Evidence vs GoatCounter
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted web analytics options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Evidence
Code-driven business intelligence with Markdown
VS
GoatCounter
Easy and privacy-friendly web analytics
| Feature | Evidence | GoatCounter |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Web Analytics | Web Analytics |
| License | MIT | EUPL-1.2 |
| Language | JavaScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,833 | ★ 5,864 |
| First released | 2021 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Tableau, Looker | Google Analytics |
Why pick each one
Choose Evidence if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 6.8k GitHub stars
- Written in JavaScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Evidence or GoatCounter better?
Neither is universally better. Evidence has the larger community, while GoatCounter is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Evidence and GoatCounter free and open-source?
Yes. Evidence is licensed under MIT and GoatCounter under EUPL-1.2. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Evidence and GoatCounter with Docker?
Evidence: yes. GoatCounter: yes.