Below are commented references, among which you are sure to find a free HitCounter for Your Web Site
as well as proper free Web Site Statistics Services
both to suit your needs and to please you!
Get a good overview and then click on any one of the links provided for HitCount & WebPage Stats Services, below, in order to go request the Counter & Statistics services you find best suitable for Your Web Site.
Stay tuned! Great New Counter!
We've just tried the best hit counter ever!
And we'll be recommending it very highly!
It's super simple, flexible, effective, and free!
All our pages are currently running a beta version of this counter – so, you can see it in action, right here!
We'll be announcing this new counter here, as soon as it starts being offered to the public.
The simplest way you can go (simplicity and ease being priorities to you) is to sign up for a HitCounter service with SiteGadgets.com! This Web Site offers you a very user-friendly interface, which you are bound to find as easy and simple to interact with as anything on the Net can be! In addition, and as a natural consequence of what has just been mentioned, this is absolutely the fastest Hit Counter service, as far as signing up for it and having it running on Your Page!
There are two possibilities to choose from, as far as lay-out is concerned: a text-based counter and a graphic-based counter. As the more graphics one has on one's page, the slower that page will load, the text-based option is the one that SiteGadgets.com recommends, a recommendation which we endorse fully. The choice, of course, is up to you, both text- and graphic-based Counters being equally available and equally easy to sign up for, configure and enjoy using.
Here's a working example of SiteGadgets.com's suggested text-based Hit Counter:
This page has been visited times. Thank you for enjoying HomePage MadeEasy !! as Your Web Companion.
With the Counter exemplified above, you can use any text you wish, and you can format it to your heart's content, as well. SiteGadgets.com is helpful to offer you a default text, though, just in case you run out of inspiration. The default text offered is a simple and friendly
Our page has been visited X times.
which you are of course welcome to use, if you'd like. Just remember that you are free to change this text so as to fit the style or personality you have given Your Page!
As already mentioned, there's a graphic option to this Counter, below which there'll be written: Hosted by SiteGadgets! Free! No reference to SiteGadgets.com is written on (or below) the text option, though. The text option will look exactly like the example above, except for whatever formatting changes that you may make on yours, of course!
Uncomplicated as this Hit Counter is, from sign-up to maintenance, you can't expect anything additional to the counting of visitors from this one service. In other words, if you are interested in having some statistics, as well, you then have two options:
Sign up with [1] SiteGadgets.com for Your Hit Counter, and additionally sign up with [2] SuperStats for Your Web Site Statistics. This allows possibly for the best combination between simplicity and thoroughness! You can read below about SuperStats and see for yourself why.
Or else, sign up for bothHit CounterandWeb Site Statistics at one go, with the trade-off, though, of having to compromise at some level, as will become clear below. For this alternative, you find three different choices, as you read on: Bravenet, TheCounter, and HitTracker.
Briefly reviewing the above, the easiest HitCounter to sign up for and to maintain is no doubt SiteGadgets.com! In the event that you wish to count also on excellent Web Site Statistics, SiteGadgets.com's Service can be ideally complemented with the Statistics Service offered by SuperStats, which you can read about below. The options we mention below are likewise reviewed.
The addition of an observation is due: the example counter above was placed on this page shortly after HomePage MadeEasy !! was first placed on line. The fact that it currently displays a count slightly above 1400 visitors, makes us wonder about the accuracy of SiteGadget's counter, in the long run. For [1] the current page is one of HomePage MadeEasy's most popular pages (we know it from our Web site statistics) and [2] HomePage MadeEasy's main counter displays a number on the 20000 mark.
The discrepancy between 1400 and 20000 is way too large not to be noticed, even as we consider it proportionally – i.e., the number of HomePage MadeEasy's guests who may have come to the current page, a very popular page on our site, we repeat, versus the number of guests who did not visit it.
In SiteGadget's behalf we can add the following observation: none of these counters are totally accurate!
If you'd like reliably accurate statistics, then make sure you get a Web host that provides statistics suiting your needs. At the same time, you cannot expect too much if you host your site for free. So, be prepared to pay, in the case that you'd like to count on good and accurate site statistics. (You can find hosting services for as little as under $5/month, while providing you a very satisfying Web experience!)
HomePage MadeEasy !! currently displays SiteMeter's counter, so that we continually monitor a service that we tip you on. Now and then, you may find two hit counters at work at HomePage MadeEasy !!, whenever we're evaluating a new service which, if we find worthy of mention, we'll be adding to this section.
The statistics we rely on, however, we get from our Web host: Sitelutions offers excellent statistics, both very detailed and accurate.
We now and then compare these results to those we obtain from SiteMeter (or whatever other similar service we're monitoring), so as to check if its inaccuracy level remains within the acceptable. As we know we can trust out Web stats, the comparison job is quite straightforward.
