Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) vs Simple Blog Stats

Finally, WordPress analytics you’ll actually use Google Analytics is overkill. Most other WordPress statistics plugins are cluttered and confusing. You just want to track visitors and know what’s happening on your site, without a data science degree. Burst Statistics gives you a clean, intuitive analytics dashboard focused on the metrics that actually matter. No external analytics accounts. No complex setup. Install, activate, and understand your website traffic in seconds. Trusted by 200,000+ WordPress sites. Built by the team behind Team Updraft, known for UpdraftPlus, WP-Optimize, and All-In-One Security (AIOS). What our users are saying “Finally, an analytics plugin I can actually explain to clients.” — @anguskeystone on wordpress.org “I tried WP Statistics and Independent Analytics, but they’re overloaded and confusing. Burst’s UI is intuitive and focused on what matters to me.” — @vallered on wordpress.org Why Burst Statistics? Analytics designed to be actionable Other analytics plugins throw everything at you. Burst shows what matters, visitors, pageviews, referrers, top pages, in a dashboard you’ll actually use. No data overload. No confusing menus. See why Burst is perfect for bloggers. Privacy analytics by design All site stats stay on your server, making Burst a true local analytics solution. No external tracking. Your data is yours, we never see it without your explicit permission. Designed for GDPR compliant analytics out of the box. Read why Burst Statistics is privacy-friendly. Zero setup friction Install, activate, done. No Google Analytics account, no GA4 setup, no tracking codes, no configuration headaches. Start seeing live visitors immediately. New to analytics? Start with our guide on WordPress analytics. WordPress-native analytics Not a port from another platform. Built specifically for WordPress with native performance and seamless integration. Works with WooCommerce, blogs, business sites and membership sites. Lightweight analytics, fast by default Optimized database queries. A tiny tracking script under 4 KB. No external dependencies slowing down your pages. Designed to track accurately even when using aggressive server-side caching. See the proof in does Burst slow down my website. Features Understand your website traffic Top performing pages and posts at a glance Track key metrics: visitors, sessions, pageviews, bounce rate Breakdown of visitors by device (desktop, tablet, mobile) Filter data by custom date ranges Compare traffic between periods Real-time analytics Identify the real-time source for live visitors See the specific pages users are visiting now Live count of active users on your site See what content performs Top pages and posts ranked by views Compare any date range Track individual page performance Custom conversion and goal tracking Track views, clicks and WordPress hooks Track WooCommerce analytics & sales (Burst Pro Business) Track custom events and conversions Step-by-step setup in our goals guide Privacy-friendly analytics without compromise 100% self-hosted, all statistics stored locally in your WordPress database Cookieless tracking option, a cookie free analytics setup with no consent banner required in many countries Analytics designed to support GDPR, CCPA, DSGVO, AVG, RGPD and PECR compliance No data shared with Google, Facebook or any third party Stay informed Weekly or monthly email reports delivered to your inbox Compare periods to spot trends Get notified when tracking does not work A WordPress-native Google Analytics alternative If you’ve outgrown Google Analytics, or never wanted GA4 in the first place, Burst is built for you. As a Google Analytics alternative, Burst trades GA4’s complexity for clarity. You get the metrics that matter on a single dashboard, without sampling, without data thresholding, and without sending your visitors through Google’s ad network. GA4 is built to make Google’s ad business better. Burst is built to make your website better. Curious about the full picture? Read why WordPress site owners are leaving Google Analytics behind or the head-to-head Burst Statistics vs Google Analytics. From the team behind UpdraftPlus, WP-Optimize and All-In-One Security Burst Statistics is part of Team Updraft, the team behind some of the most installed WordPress plugins on the market: UpdraftPlus – WP backup and migration plugin WP-Optimize – cache, image compression, minification and database cleanup All-In-One Security (AIOS) – security and firewall Who is Burst Statistics for? Burst works for any WordPress site, but we’ve built specific solutions for the four audiences who get the most out of it: Bloggers and content creators, see which posts resonate with your audience Entrepreneurs and small business owners, understand your traffic and campaigns without complexity WooCommerce stores, track visitor behavior, revenue and product performance Agencies and freelancers, manage analytics and reporting for multiple client sites Privacy-conscious site owners, GDPR compliant analytics without consent banners Anyone tired of Google Analytics, get clarity instead of confusion Free vs Pro Burst Statistics (free) includes everything you need to understand your website traffic. Visitors, pageviews, referrers, top content, device stats, goal tracking, email reports and more. Burst Pro adds advanced features for businesses and professionals. Compare all plans on the pricing page. CREATOR PLAN UTM campaign tracking, see which marketing efforts drive results Geographic data, country and city-level visitor insights Advanced filtering, segment data by any dimension Data archiving settings, keep your database lean automatically Priority support, direct contact with our developers BUSINESS PLAN Everything in the Creator plan, plus Full WooCommerce sales dashboard, see which content brings in