StatCounter: A Free Web Statistics Service

Just before Chirstmas I recently moved this site to a Web Host in the United States. This service has been very cost effective but in the process I did loose a little bit of control in terms of being able to check Apache server logs for web statistics. The service provided a basic overview of site traffic in bandwidth used but did not tell me who was visiting the site and what was being read. I did a quick Web search and found StatCounter, a free web statistics analyser that does not need access to your server logs.

By placing a small piece of harmless Javascript in the header of the webpage StatCounter gleams useful information from the visitor. I can log in to StatCounter and checkout a continually updated set of reports ranging from who visited to what they read and how long they stayed. Useful stuff and quite reassuring to know the site is being visited frequently by people from around the world.

Some surprising user locations late on Monday night

The free StatCounter service provides a basic monitoring service and a limited set of more detailed reports. For US$9 per month it is possible to get more comprehensive reports. Personally I am quite happy with the free service but if you were a company reliant on web sales I could see the pay service being very useful indeed.