Best GoatCounter Alternative

Love GoatCounter's simplicity and privacy focus? OpenPanel adds deeper product analytics - user identification, funnels, retention analysis, and mobile SDKs - while staying open source and cookie-free.

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Open-source
Privacy-first
Product Analytics
Lightweight

This is our web analytics dashboard, its an out-of-the-box experience so you can start understanding your traffic and engagement right away.

Why consider OpenPanel over GoatCounter?

GoatCounter is a charming, minimalist web analytics tool created and maintained by solo developer Martin Tournoij. It's completely free for public sites, privacy-friendly, and refreshingly simple. For personal blogs and small projects that just need basic pageview counts, it's hard to beat. But its minimal feature set and solo-developer maintenance model mean it's not built for teams with growing analytics needs.

OpenPanel shares GoatCounter's open-source spirit and privacy focus but adds the product analytics capabilities that growing teams require. User identification lets you track logged-in users across sessions, funnels help you understand conversion flows, and retention analysis shows whether users come back. These are features GoatCounter intentionally doesn't offer as part of its minimalist philosophy.

The technical architecture also differs significantly. GoatCounter stores data in SQLite or PostgreSQL, which works for small sites but isn't optimized for analytical queries at scale. OpenPanel uses ClickHouse — a column-oriented database purpose-built for analytics workloads — which means fast queries even as your data grows to millions of events.

If you've outgrown GoatCounter's simple pageview counting and need mobile app analytics via native SDKs, funnel analysis, or user-level insights, OpenPanel provides that depth while remaining open source and privacy-friendly.

OpenPanel vs GoatCounter: Which is right for you?

Both are privacy-focused open source analytics tools. GoatCounter is ultra-minimal for simple web stats. OpenPanel adds product analytics for user behavior tracking.

Choose OpenPanel if...

SaaS products needing user-level analytics and retention tracking

Mobile app developers needing native iOS, Android, React Native SDKs

Teams needing funnel analysis and conversion tracking

Choose GoatCounter if...

Personal blogs and small sites wanting simple stats

Developers wanting the simplest possible self-hosting (single binary + SQLite)

Privacy maximalists who want zero user identification

Comprehensive analytics dashboard with real-time insights and customizable views.

Key differences at a glance

Here's how OpenPanel and GoatCounter compare on key factors.

Feature	OpenPanel	GoatCounter
User Identification	Yes - Track individual users	No - Anonymous aggregate only
Funnel Analysis	Yes - Visual funnel builder	No - Not available
Mobile SDKs	iOS, Android, React Native	Web only (JavaScript + tracking pixel)
Open Source License	MIT License	EUPL 1.2 (copyleft)
Free Hosted Service	10,000 events/month	Unlimited (reasonable use)
Page Views & Visitors
Traffic Sources & Referrers
Geographic Data		GoatCounter shows country-level location data
Device & Browser
Screen Size
UTM Campaign Tracking		GoatCounter supports utm_campaign, utm_source parameters
Real-Time Dashboard		GoatCounter updates statistics every 10 seconds
Session Tracking		GoatCounter uses rotating 4-hour salted hash for sessions
Custom Event Tracking		GoatCounter supports events via data-goatcounter-click attribute
Funnel Analysis		GoatCounter focuses on simple metrics without funnels
Retention Analysis		GoatCounter doesn't track user retention over time
User Profiles		GoatCounter intentionally doesn't track individual users
Cohort Analysis		GoatCounter provides aggregate statistics only
User Path/Journey Analysis		GoatCounter doesn't track user journeys
User Identification		GoatCounter uses anonymous hashing, no persistent user IDs
A/B Testing		GoatCounter is analytics-only, no experimentation
Custom Properties on Events		GoatCounter supports title and referrer on events
Public Dashboards		GoatCounter has unique public stats sharing feature
CLI Dashboard		GoatCounter has terminal-based dashboard command
Email Reports		GoatCounter doesn't have automated email reports
Tracking Pixel (No-JS)		GoatCounter supports JavaScript-free tracking via 1x1 GIF
Log File Import		GoatCounter can import nginx, Apache, Caddy, CloudFront logs
Cookie-Free by Default
GDPR Compliant		GoatCounter designed to not require GDPR consent notices
No Personal Data Storage		GoatCounter uses rotating 4-hour salted hashes for anonymization
Self-Hosting Option
Data Export		GoatCounter supports CSV export and full API access
Bot Filtering		GoatCounter ignores bots that identify themselves
JavaScript/Browser
iOS SDK
Android SDK
React Native SDK
Server-Side API		GoatCounter has backend integration API
REST API		GoatCounter has comprehensive /api/v0 endpoints
Cloud Hosted
Docker Support		GoatCounter available on DockerHub at arp242/goatcounter
Single Binary Deployment		GoatCounter is a ~7MB statically compiled binary
SQLite Support		GoatCounter can run on simple SQLite database
PostgreSQL Support		GoatCounter supports PostgreSQL for larger sites
Built-in TLS/ACME		GoatCounter includes automatic Let's Encrypt certificates

Feature comparison

Both are open source and privacy-focused, but with different depths of capabilities.