Why is it that none of the services offering external counters and Web site statistics is totally accurate?...you may be wondering...
A number of factors contribute their share, the most common of which being:
- as the counter sits on another server, whenever there is a hit on your page, that other server must be activated in the same way as a link that we click on. Depending on how busy the Web is, on how fast that other server, and your own server, too, are, the connection may take place immediately or not, or fail altogether. If the connection is not successful, no hit is added to your site's count, even though your page has been visited.
- very fast visits to a page may fail to be counted: while the connection to your web site statistics service is being made, the guest has already clicked on a link to another page, and the first page is thus likely not to get registered. (For this reason it is advisable that a hit counter code be placed as close to the top of a page as possible. This ensures that the hit counter is activated first thing, when that page starts loading.)
- the server hosting the statistics service may be down (in which case you'll see no counter display on your page, and of course no visits are added to your site's count).
If your own web host provides the statistics, then none of the above applies, for there is no connection to be made across the Web (i.e., a hit on any page is immediately compiled). In addition, the server will only be down, and therefore register no hits, when your Web site is also down, and therefore is not being visited anyway. Good Web hosts, by the way, are rarely down and, whenever it happens, they are usually quick to come back on line.
Is it then useless to sign up for a Web site statistics service?...you might be wondering...
No, we definitely think these services are useful, despite their inability to be as accurate as what your own Web host can provide. Why so? For, even if a few hits are missed here and there, you are certainly able to derive a trend, to understand your own Web site better, to see which of your pages are more frequently visited and which are not, etc. And this is all useful information to you. It helps you decide which pages to update with priority, on which pages to invest a little extra time that you may have, etc.
The overall trend, since this is based on average, should be accurate enough to allow you a fair overview of your pages. What will never be totally accurate is the absolute number of visitors that your counter will display, as already explained above. As a rule, your page will have had more visitors than the digits on screen indicate.
In addition to the basic HitCounter service, you get basic Web Statistics, as well, in the same package, as you sign up with Bravenet. You should be aware of the fact that Bravenet requests that you place one of their advertising buttons or banners on Your Site, in exchange for the service, and in addition to the self-advertising already present in the button displaying the Hit Counter. There is no text option, as offered by SiteGadgets.com, above.
Though SiteGadgets.com's simplicity and ease are hard to beat, signing up with Bravenet is fairly simple, and the user interface is pretty friendly. The small increase in complexity in requesting and maintaining this service can be seen as a trade off for the basic statistics you can enjoy regarding the visitors that arrive at your opening page.
Now, if you are after detailed and comprehensive Web Site Statistics associated with a Hit Counter, then you're better off reading on, below, before you go get your HitCounter with no more delay.
Of course, you can always try a service and give it up later, if you do not feel that it corresponds to your expectations. None of the services listed on this page bind you in any way, after you sign up--you'll always be free to discontinue the service anytime. So, there is no harm in trying, except that trying something out and then changing to something else can be fairly time consuming.
Thus our sharing our experience with you, and allowing you to try and find out about a number of services from this Site, so that when you decide to sign up for a service you already have a pretty good idea of what to expect!
TheCounter.com offers fairly detailed statistics (users must log in to see these) and e-mails its users, in addition, the basic statistical data for each week.
We have had very good experience with TheCounter.com, for a good while now, and in a number of Web Sites that we help administer (a total of 8 different accounts with TheCounter.com, all in all). There has just been a short period during which their Web Site's machinery was being changed, in which period TheCounter.com's service was rather unstable. Other than this short time, the service we have enjoyed from TheCounter.com has been excellent.
If you are happy to have moderately detailed statistics for Your Web Site, this service is a choice to consider. There is no limit as to how many different accounts you can have with TheCounter.com. So, if yo have more than one web site, you can get an account for each. It is possible to get a transparent edition of TheCounter.com--that is, one that counts hits and registers statistics but without being displayed on your page--in case you wish the statistics but prefer not to show the numbers on your page.
A simpler choice regarding the level of details emergent in the statistics is to get Your free counter with HitTracker. Sign up is quite simple and straightforward and, in the same package, you also get both a Hit Counter and Web Site Statistics. There is no limit regarding the number of pages to which the statistics service is to apply.
At HitTracker, there is a large number of counter displays to choose from, although not a very good selection of small, discrete ones, among these. You might like the selection available--this is really a matter of taste. So, the best bet, in the case you are interested in this service, is to click on the link to the HitTracker Web Site and take a look at the selection of choices offered. If you find that none of them would suit Your Home Page, you can just click on the Back button on Your Browser, and return here to make a different choice.
One more choice at hand is to get a Hit Count service and/or a Web Site Statistics service at SuperStats.
These services are free, that is, you are requested to place a button on Your Web Site, in exchange.
