This has been a hidden gem of mine for years. I needed a website statistics counter that was reliable and critically for me offered a hidden option, as I really did not want one of those annoying page counters at the footer of the site.

I found a few, but one stuck, that was http://statcounter.com/ because it offered everything I wanted and more, plus it was free, thus I have used it ever since.

Account Screen Shot

Below is a screen shot of their public example. Notice the extra menus on the left?

Differences Between Statcounter & Google Analytics

Now this is quite important, this is not Google Analytics. Google Analytics adds a much more advanced array of tools to the seasoned professional, however the differences between true web stats (server log files) and Google Analytics is huge.

Yes, there will always be a difference between every single statistics counter, but in my experience, Google Analytics only seems to capture 70% or less of the true user stats, where as StatCounter seems to reflect a much higher result, truer to the actual web logs.

Also to add Google Analytics web interface is extremely daunting to the new user, Statcounter’s is extremely simple, I like simple AND complex when needed.

Summary

If you are looking for a simple, reliable statistics counter that is extremely simple to use and implement, then http://statcounter.com/ is a excellent choice. Personally I suggest using this and Google Analytics to complement each other.