Considering Web Analytics

Update: I have added GoatCounter analytics to the site. See the "fine print" section on the homepage.

I have a bit of a dilemma. On one hand, I dislike detailed tracking on the web; I think it's intrusive and dumb. And I don't need it for my sites, anyway. I'm not growing businesses.

But I also really like external validation, so I want to have some way of knowing when people check out my websites. So I'm trying to find a way to balance these two things.

Google Analytics is off the table for reasons which are probably obvious to people reading my blog.

I'm leaning towards StatCounter, and I fully admit that it's because they have a free tier.

Thanks to StatCounter's biased but still helpful mentioning of alternatives, I've also checked out Fathom and Plausible analytics. They look fantastic. I would use them in a heartbeat... if I wanted to pay $10 per month.

My sites are super low traffic right now. I assume. I haven't had analytics in a long time, but come on. I'm one programmer among the thousands who blog, I don't have a popular open-source project, and I haven't actively written here about anything broadly appealing.

(I'm now hoping to change that, slowly. I've been a developer for enough years now that I finally feel like I know what I'm doing. I finally feel like I can offer useful insights and stories. We'll see.)

So I don't think it makes sense to pay for analytics yet. StatCounter seems reasonably trustworthy since web analytics is their actual product. Maybe someday I'll find it worthwhile to pay for Fathom, Plausible, or StatCounter's paid service.

Here's the link to this article's post on Mastodon, where I'd be thrilled to hear your thoughts. Anyone. I'm sort of typing into the void here. 😄