the most revenue Revenue attribution, connect WooCommerce sales to traffic sources AGENCY PLAN Everything in the Business plan, plus Reporting, generate shareable performance reports for clients All Burst Pro plans include priority support. You’ll have direct contact with our developers, real humans, not a chatbot. Upgrade to Burst Pro → How Burst compares to other WordPress analytics plugins We’re often asked how Burst stacks up against other tools. Honest, short version: Google Analytics / GA4, GA4 is powerful but built for advertisers, not site owners. It’s complex, applies sampling and thresholding to your numbers, and requires a cookie banner in most countries. Burst is a simpler, privacy-friendly GA4 alternative that shows real numbers without the setup. Read the full comparison. MonsterInsights, MonsterInsights is a connector that pipes your data into Google Analytics. If you want a true MonsterInsights alternative that keeps data on your own site instead of sending it to Google, Burst is a better fit. Independent Analytics, a respectful competitor with a similar privacy-first, WordPress-native approach. Burst leans harder into actionable dashboards, deeper UTM and goal tracking, WooCommerce revenue analytics and Agency-tier reporting. Try both and pick the one that clicks. Koko Analytics, a clean, lightweight option that focuses on the basics. Burst goes further with goal tracking, real-time analytics, UTM campaigns, WooCommerce analytics and email reports. WP Statistics, a long-standing WordPress stats plugin with a lot of options. Many users find the interface cluttered. Burst focuses on a single, clear dashboard designed for clarity over feature count. Matomo, self-hostable and feature-rich, but heavier and more complex to run. Burst is the simpler, faster, fully WordPress-native option. Useful guides and resources Learn the metrics, fix common problems, get more out of your analytics. All free, all on burst-statistics.com. Getting started WordPress analytics and the metrics that actually matter How to install Burst Statistics from the WordPress Repository How to set up your first goal Privacy and GDPR Why Burst Statistics is privacy-friendly How to configure your website without a cookie banner How Burst tracks website visitors without cookies Metrics and data interpretation How to reduce bounce rate in WordPress What is bounce rate? What is a pageview? What is conversion rate? Campaigns and conversions How to track UTM (and Burst) parameters Campaign URL builder How to create and A/B test marketing campaigns with Burst WooCommerce 10 proven ways to reduce WooCommerce cart abandonment Introducing sales analytics for WooCommerce in Burst Pro Browse the full Learn hub for more. Installation Go to Plugins → Add New in your WordPress dashboard Search for Burst Click Install Now, then Activate Visit Statistics → Dashboard to see your analytics That’s it. No external accounts. No tracking codes to paste. Burst starts collecting site stats immediately. Prefer installing manually or via Composer? See installing Burst Statistics with Composer.

Simple Blog Stats (SBS) provides shortcodes and tags to display site statistics in posts, pages, and anywhere in your theme. Displays a wealth of useful statistics about your site. Display total number of posts, pages, categories, tags, and much more. Display Statistics Total number of posts Total number of pages Total number of drafts Total number of comments Total number of media files (any types) Number of comments in moderation Number of approved comments Number of registered users Number of categories Number of tags Number of words for any post Number of words for all posts Display all blog stats in a list Display number of posts for any Custom Post Type Display list of counts for all Custom Post Types Display current number of logged-in users Display number of logged-in users via Dashboard widget Display number of words in any custom field Plugin Features Uses caching for better performance Provides shortcodes to display stats in Posts and Pages Provides template tags to display stats anywhere in your theme Configure text/markup to appear before/after each shortcode Built with the WP API for optimal performance and security Provides slick settings screen with toggling panels Provides option to restore default plugin settings Displays your stats with clean, valid markup Works with or without Gutenberg Block Editor Plugin is regularly updated and “future proof” Display list of stats via Dashboard widget More Statistics Display date of most recent site update Display list of recent posts (configurable) Display list of recent comments (configurable) Display number of users per role (configurable) Display all blog stats in a nicely formatted list Configure all shortcodes via the plugin settings Privacy This plugin does not collect or store any user data. It does not set any cookies, and it does not connect to any third-party locations. Thus, this plugin does not affect user privacy in any way. Simple Blog Stats is developed and maintained by Jeff Starr, 15-year WordPress developer and book author. Support development I develop and maintain this free plugin with love for the WordPress community. To show support, you can make a donation or purchase one of my books: The Tao of WordPress Digging into WordPress .htaccess made easy WordPress Themes In Depth Wizard’s SQL Recipes for WordPress And/or purchase one of my premium WordPress plugins: BBQ Pro – Blazing fast WordPress firewall Blackhole Pro – Automatically block bad bots Banhammer Pro – Monitor traffic and ban the bad guys GA Google Analytics Pro – Connect WordPress to Google Analytics Head Meta Pro – Ultimate Meta Tags for WordPress REST Pro Tools – Awesome tools for managing the WP REST API Simple Ajax Chat Pro – Unlimited chat rooms USP Pro – Unlimited front-end forms Links, tweets and likes also appreciated. Thank you! 🙂