LinuxBCN Analytics for GoatCounter

2026 · LinuxBCN

Open-source WordPress plugin to integrate GoatCounter: cookie-free, GDPR-free analytics with a full stats dashboard directly in the WordPress admin.

The problem with Google Analytics

Most websites use Google Analytics. It’s free, powerful, and has been the standard for years. But it has a hidden cost: it requires a cookie consent banner, it sends data to Google’s servers, and it puts your traffic data in the hands of an advertising platform.

For many projects — blogs, artist websites, independent publishers, small businesses — Google Analytics is overkill. What they need is to know how many visits they’re getting, which pages perform best, and where visitors come from. Nothing more.

GoatCounter solves exactly that. No cookies. No personal data. No GDPR consent banner required.

A plugin, not a manual integration

GoatCounter already offers a simple integration path: a single JavaScript snippet in the <head> or <footer>. But for WordPress, we wanted something better:

The script injected automatically, no code editing needed
Stats visible directly in the WordPress admin, no extra tabs
Available in Catalan (and English)

We built the plugin from scratch.

Three tabs, five periods

The stats dashboard is organised in three views:

Temporal tab — period selector, summary cards, SVG chart and day-of-week distribution

Temporal — The main view. Shows visits over time with an SVG bar chart, a summary of key metrics (total visits, page views, countries, top browser), and a day-of-week distribution with percentage and visit count.

Pages tab — top pages with WordPress title, direct link and percentage bar

Pages — Most visited pages with the WordPress page title (not just the URL), percentage, and a direct link.

Devices tab — browsers, operating systems and countries with percentage bars

Devices — Browsers, operating systems and countries, all with visual percentage bars.

The period selector is a five-option navigation bar: today, 7 days, 30 days, quarter (90 days) and year (365 days). The active tab is remembered across page reloads using localStorage.

The chart

The bar chart is SVG generated directly in PHP. It adapts its granularity automatically to the selected period:

Today: bars per hour
7 days: bars per day
30 days and quarter: bars per week
Year: bars per month

Brand red gradient fill, horizontal grid lines with values, and date labels adapted in Catalan (Mon–Sun for weekly periods).

GoatCounter does not use cookies. It does not collect IP addresses or any personal data. Therefore, no GDPR consent banner is required.

Data stays on GoatCounter’s servers (or your own if you self-host). Nothing goes to Google, Meta, or any advertising platform.

Setup in three steps

Settings page — site code and API token fields

Create a free account at goatcounter.com. Confirm your email (check spam — the confirmation email often lands there). The API token section only appears after your email is confirmed.
In Analytics → Settings in your WordPress admin, enter your site code (the subdomain of your GoatCounter dashboard URL) and your API token.
Done. The tracking script is injected automatically in the footer.

Open source · Approved by WordPress.org

The plugin is GPL-2.0, approved and published by linuxbcn in the official WordPress.org plugin directory:

→ wordpress.org/plugins/linuxbcn-analytics-for-goatcounter

You can install it directly from your WordPress dashboard: Plugins → Add New → search for “LinuxBCN Analytics”.

The full source code is also available on GitHub:

→ github.com/112books/goatcounter-wp

Technology

PHP · WordPress Plugin API · GoatCounter API v0 · SVG · CSS Grid · JavaScript · localStorage · GitHub Actions

→ wordpress.org/plugins/linuxbcn-analytics-for-goatcounter → github.com/112books/goatcounter-wp → 112books.eu website — related project