GoatCounter vs Unleash

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted web analytics options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureGoatCounterUnleash
CategoryWeb AnalyticsWeb Analytics
LicenseEUPL-1.2Apache-2.0
LanguageGoTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentbinary, dockerdocker, kubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 5,864★ 13,721
First released20192014
ReplacesGoogle AnalyticsLaunchDarkly, Split

Why pick each one

Choose GoatCounter if…

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

Choose Unleash if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
  • Mature project with 13.7k GitHub stars
Unleash details

Frequently asked questions

Is GoatCounter or Unleash better?

Neither is universally better. Unleash 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 GoatCounter and Unleash free and open-source?

Yes. GoatCounter is licensed under EUPL-1.2 and Unleash under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run GoatCounter and Unleash with Docker?

GoatCounter: yes. Unleash: yes.

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