If you want visitor stats inside WordPress without Google Analytics, Page Visit Counter (PVC) and Independent Analytics (IA) both belong on your shortlist. This Page Visit Counter vs Independent Analytics comparison is for bloggers, small businesses and freelancers choosing between them.
Both keep analytics in your own database and set no cookies on visitors. They differ in what’s free, how they identify visitors, how long they keep data and how Pro is priced.
Page Visit Counter is made by WPAnkit, the team behind this site. We’ve aimed to be fair, and every claim about Independent Analytics links to its own site, docs or WordPress.org listing.
Last updated: 24 September 2026
In this comparison
Quick verdict
- Choose Page Visit Counter if you want a live visitor count and a list of individual sessions for free, a tracking script under 1 KB, and stats that are deleted automatically after a period you set.
- Choose Page Visit Counter Pro if you run four or five sites ($99/year covers five), or want click heatmaps (beta) and page-visit goals.
- Choose Independent Analytics if you want broader free reports: referrers, cities, CSV and PDF exports, public view counters and stats access for editors or clients.
- Choose Independent Analytics Pro if you sell through WooCommerce or another supported cart, need form and click tracking, or want a lifetime license.
Page Visit Counter vs Independent Analytics at a glance
| Feature | Page Visit Counter | Independent Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Tracking method | 743-byte JavaScript file posts to your REST API | Inline script (about 12 KB, per IA’s docs) posts to your REST API |
| Cookies and storage | ✓ No cookies or browser storage; data in your database | ✓ No visitor cookies (optional one to ignore your team); data in your database |
| Real-time | ✓ Free: active-visitor count, refreshed every 10 seconds | Pro: active visitors plus pages, referrers, devices, campaigns and locations |
| Sessions, bounce, duration | ✓ Free | ✓ Free (plus unique visitors) |
| Top content reports | ✓ Free: pages, posts, custom post types | ✓ Free: Pages report with filters |
| Countries and devices | ✓ Free: countries, devices, browsers, OS. Cities and map in Pro | ✓ Free: countries, cities, world map, devices, browsers, OS |
| Traffic sources and referrers | Pro only (referrer domains) | ✓ Free, grouped into search, social and more |
| UTM campaigns | Pro | Pro |
| Goals and conversions | Pro: page-visit goals | Pro: form, click and eCommerce tracking |
| Heatmaps | Pro: click heatmaps (beta) | ✗ Not listed on its features page |
| E-commerce | ✗ No sales tracking | Pro: WooCommerce, EDD, FluentCart, SureCart, Paid Memberships Pro |
| Email reports | Pro: weekly | Pro: daily, weekly or monthly |
| Location database | From pagevisitcounter.com (about 63 MB, refreshed daily) | From independentwp.com (fetched again only if missing or invalid) |
| Pricing | Free, no account needed. Pro from $49/year | Free on unlimited sites, no account needed. Pro from $49/year or $147 lifetime |
Prices as of 24 September 2026. IA details come from its features page, pricing page and knowledge base.
Setup and dashboard
Both install from WordPress.org and start tracking on activation, with no account, API key or tracking code.
IA ignores logged-in visitors and administrators out of the box. PVC tracks everyone until you exclude roles, so add Administrator in Settings on day one. PVC can also exclude specific users, posts, pages and IP ranges. IA supports IP wildcards and CIDR, plus an optional cookie that keeps ignoring your team after they log out.
PVC opens on an overview dashboard with today’s pageviews and sessions against yesterday, a live visitor count, session duration, bounce rate, a 7-day trend, devices, countries and browsers. Date ranges are in the individual reports.
Each IA report pairs summary stats, a chart and a sortable table, with filters and saved reports. IA adds a Views column to post lists, admin-bar stats and a dashboard widget, and can share access with other roles. PVC’s reports are for administrators only.
Reports and metrics
PVC’s free reports, each with a date range, cover top pages, posts and custom post types (views, sessions, views per session, time on page), countries, devices (type, browser, OS, viewport size) and individual sessions with their entry page. Only posts and pages are tracked by default; enable products or other post types under Settings > Track Post Types. PVC counts pageviews and sessions, not unique people.
