Page Visit Counter vs Koko Analytics is a close match-up: both are self-hosted WordPress analytics plugins, free on WordPress.org, keep stats in your own database and sell an optional Pro upgrade. They differ in how they count visits and which reports you get without paying.
This guide is for site owners choosing a lightweight Google Analytics alternative. Disclosure: Page Visit Counter (PVC) is our plugin, published by WPAnkit. We link to Koko Analytics’ own site, docs or source code for what we say about it.
Last updated: 24 September 2026
In this comparison
Quick verdict
- Choose Page Visit Counter if you want sessions, bounce rate, session duration, countries and devices for free, with no cookies to configure.
- Choose Page Visit Counter Pro for page-visit goals, click heatmaps (beta) and per-session user journeys, or if you run many sites: the unlimited-sites plan is $199/year.
- Choose Koko Analytics if you want free referrers, bot filtering, years of history, a pipeline built for busy or heavily cached sites, front-end view counters, data import and export, or shared dashboards.
Page Visit Counter vs Koko Analytics at a glance
| Feature | Page Visit Counter | Koko Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Tracking method | 743-byte script; one request per pageview to your REST API | Inline script; optimized endpoint; background processing |
| Cookies | ✓ None, nothing stored in the browser | One cookie by default (expires at midnight); cookieless modes available |
| Where data is stored | Your WordPress database (session and pageview rows) | Your WordPress database (aggregated counts) |
| Real-time | ✓ Free: visitors active in the last 5 minutes, updated every 10 seconds | ✓ Free: pageviews in the last hour |
| Sessions, bounce rate, duration | ✓ Free | ✗ Not listed |
| Top content | ✓ Free: pages, posts, custom post types, time on page | ✓ Free: any URL path, including archives and search |
| Countries and devices | ✓ Free (cities in Pro) | Pro only |
| Referrers | Pro only | ✓ Free |
| UTM campaigns | Pro | Pro |
| Goals and events | Pro: page-visit goals | Pro: outbound clicks, form submissions, custom events |
| Heatmaps | Pro: click heatmaps (beta) | ✗ Not listed |
| E-commerce | Product page views (enable the post type); no revenue reports | Pro custom events (e.g. add-to-cart); no store reports listed |
| Email reports | Pro: weekly | Pro: daily, weekly or monthly, plus spike alerts |
| Exclusions (free) | ✓ Roles, users, posts, IPs (single, CIDR or range) | Roles and individual IP addresses |
| Bot filtering | ✗ No bot list (only visits that run the script count) | ✓ Known bots and headless browsers |
| External services | GeoLite2 database (about 63 MB) from pagevisitcounter.com, currently daily; Freemius for opt-in and Pro | None for tracking; Pro uses a license key and downloads a geolocation database |
| Free plan / paid from | ✓ Free; Pro from $49/year | ✓ Free; Pro from €59/year |
Pricing as of 24 September 2026.
Setup and dashboard
Page Visit Counter: install and activate, and tracking starts. The free version needs no account, tracking code or API key (an optional opt-in screen can be skipped). The overview dashboard under the Analytics menu shows today’s pageviews and sessions against yesterday, active visitors, session duration, bounce rate, a 7-day trend, devices, and top countries and browsers. Date ranges live in the individual reports. Reports are admin-only, and no roles are excluded by default, so exclude Administrator to skip your own visits.
Koko Analytics: also records from activation with no account, per its WordPress.org FAQ. The dashboard under Dashboard > Analytics shows visitors, pageviews, a realtime card, a chart, top pages and referrers, with a date picker (last 28 days by default) and a previous-period comparison. Koko is more flexible about access: you can grant other roles its view capability with code or a role-editor plugin, or make the dashboard public, which Pro can password-protect.
Reports and metrics
The key difference is storage. Koko keeps aggregated counts, such as views per page per day, and no log of individual visits (see its privacy page). Page Visit Counter stores each session and pageview, which makes session metrics possible.