Page Views & Visitors

Traffic Sources & Referrers

Geographic Data

Device & Browser

Screen Size

UTM Campaign Tracking

Real-Time Dashboard

Session Tracking

Track events in real-time as they happen with instant updates and live monitoring.

Technical comparison

For developers evaluating analytics tools, here's the technical breakdown.

Feature	OpenPanel	GoatCounter
SDK Size	2.3 KB (gzipped)	~3.5 KB
Platforms	JavaScript/TypeScript React Next.js Vue React Native iOS Android Node.js Python PHP Go Rust	JavaScript (browser) Tracking Pixel (no-JS) Backend API Log file import (nginx, Apache, Caddy, CloudFront)
Open Source	Yes - MIT License	Yes - EUPL 1.2 (copyleft)OpenPanel uses MIT license. GoatCounter uses EUPL 1.2 (copyleft). GoatCounter has 5,200+ GitHub stars.
Self Hosting	Docker (simple single-container setup)	Single binary (~7MB) or Docker. SQLite or PostgreSQL. Built-in ACME/TLS support.
Database	ClickHouse	SQLite (default, recommended for most) or PostgreSQL (for load balancing)
Data Retention	Unlimited (self-hosted), configurable (cloud)	Unlimited (self-hosted), unlimited (hosted free)
Language	TypeScript/Node.js	Go (Golang)
Performance	ClickHouse optimized for analytics queries	~800 hits/second on $5/month VPS. 99.9% requests answered within ~2ms.

Pricing comparison

GoatCounter is donation-supported. OpenPanel offers both free cloud and self-hosting.

OpenPanel

Event-based, transparent

Simple pricing with 10,000 free events per month.

All features included at every tier.

Self-host for free with unlimited events.

Free tier:Self-hosting (unlimited events)

Free trial:30 days

GoatCounter

Donation-supported or free self-hosting

Hosted: Free for reasonable public usage (personal sites, small-to-medium businesses).

Self-hosted: Completely free.

Donations encouraged via GitHub Sponsors for sustainability.

Not designed for high-volume enterprise use cases.

Free tier:Free for reasonable use

Migrating from GoatCounter to OpenPanel

Both use lightweight scripts and simple event tracking, making migration straightforward.

Difficulty:easy

Estimated time:30 minutes to 1 hour

Install OpenPanel SDK

Add the OpenPanel SDK to your application. Both use lightweight scripts (GoatCounter ~3.5KB, OpenPanel ~2.3KB gzipped), making the transition easy.

Map Custom Events

GoatCounter click events using data-goatcounter-click attribute translate to OpenPanel's op.track() calls. Map your event names and any custom properties.

Add User Identification (New)

Unlike GoatCounter which uses anonymous hashing, OpenPanel supports user identification. Add op.identify() calls to unlock user profiles, retention analysis, and cohort features.

Set Up Funnels and Analytics (New)

GoatCounter doesn't have funnels or retention analysis. Set up these features in OpenPanel to gain deeper product insights you couldn't get before.

Remove GoatCounter Script

Once verified, remove the GoatCounter tracking script. Both are cookie-free so no consent flow changes are needed.

SDK Compatibility

Both use simple event tracking approaches.

Historical Data Import

GoatCounter intentionally anonymizes data. Most teams start fresh with OpenPanel.

Where OpenPanel is a better fit than GoatCounter

Choose OpenPanel when you need product analytics beyond simple web stats.

SaaS Products Needing User Identification

GoatCounter uses anonymous hashing by design. If you need to track logged-in users, understand individual customer journeys, or analyze user-level retention, OpenPanel provides these capabilities while still respecting privacy.

Mobile App Analytics

GoatCounter is designed for web analytics with JavaScript and tracking pixels only. OpenPanel provides native iOS, Android, and React Native SDKs with full product analytics capabilities.

Teams Needing Funnel Analysis

GoatCounter focuses on simple metrics like page views, visitors, and referrers without conversion funnels. If you need to track user conversion paths and identify drop-offs, OpenPanel's funnel analysis provides these insights.

Products Requiring Retention Analysis

GoatCounter doesn't track user retention over time. If you need to understand how many users return after signup or measure engagement over weeks and months, OpenPanel's retention analysis delivers these metrics.

High-Volume Analytics at Scale

GoatCounter is an indie project optimized for personal sites and small-to-medium businesses. For enterprise-scale analytics with millions of events, OpenPanel's ClickHouse backend is designed for high-volume workloads.

Generate detailed reports and insights with customizable metrics and visualizations.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about switching from GoatCounter to OpenPanel.

Related resources

Explore more comparisons and guides to help you choose the right analytics tool.

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