IA’s free version goes further on acquisition. Its Referrers report groups search and social traffic and separates paid Google clicks from organic. The Geographic report adds subdivisions (such as states), cities and a world map. Any report can be exported to CSV or PDF. IA also counts unique visitors across days.
PVC records referrers and UTM tags for free but shows them only in Pro, so if traffic sources are your main question, IA’s free version is stronger.
Privacy and data ownership
Both plugins store analytics in your own database (IA’s tables), so backups include them. Both geolocate visitors on your server using a database file from the vendor’s site. PVC currently re-downloads its file (about 63 MB) daily, while IA’s code refetches only a missing or invalid file.
Identifiers. IA hashes the IP, user agent and a salt into a one-way visitor ID and doesn’t store the IP. The salt never changes by default, so returning visitors are recognized across days; you can refresh it daily, weekly or monthly. PVC builds session IDs from a salted hash of the IP, user agent and a 30-minute time block, so its reports don’t link visits across days. It never stores raw IPs, but it keeps a one-way hash of the IP (pseudonymized, not anonymous), the user agent and approximate location (country, region and city).
Retention. PVC keeps data for 1 to 365 days (90 by default), then deletes it automatically; there is no keep-forever option. IA keeps data forever unless you choose a period from 30 days to 4 years. For multi-year trends, IA wins.
Consent. IA’s WordPress.org FAQ says no cookie banner is needed, and since version 2.14.7 it integrates with the Complianz consent plugin. PVC uses no cookies or browser storage, which can make consent simpler, but has no consent-plugin integration. With either, mention analytics in your privacy policy.
Removal. IA has a one-click option that deletes its tables and settings. PVC can clear its data from Settings, but its tables remain after uninstall, so drop them manually if needed.
Performance and site speed
We haven’t benchmarked either plugin, so here is how each works.
- PVC loads one 743-byte script (about 400 bytes gzipped) in the footer from your own site, then sends one background request per pageview to your REST API.
- IA inlines a script its docs put at about 12 KB, which saves a file request, and records each view through your REST API after the page loads.
Caching. PVC’s tracker sends a standard WordPress REST nonce, so cached pages must refresh within WordPress’s nonce lifetime (about 12 to 24 hours) or their views can go unrecorded. IA signs its tracking request instead of using a nonce, so it only asks you to clear the cache once after installing.
Bots. IA ignores self-identifying bots. PVC counts only visits where its script runs, which leaves out most simple crawlers, but it has no bot list, so headless bots can be counted.
Scale and requirements. IA’s docs say its reports struggle above about a million views a month and don’t recommend it at that scale, though front-end speed isn’t affected. PVC has no published scale testing. PVC needs PHP 7.4+ and WordPress 5.5+, and its time-on-page and sessions reports need MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.2+. IA needs PHP 8.0.30+ and WordPress 5.9+.
Free vs paid features
PVC Pro adds UTM campaigns, page-visit goals, click heatmaps (beta), user journeys, referrers, top cities, a world map and weekly email reports to the free reports above, in every tier (compare plans).
IA Pro adds campaigns, real-time, click and form tracking (20+ form plugins), eCommerce analytics, user journeys, overview and solo reports and email reports, in every package. Its exports, access controls and public view counter stay free.
Pricing
USD, as of 24 September 2026.
| Plan | Page Visit Counter | Independent Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 |
| 1 site | $49/year | $49/year or $147 lifetime (PRO Standard) |
| 3 sites | $99/year (5-site plan) | $79/year or $237 lifetime (PRO Hobbyist) |
| 5 sites | $99/year | $199/year or $597 lifetime (unlimited plan) |
| Unlimited sites | $199/year | $199/year or $597 lifetime (PRO Agency) |
| Lifetime option | ✗ | ✓ |
| Money-back guarantee | 14 days | 30 days |
| Free trial | ✗ | ✗ |
| After expiry | Pro keeps working; updates and support stop | Pro keeps working; updates and priority support stop |
Both annual plans renew at the price you first paid unless canceled. PVC adds any VAT or sales tax at checkout (PVC pricing, IA pricing). Prices match at one site and at unlimited; IA is cheaper for two or three sites, PVC for four or five.
