Hit Counters, Chapter 2

Some time ago I did a short article on counters, and recommended amazingcounters.com as one that I’d used personally. Jimmy wrote to tell me about Statcounter.com, which he considers superior. I duly noted that in a followup, commenting that I hadn’t tried it. Well, now I have, and I’m impressed.

During the last several days, Amazing Counters has been having server problems that resulted in my losing count of hits on three of my four sites. I’m certainly willing to give it a chance to correct a one-time glitch, but in the meantime I decided to install one of Statcounter.com’s tracking applets (free) to keep track of things on the busiest site.

I chose the Javascript option, as it provides the most information. There is a rather more limited HTML version available for sites that don’t support Java. Installation was simple - a matter of pasting the code it provided into the site template. There are also instructions available for installing it via a number of site editors.

The script began doing its thing immediately, even recording my visit for the installation process. Another visit to the Statcounter site allowed me to see what the data interface looks like. (It’s OK, but I’d like to see text links instead of its tiny little icons.) The data available, however, is really impressive! Kicks Amazing Counters’… well, it makes it look less desirable, especially since they require ads on the site, albeit teeny ones. Here’s what Statcounter.com says about their free service:

“We are not out to make a quick buck. The reason StatCounter exists is to ‘help webmasters make decisions, and be more successful online by understanding their visitors.’ We offer a truly exceptional free service, because we want to help you grow. And as you grow, and as your needs grow, we hope you’ll upgrade. We don’t impose an upgrade on you. You can use it for free for as long as you like. The only catch is if you start to get over 9,000 pageloads each day you are outside what we can sustain as a free business model and we will then ask you to either remove the code or upgrade. It’s as simple as that!”

I’m not switching, because I like Amazing Counters’ graphs, but I am adding a Statcounter as backup, and if you’re interested in a counter that doesn’t require ads, you could do worse. Try it yourself!