Hitsteps Web Analytics vs Simple Ajax Chat – Add a Fast, Secure Chat Box

Hitsteps is a real-time visitor tracking plugin for WordPress. Watch live visitors, follow page-by-page journeys, and connect behavior to referrers, campaigns, devices, approximate locations, and returning visitor profiles. Add visitor tracking without editing your theme. Connect an account in the plugin settings, save the API key, then verify real-time tracking as soon as the first live visit arrives. See more than aggregate pageview totals by following the journeys behind them. Use Hitsteps to answer practical questions: Who is visiting my WordPress site right now, and which page are they viewing? Which referrers, traffic sources, campaigns, and landing pages bring engaged visitors? What did a visitor view before placing an order, submitting a form, or starting live chat? Which links, buttons, menus, products, and page sections receive clicks in heatmaps? Did traffic stop after a deployment, cache change, or outage? Real-Time Visitor Tracking for WordPress Hitsteps adds the tracking code after you connect an account and API key. The live dashboard shows active and recent visitors without a next-day wait. Live Visitors and Page-by-Page Journeys Follow activity page by page. See current and entry pages, session duration, browser, device, country, region, and available approximate IP-based city context. Visitor Profiles and Returning Visitors Visitor profiles connect repeat browser visits and journey history. Optional aliasing can associate a known identifier supplied after login, form submission, chat, or purchase. Anonymous visits do not reveal a person’s identity automatically. Referrer Analytics and Traffic Sources Connect journeys to available referrers, search engines, campaigns, landing pages, and entry sources. Browsers, privacy controls, apps, and copied links can omit referral data. WordPress Heatmaps and Page Analysis Click heatmaps and Page Analysis show which links, buttons, menus, products, and page sections receive attention, helping explain where journeys stall. WooCommerce and Form Visitor Context Hitsteps can add recent visitor journeys to WooCommerce admin order emails and supported form notifications. Integrations include Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, and Jetpack Contact Form. More Hitsteps Features Live chat and support-button options. Bot detection and referral-spam filtering. Invisible tracking with no public counter badge. Real-visitor page-speed reporting. Uptime monitoring and alert channels, depending on plan and configuration. WordPress dashboard summaries, visitor maps, recent graphs, Online Visual live visitor paths, and pageview widgets. Optional registered-user aliasing across devices when your site has the required permission or consent. Learn more on the Hitsteps features page. External Service and Privacy This plugin connects WordPress to the hosted Hitsteps analytics service. An account and API key are required. It sends analytics data such as page URLs and titles, referrers, browser and device information, IP-derived approximate location, and interactions. Optional aliasing, WooCommerce, or form integrations can also send identity or journey context. Site owners are responsible for providing any notice and obtaining any consent required for their use of analytics, cookies, identity features, chat, and related integrations. Review the Hitsteps Terms of Service and Hitsteps Privacy Policy before enabling the service. Security Policy Reporting Security Bugs Please report security issues in the Hitsteps plugin through the Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program. Patchstack can assist with verification, CVE assignment, and developer notification.

⭐ Lightweight and fast, persistent chat solution! ⭐ Fully self-hosted: No 3rd-party account required 🙂 Simple Ajax Chat makes it easy for your visitors to chat with each other on your website. Simply add a shortcode to any post or page and done! Instant chat forum anywhere. The chat form is fully customizable with many options, so you can create the perfect chat box for your visitors. 👉 Check out a Live Demo of Simple Ajax Chat at WP-Mix » 👉 Pro version supports unlimited chat forms! Simple Ajax Chat is fully self-hosted with NO 3rd-party service required. Many (if not all) of the other free chat plugins require registration and monthly service from a 3rd-party provider. With Simple Ajax Chat, there is no 3rd-party: WordPress is all that’s required. Own your chats! Difference between SAC free and SAC Pro The main difference between SAC free and SAC Pro? Easy: SAC free supports 1 chat form SAC Pro supports unlimited chat forms Pro can do everything free can do and SO much more. Customize each chat form with unique features. SAC Pro is an all new plugin written with smarter, faster code and all the latest techniques. Get SAC Pro » SAC Features The simplest possible persistent chat Fully self-hosted: No 3rd-party account required Ajax goodness loads new chats without page refresh Smart chat processing optimizes for performance Works with all browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.) Works with all mobile devices (iPhone, Android, etc.) Display easily via shortcode or template tag Display chat box in multiple locations Regularly updated & “future proof” Supports custom CSS styles Strong anti-spam security Clean HTML markup More Features Plug-&-play: no configuration required Built-in control panel to edit and delete chats Define your own list of banned words and phrases Display chat messages in ascending or descending order Display custom content before/after the chat form Option to play sound alert for chat messages Option to restrict chat to logged-in users Option to restore default plugin settings Option to enable browser notifications Export all chat messages via CSV file Supports emoticons and emojis 🙂 Customize Everything Limit maximum number of chat messages Limit maximum length of each chat message Advanced customization via filter hooks Option to use textarea for larger input field Option to use logged-in username as the chat name Option to enable/disable URL field for chat names Load JavaScript only when chat box is displayed Customize the update interval for Ajax requests Customize the fade-in colors for new chats Customize the fade-duration for new chats Plus much more! 👉 That’s a LOT of features, but the Pro version has WAY more. Compare features (free vs. pro) » Exclusive Pro Features Enable Google reCaptcha (invisible) for all chat forms Choose from six form styles, or use custom styles Advanced chat management tools and user statistics Mute any user so they are not allowed to chat Ban any non-admin users from any chat session Enable customizable emoji picker for any chat form Display user avatars next to chat messages Display the user role next to chat messages Define your own Bang (!bang) shortcuts Email notifications for new chat messages Limit number of users for any chat form Create private chat boxes between users Banned phrases in text messages and user names Fine-grain control over allowed chat content Built with vanilla JavaScript (jQuery not required) Optionally display inline images in chat messages Automatically clear chat messages and send email alert Display a “current online users” widget for any form Displays a max-character counter for messages Display a role-based chat box on the WP Dashboard Choose from six sound alerts for new chat messages Option to include your own CSS and JavaScript 👉 Learn more and get SAC Pro » Privacy This plugin collects voluntary user chat data (i.e., Name, Chat Message, and optional URL field). It also gives the administrator the option to collect or not collect user IP information. Aside from those two things, this plugin does not collect or store any user data. This plugin uses a few cookies for the chat functionality. It does not connect to any third-party locations. Minimal impact on privacy. Translations This plugin supports translation into any language » Developer Simple Ajax Chat 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! 🙂