Support and development
Independent Analytics has been on WordPress.org since May 2022 and is built by Ben Sibley and Andrew Mead. On 24 September 2026 its WordPress.org page showed 100,000+ active installs and a 4.8-star rating from 166 ratings. It shipped 17 releases from 19 January to 20 August 2026, ending with version 2.15.5 (changelog). Support runs through the forum, email and a large knowledge base, with priority support for Pro.
Page Visit Counter is a newer plugin from WPAnkit. Version 4.1.0 shipped on 23 September 2026 and is tested up to WordPress 7.1. See the docs, the support forum or the contact page.
When Independent Analytics is the better choice
- You want traffic sources, cities and CSV or PDF exports for free.
- You run a store and want sales tied to referrers and campaigns, or need form and click tracking.
- Editors, authors or clients need stats in wp-admin (optionally white-labeled), or you want public view counters and admin-bar stats.
- You want years of history, unique-visitor counts or filtering of self-identifying bots.
- You need two or three sites, a lifetime license or a 30-day refund window.
- You value a longer track record: four years on WordPress.org, with frequent releases.
FAQ
Can I switch from Independent Analytics to Page Visit Counter?
Yes, but history doesn’t transfer: PVC 4.1.0 has no importer and starts counting on activation. IA’s FAQ says it runs alongside other analytics plugins, so keep both until PVC has enough history, then remove IA with its delete-all-data option.
Are Page Visit Counter and Independent Analytics free?
Both have free versions on WordPress.org; IA’s works on unlimited sites. PVC Pro starts at $49/year. IA Pro starts at $49/year or $147 lifetime for one site.
Which is better for GDPR?
Neither can guarantee compliance; that depends on your site. Both avoid visitor cookies and store a hashed identifier plus approximate location in your database. IA offers salt refresh and a Complianz integration; PVC keeps 90 days by default and links visits only within 30-minute windows.
Can I show view counts on my posts?
IA can, with a public counter and a shortcode. PVC 4.1.0 shows view counts only in its admin reports.
Why Page Visit Counter is the better choice if you want free live stats and a lean setup
Independent Analytics is a strong, mature plugin, and this comparison shows where it leads. But if you want to watch activity as it happens, see individual sessions without paying and keep your stats footprint small, PVC is the better fit. Here’s why.
- Live stats without upgrading. PVC’s free dashboard shows how many visitors were active in the last five minutes and refreshes the count every 10 seconds. In IA, the Real-time report is Pro only.
- Individual sessions for free. PVC’s free Top Sessions report lists each session with its device, browser, country, pageview count, entry page and start time. IA’s per-session view, User Journeys, is Pro only, though its timelines go further with clicks, form submissions and orders.
- A smaller script on every page. PVC adds one first-party 743-byte script and stores nothing in the visitor’s browser; IA’s docs put its inline script at about 12 KB. Both are light. PVC’s is lighter, while IA’s inlining saves a file request.
- Lean data by default. PVC deletes rows older than 90 days unless you pick another period (up to 365 days), so its tables don’t grow forever. IA keeps everything unless you turn deletion on, which suits long-term history but holds more visitor data.
- Simple Pro pricing, with five sites for $99. Every PVC tier includes every Pro feature: $49/year for 1 site, $99/year for 5 and $199/year for unlimited sites (as of 24 September 2026). With IA, four or five sites means the $199 Agency plan. PVC Pro also adds click heatmaps (beta) and page-visit goals with targets; IA lists no heatmaps, and its goal tracking centers on sales, forms and clicks.
If you need free referrer reports, sales tracking or a lifetime license, choose IA. If you want live, session-level stats inside wp-admin without paying for them, start with PVC.
Get started: install the free version from WordPress.org. Or see Pro pricing for UTM campaigns, goals, click heatmaps (beta) and weekly email reports, with a 14-day money-back guarantee.