PVC free reports:
- Sessions, bounce rate, average session duration and views per session
- Top pages, posts and custom post types with views, sessions and average time on page, for any date range
- Countries, plus devices, browsers, operating systems and viewport sizes
- A list of individual sessions with entry page, device and country
A session groups pageviews from the same IP address and browser within a fixed 30-minute window, so it is not a count of unique people. Time on page is measured to the next pageview, so single-page visits count as zero. Home, archive and search URLs count toward totals but don’t get their own rows.
Koko free reports: visitors, pageviews, top pages and referrers. Koko tracks by URL path, so archives and search pages show up, and a visitor is counted once per day. Countries, devices, UTM and events need Pro.
Privacy and data ownership
Neither plugin sends visitor data to an outside analytics service. They differ on cookies and detail.
Cookies. PVC sets no cookies and stores nothing in the browser. Koko’s default Cookie method sets one first-party cookie that expires at midnight; Koko considers it more accurate, but its method comparison notes it may require a cookie policy or consent. Cookieless mode (a server-side hash of IP, user agent and a daily secret, wiped at midnight) and None (pageviews only) avoid cookies, and a Complianz setup adds the cookie only after consent.
Stored data. Koko’s aggregate-only design stores less. PVC stores, per session, a one-way hash of the IP address (pseudonymized, not anonymous; raw IPs are never written to the database), the user agent, approximate location (country, region and city), device details and UTM tags, and per pageview the path, referrer and time. Location lookups run locally against a GeoLite2 database.
Retention. PVC keeps 1 to 365 days (90 by default) and deletes older rows automatically. Koko keeps 36 months by default and can keep data indefinitely.
Neither plugin makes a site compliant on its own. Koko describes itself as suitable for GDPR, CCPA and PECR-compliant statistics. PVC’s lack of cookies can simplify consent under cookie laws, but still mention analytics in your privacy policy.
Performance and site speed
Both scripts are tiny. PVC loads one 743-byte file (about 400 bytes gzipped) in the footer and sends one background request per pageview to your WordPress REST API. Koko says its script adds less than 1 KB.
Koko is designed to keep per-visit work small: an optimized endpoint that bypasses most of WordPress, a buffer file, background processing and a recommended server cron job. It also skips known bots and headless browsers (2.3 notes).
PVC works with page caching, but its tracker sends a WordPress nonce that expires after 12 to 24 hours, so cached pages older than that can stop recording views. PVC has no bot list; only browsers that run its script count, which excludes most simple crawlers but not headless bots. Time on page and the sessions list need MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.2+.
Free vs paid features
Both sell one paid tier with every feature in every plan; only the site count changes. See the PVC Free vs Pro table.
PVC Pro adds: UTM campaign reports, page-visit goals with targets and end dates, click heatmaps (beta), user journeys, a referrer breakdown, top cities, a world map and weekly email reports.
Koko Pro adds: countries, devices, UTM tracking, event tracking (outbound links, forms, custom events), daily, weekly or monthly email reports, spike alerts, a pageviews admin column, an admin bar chart and a public-dashboard password.
Pricing
| Plan | Page Visit Counter Pro | Koko Analytics Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Free version | ✓ WordPress.org | ✓ WordPress.org |
| 1 site | $49/year | €59/year |
| 5 sites | $99/year | €99/year |
| Largest plan | Unlimited sites, $199/year | 25 sites, €249/year |
| Multi-year option | ✗ Annual only | ✓ 3 years: €149, €249 or €599 |
| Money-back window | 14 days | 30 days |
As of 24 September 2026. PVC prices are in US dollars before tax; Koko lists euros on its pricing page. Both auto-renew. Koko counts a multisite network as one activation. See PVC pricing.
Support and development
Koko Analytics has been on WordPress.org since November 2019 and is open source on GitHub. Version 2.5.3 shipped on 21 September 2026, after the 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5 releases earlier this year. It has 60,000+ active installs and a 5-out-of-5 rating from 243 reviews, with documentation, the WordPress.org forum and priority support for Pro customers.
Page Visit Counter is a newer plugin from WPAnkit; version 4.1.0 was released on 23 September 2026. Help comes through the docs, the WordPress.org forum and the contact page. PVC needs WordPress 5.5+ and PHP 7.4+; Koko needs WordPress 6.2+ and PHP 7.4+.
