GoAccess vs GoatCounter

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureGoAccessGoatCounter
CategoryMonitoring & StatusWeb Analytics
LicenseMITEUPL-1.2
LanguageCGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM64 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, binarybinary, docker
GitHub stars★ 20,762★ 5,864
First released20102019
ReplacesGoogle AnalyticsGoogle Analytics

Why pick each one

Choose GoAccess if…

  • Extremely fast and lightweight
  • Works fully offline
GoAccess details

Choose GoatCounter if…

  • Extremely easy to run
  • Very lightweight
  • Privacy-friendly
GoatCounter details

Frequently asked questions

Is GoAccess or GoatCounter better?

Neither is universally better. GoAccess has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are GoAccess and GoatCounter free and open-source?

Yes. GoAccess is licensed under MIT and GoatCounter under EUPL-1.2. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run GoAccess and GoatCounter with Docker?

GoAccess: yes. GoatCounter: yes.

Related comparisons