
    Users have the choice to self-host GoatCounter, providing greater control over their analytics infrastructure and data.
  • Free for Personal Use
    GoatCounter offers a free tier, making it accessible to personal users and small-scale projects without cost constraints.
  • Minimalism
    The platform emphasizes minimalistic design and functionality, providing users with a clean and straightforward user experience.

Possible disadvantages of GoatCounter

  • Limited Features
    Compared to more comprehensive analytics tools, GoatCounter offers fewer features and may not meet the needs of users requiring advanced analytics capabilities.
  • Small User Base
    As a less popular tool, GoatCounter has a smaller user community, which might limit available resources, third-party integrations, and community support.
  • Basic Reporting
    Reporting capabilities are relatively basic, potentially lacking the depth and customization found in more robust analytics platforms.
  • No Real-Time Data
    The platform does not provide real-time data tracking, which may be a drawback for users who need immediate insights into user behavior.
  • Learning Curve for Self-Hosting
    While self-hosting offers greater control, it also requires technical knowledge, which could be a barrier for non-technical users.

Open Web Analytics features and specs

  • Open Source
    As an open-source platform, Open Web Analytics (OWA) allows users to access and modify the source code according to their needs, providing full control over the functionality and customization.
  • Cost-Effective
    OWA is free to use, which can be very cost-effective compared to paid analytics platforms, making it suitable for small businesses and personal projects.
  • Self-Hosting
    The ability to host OWA on your own server ensures complete data ownership and control, eliminating concerns around data privacy and third-party access.
  • Comprehensive Features
    OWA offers a wide range of features including page view tracking, e-commerce tracking, visitor tracking, and click heatmaps, which can provide in-depth insights into website performance.
  • Integrations
    OWA allows integration with other platforms such as WordPress and MediaWiki, making it versatile for various types of websites.

Possible disadvantages of Open Web Analytics

  • Technical Barrier
    Setting up and maintaining OWA can require a certain level of technical expertise, which might be challenging for users without a technical background.
  • Resource Intensive
    Operating OWA on your own server can consume significant server resources, affecting the performance of the website, especially for high-traffic sites.
  • Complexity
    The extensive features and customization options can make OWA complex to navigate and configure, which can be overwhelming for beginners.
  • Limited Support
    As an open-source project, OWA lacks the comprehensive customer support available with commercial products, meaning users might have to rely on community forums and documentation for troubleshooting.
  • Updates and Security
    The frequency and reliability of updates might be a concern, as well as ensuring that the software remains secure against vulnerabilities, requiring constant monitoring and maintenance.

Analysis of Open Web Analytics

Overall verdict

  • Open Web Analytics is a good choice for users who prefer open-source solutions and want full control over their analytics data. Its ease of integration and extensive customization options make it suitable for a variety of use cases. However, it might not be the best choice for users looking for advanced features and technical support often found in premium analytics tools like Google Analytics.

Why this product is good

  • Open Web Analytics (OWA) is a popular open-source web analytics tool that provides comprehensive tracking and reporting capabilities. It is valued for its flexibility and ability to host data on your own server, ensuring data privacy and security. OWA supports tracking for multiple websites and integrates well with various content management systems such as WordPress. Its extensibility allows developers to customize and enhance its functionality to suit specific business needs.

Recommended for

  • Small to medium businesses that prefer self-hosted solutions.
  • Developers or IT teams that require custom analytics implementations.
  • Privacy-conscious users who want full control over their data.
  • Educational institutions or non-profits looking for free analytics tools.

GoatCounter videos

No GoatCounter videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Open Web Analytics videos

+ Add

Open Web Analytics | You Need to Watch This Video

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Open Web Analytics - How to Install OWA WordPress Plugin

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GoatCounter and Open Web Analytics)

GoatCounter

Open Web Analytics

Analytics
16 16%
Analytics
84% 84
Web Analytics
18 18%
Web Analytics
82% 82
Privacy
100 100%
Privacy
0% 0
Heatmaps
0 0%
Heatmaps
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare GoatCounter and Open Web Analytics

GoatCounter Reviews

Privacy-oriented alternatives to Google Analytics
GoatCounter is another great option for privacy-oriented analytics not tracking users personal data. As Plausible is fully Open Source licensed under EUPL. The platform is written in Go.
Source: nts.strzibny.name
Lightweight alternatives to Google Analytics
GoatCounter is written in Go, and uses vanilla JavaScript in its UI for some lightweight interactivity. JavaScript frameworks often get in the way of web accessibility, and GoatCounter's prioritization of accessibility (mentioned on its home page) struck a chord with "ctoth", who thanked Tournoij on Hacker News:
Source: lwn.net

Open Web Analytics Reviews

Top 5 Self-Hosted, Open Source Alternatives to Google Analytics
Open Web Analytics offers a comprehensive set of features, rivaling commercial analytics tools, with the flexibility of open source.
Source: zeabur.com
Top 5 open source alternatives to Google Analytics
In addition to the usual raft of analytics and reporting functions, Open Web Analytics tracks where on a page, and on what elements, visitors click; provides heat maps that show where on a page visitors interact the most; and even does e-commerce tracking.
Source: opensource.com
Best Google Analytics Alternatives
Open Web Analytics ranks over Google due its self hosting property and additional features like Heatmap, DOM clicks tracking and mouse movement (recording and playback) tracking.
Source: mofluid.com
The 11 Best Alternatives to Google Analytics
Open Web Analytics is feature-rich, especially considering that it’s free to use. It can track goals along several steps of a conversion funnel, it offers separate stats filtered by pretty much any factor you can think of and it even offers heatmaps and mouse-tracking. However, be warned: with those last two options active, OWA will gobble up server resources like nobody’s...
Source: activegrowth.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, GoatCounter seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 2 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

GoatCounter mentions (2)

  • I made a privacy-friendly and open source product analytics software
    Seems similar to https://goatcounter.com/. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Simple and privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytic
    I left Plausible for GoatCounter. It is better designed privacy-wise and much easier to self host (a single statically build binary, zero dependencies to Go): https://goatcounter.com/. - Source: Hacker News / over 4 years ago

Open Web Analytics mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Open Web Analytics yet. Tracking of Open Web Analytics recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing GoatCounter and Open Web Analytics, you can also consider the following products

Google Analytics - Improve your website to increase conversions, improve the user experience, and make more money using Google Analytics. Measure, understand and quantify engagement on your site with customized and in-depth reports.

Plausible.io - Plausible Analytics is a simple, open-source, lightweight (< 1 KB) and privacy-friendly web analytics alternative to Google Analytics. Made and hosted in the EU, powered by European-owned cloud infrastructure 🇪🇺

Matomo - Matomo is an open-source web analytics platform

Glass Analytics - Google Analytics alternative that shows you exactly how visitors become customers.

Fathom Analytics - Simple, trustworthy website analytics (finally)

Clicky - Clicky Web Analytics is a simple way to monitor, analyze, and react to your blog or web site's traffic in real time.

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