GhostlyX vs GoatCounter
GoatCounter is a genuinely minimal, privacy-respecting analytics tool built and maintained by a single developer. It is free for non-commercial use and self-hostable under a EUPL licence. It is an excellent fit for personal projects, open-source sites, and hobby blogs. GhostlyX is built for businesses that need a production-grade analytics platform with uptime monitoring, funnel analysis, team access controls, REST API, custom events, scheduled email reports, and Stripe-backed billing.
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At a glance
| Feature | GhostlyX | GoatCounter |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy & compliance | ||
| Cookie-free | ||
| GDPR compliant | ||
| No data sampling | ||
| Respects DNT header | ||
| Respects GPC header | ||
| Data sold or shared with third parties | ||
| Features | ||
| Real-time visitors | ||
| Uptime monitoring | ||
| Traffic spike alerts | ||
| Funnel analysis | ||
| Goal tracking | ||
| REST API | ||
| Scheduled email reports | ||
| CSV export | ||
| TV / big-screen mode | ||
| Session replay | ||
| Heatmaps | ||
| A/B testing | ||
| AI insights | ||
| Server-side tracking | ||
| Shareable dashboards | ||
| Global geo reporting | ||
| MCP server | ||
| Open-source | ||
| Pricing & ownership | ||
| Script size | Under 2 kB | ~3.5 kB |
| Starting price | Free plan available | Free (non-commercial) / from $5/mo (commercial) |
| Owned by | Independent | Martin Tournoij (individual developer) |
| Data location | EU servers | EU servers (hosted) or your own servers (self-hosted) |
Why teams switch to GhostlyX
GhostlyX advantages
- Built-in uptime monitoring with email alerts.
- Funnel analysis for multi-step conversion tracking.
- Custom event tracking via JavaScript API.
- Team roles and multi-user access control.
- Traffic spike notifications and weekly email reports.
- REST API for external integrations.
- Public shared dashboards with password protection.
- Production-grade SaaS with SLA-backed uptime.
- Built-in session replay and heatmaps.
- A/B testing with Bayesian statistics, no cookies required.
- AI-powered insights and analyst chat included.
- MCP server for AI agent integrations.
GoatCounter advantages
- Free for non-commercial use with no pageview cap.
- Open-source (EUPL-1.2). Self-hostable for free.
- Extremely minimal and fast. Focused purely on page hits.
- No JavaScript required: supports image beacons and server-side logging.
- Single-developer project with a strong privacy ethos.
Common questions
GoatCounter is free for non-commercial use on its hosted service at goatcounter.com. Commercial use requires a paid plan starting at $5/mo. Self-hosting is free for any use.
GoatCounter works well for simple traffic tracking on small commercial sites. It lacks features that growing businesses typically need: uptime monitoring, funnel analysis, custom events, team access, REST API, and scheduled reports. GhostlyX covers all of these.
No. GoatCounter does not use cookies or store any personal data. It is GDPR-compliant by design and does not require a consent banner.
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