Differently from what you can get at HitTracker, if you wish to have an equivalent service from SuperStats, then you ought to sign up for the Hit Counter and sign up for the Web Statistics, separately--these are two different services, at SuperStats.
It should be added that it is OK for one to have a HitCounter with any Web Service Provider (SiteGadgets.com's Counter, for instance, as already suggested above), and at the same time enjoy the detailed and professional-looking Web Site Statistics service offered by SuperStats. The choice is entirely Yours, if you sign up for SuperStats' Web Site Statistics, whether to sign up also for their HitCounter service, or use this service from another Web Site.
Just keep in mind the fact that you will be requested the display of SuperStats's button on Your Web Page, also in exchange for the Counter service. Another aspect to keep in mind, before you make your choice, is that none of the above mentioned services is as swift, simple and straightforward to sign up with and to maintain as SiteGadgets.com's Counter.
A last comment regarding SuperStats's Web Site Statistics service might seem attractive to you, in the case you would be interested in deriving some revenue, however modest, from Your Web Site:
In addition to the free Web Statistics service already mentioned above (free, that is, accompanied by the request of a button on Your Web Site), SuperStats offers another option. This option, while providing more comprehensive statistics than the free option, does not cost you one cent. On the contrary, you are offered payment for using that service.
Note: SuperStats is discontinuing (as of March, 2001) the service that allows the possibility of revenue.
Now, before you get the idea that you can get rich with Your Web Page:), please read on attentively!
As you join this optional service at SuperStats, you are required to place a banner (instead of the small button requested with the free service) on every page for which you would like the Web Statistics service to apply. There is no limit, whether in this or the free service, as to the number of pages for which one requests the statistics service. The payment you are offered is a modest amount (some 10 cents of a Dollar) for every hit on the banners provided by SuperStats.
Whether or not you would be interested in revenue, if you [1] would enjoy a more complete statistical service than the one provided by SuperStats's free service, and by any of the above-mentioned services, and if you, in addition, [2] do not mind placing an extra banner on the pages for which you'd like the statistics service, then SuperStats's banner option might be something for you.
Latest Remarks:
Another free statistics services (offered without hit counters) is provided by Search Hound.
Finally, a good compromise among all of the above is Site Meter, offering both statistical and counter services in one package--likewise, free of charge.
Both Search Hound and Site Meter offer the choice of your receiving via e-mail a summarized report of your web site statistics.
We'd like to warn you about the service provided by TheCounter.com:
We have discontinued the use of TheCounter.com on this web site and on most web sites that we help administer. The reason is that TheCounter.com, we verified, started yielding unreliable counts (below the actual traffic and, at times, quite so).
We lament both having had to discontinue the service and having to write the present report. But we have a responsibility toward you and the information that we provide you, a responsibility which we honor above all else. We have once (as you can read above) given TheCounter.com a credit of patience, based on the good services we have enjoyed, when they were changing servers and the level of their service went down. A counter needs to be accurate, however; and we cannot rely on, nor recommend a service which may, now and then, become less reliable.
Finally, we should mention the statistics service (no hit counter included) provided by Web Site Traffic Report. We have tried this service for a while and, as we were just getting ready to recommend it to you, it has unfortunately turned very commercial. Frankly, for what they offer (though undoubtedly they offer decent statistical service), you can get something pretty equivalent without having to comply with the banner display that they have just announced they will require of anyone using their service for free. We are still using their service (you can see the small logo at the bottom of the left margin on every one of our pages), but only until we hear from them that the announced banner display requirement comes into effect. The minute that you no longer see their small logo at the bottom of the left margin on our pages, then you can safely assume that they have started requiring that their customers display their commercial banners in exchange for the service.
We are currently trying Site Meter on this and a number of other pages and have been pretty satisfied so far. As already mentioned, Site Meter offers what appears to us a good compromise amongst all the existing counter & statistical services. The only one point where they are weak, in our opinion, is that they do not offer an overview of all pages according to the number of hits that each has gotten. In other words, you end up at a loss as to which of your pages is the most visited one, which is the least visited one, and everything else in between.
On the other hand, Site Meter offers you statistics which most other similar web sites do not, such as a list of your pages according to the frequency each has been the entry page on your site, and also the last page viewed, just before your guests disconnected from your URL.
So far, we feel that Site Meter has been offering excellent service, which we can recommend that you try.
If you miss the statistics in terms of "page popularity", the one service that Site Meter comes short of providing, here's a suggestion: sign up with both Site Meter and Search Hound. The latter web site brings you an optional daily report (via e-mail) which provides you just that.
Enjoy your visit!
Have a very nice day/evening/night
...and return soon!
Need a WebSite?
The simplest way you can go (simplicity and ease being priorities to you) is to sign up for a HitCounter service with 