When Koko Analytics is the better choice
- Free referrers. Koko shows referring sites without Pro.
- Busy or heavily cached sites. Buffered writes, background processing and no expiring nonce.
- Minimal data, cleaner counts. Aggregated counts only, plus bot filtering.
- Long history. 36 months by default, or indefinitely; PVC caps at 365 days.
- Portability. Importers for seven plugins, including Jetpack Stats, Plausible and WP Statistics, plus export and import. PVC 4.1.0 has no importer and no analytics export (Pro exports goal reports only).
- Front-end counts. A free pageview counter and most viewed posts widget, block and shortcode.
- Team or client access. Role-based access and a public dashboard.
- Click and form tracking. Pro events, plus daily or monthly reports and spike alerts.
- Track record. Nearly seven years on WordPress.org and 60,000+ active installs.
Frequently asked questions
Can I switch from Koko Analytics to Page Visit Counter?
Yes, but PVC 4.1.0 can’t import Koko’s history, so reports start on activation. The plugins use separate tables, so you can run both while you compare. Export Koko’s data first; its uninstall routine leaves its tables in place.
Is Page Visit Counter free?
Yes. The WordPress.org version includes real-time visitors, sessions, bounce rate, top content, countries and devices, with no account. Pro costs $49, $99 or $199 per year for 1, 5 or unlimited sites (as of 24 September 2026).
Which is better for GDPR?
Neither guarantees compliance. Koko stores only aggregated counts; its default Cookie mode may need consent, while its cookieless modes set no cookies. PVC never sets cookies but keeps session data (a hashed IP, user agent and approximate location) for the retention period you choose, 90 days by default. For minimal data, pick Koko; for cookie-free session reports, pick PVC.
Can I show a view counter on my posts?
With Koko, yes, via its free shortcode or block. PVC 4.1.0 shows view counts in admin reports only.
Why Page Visit Counter is the better choice if you want free session and audience reports
If your question is “how are people using my site?”, Page Visit Counter answers more of it for free, right inside wp-admin. Every point below is checked against PVC 4.1.0 and Koko’s own documentation and source code.
- Session insights without upgrading. The free version reports sessions, bounce rate, average session duration and pages per session, plus a list of individual sessions. Koko stores aggregated counts, and its features page lists none of these metrics in either version.
- Countries and devices are free. PVC includes date-range reports for countries, devices, browsers and operating systems. In Koko, those require Pro, from €59/year.
- No cookies from the first pageview. PVC sets no cookies and stores nothing in the visitor’s browser; sessions are grouped on the server. Koko can run cookieless, but its default sets a cookie, so you have to change the setting or add a consent tool.
- A more immediate live view. PVC shows how many visitors were active in the last five minutes, refreshed every 10 seconds on a live chart. Koko’s realtime card counts pageviews over the last hour.
- Finer exclusions. PVC can exclude user roles, specific users, specific posts or pages, and IP addresses by single address, CIDR block or range, and you choose which post types are tracked. Koko’s free exclusions cover user roles and individual IP addresses.
- Pro pricing that scales to unlimited sites. PVC Pro costs $49/year for 1 site, $99/year for 5 sites or $199/year for unlimited sites (as of 24 September 2026), with every Pro feature in every tier and a 14-day money-back guarantee. Koko also includes every feature in every plan, but its largest plan stops at 25 sites for €249/year.
- Marketing tools Koko doesn’t list. PVC Pro adds page-visit goals, click heatmaps (beta), user journeys, top cities and a world map, all stored in your own database. Koko’s features page lists no heatmaps, journeys or goal targets.
Koko Analytics is an excellent plugin, and if free referrers, bot filtering, raw efficiency or long history matter most, pick it. If you want to understand sessions, audiences and live activity without paying or managing cookie settings, Page Visit Counter gives you more of that out of the box.
Download Page Visit Counter free from WordPress.org; tracking starts as soon as you activate it. When you need goals, UTM reports, user journeys and weekly email reports, compare Page Visit Counter Pro plans.