Machete vs WhoKnew Views – View Counter & Social Proof for WooCommerce

Machete is a simple suite of tools that solves common WordPress annoyances using as few resources as possible. Machete doesn’t cover every single use case, but there is a huge amount of sites that would require less plugins if they used Machete. All Machete tools have two things in common: they solve problems faced by many web developers and they do it using as few server resources as possible. So far, Machete includes the following tools: WordPress Optimization WordPress places a lot of code inside the tag just to keep backward compatibility or to enable optional features. You can disable most of it and save some time from each page request while making your installation safer. Cookies & GDPR Warning We know you hate cookie warning bars. Well, this is the least hateable cookie bar you’ll find. It is really light, doesn’t affect your PageSpeed score and plays well with static cache plugins. Analytics and custom code You don’t need a zillion plugins to perform easy tasks like inserting a verification meta tag (Google Search Console, Bing, Pinterest), a json-ld snippet or a custom stylesheet (Google Fonts, Print Styles, accessibility tweaks…). The Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager tracking codes are PageSpeed optimized, GPDR friendly. Maintenance mode The maintenance mode that ships with WordPress is just a basic lock-down that is activated whenever you do a major update. With machete Maintenance Mode you can hide your unfinished page from visitors and search engines, give your clients a secure temporary access and lock your site without affecting your SEO. Post & Page cloner Adds a “duplicate” link to post, page and most post types lists. Also adds “copy to new draft” function to the post editor. Social Sharing Buttons Social sharing done the Machete way. The icons are made as a custom webfont embedded in a minified CSS file that only weighs 5.8KB. The sharing actions use each platform’s native share URL. WooCommerce Utils WooCommerce was designed to work for every possible use case, but that often leads to unexpected behavior. These simple fixes can improve the WooCommerce user experience by making it behave as clients expect.

WhoKnew Views is the most complete WooCommerce view counter and social proof plugin available — combining real-time product analytics, fully customizable counter displays, and Prophet AI demand forecasting in a single, lightweight solution. Whether you’re running a small WooCommerce store or a high-volume catalog, a well-placed view counter delivers instant social proof that influences buying decisions. Shoppers who see that hundreds of other visitors have viewed a product are more likely to trust it, engage with it, and convert. WhoKnew Views gives you that social proof out of the box — no coding, no configuration headaches, no performance tradeoffs. What Is a WooCommerce View Counter? A view counter tracks how many times each product page has been visited and displays that number directly on your store. Unlike vague engagement metrics buried in Google Analytics, a WooCommerce view counter puts social proof front and center — right where your customers are making purchase decisions. WhoKnew Views goes further than a basic view counter. It layers in a full analytics dashboard, smart bot filtering, deep visual customization, and — in the Pro version — Prophet AI forecasting that predicts which products are about to go viral up to 90 days before it happens. Why Social Proof Works — and Why a View Counter Delivers It Social proof is one of the most studied conversion principles in ecommerce. When shoppers see that a product has been viewed thousands of times, it signals popularity, trustworthiness, and demand. A view counter is one of the simplest, most effective forms of social proof you can add to a WooCommerce store because it requires no reviews, no ratings, and no user-generated content — just real traffic data you already have. WhoKnew Views transforms that raw view data into a polished, branded social proof display that matches your store’s aesthetic perfectly. Choose from 100+ professional CSS presets, customize every visual detail, and preview changes live before publishing — all without touching a single line of code. Free Features — Everything You Need to Start Accurate WooCommerce View Counter Track real product page views with async JavaScript that never slows your store. Each view is logged, deduplicated, and aggregated daily so your analytics stay clean and your database stays lean. The view counter updates in real time and displays on product pages automatically once enabled. Social Proof Display Turn raw view counts into compelling social proof with fully customizable display text, icons, animations, and positioning. Show messages like “🔥 1,243 people have viewed this product” or keep it minimal — the choice is yours. The social proof display is mobile-responsive and tested across all major WooCommerce themes. Full Visual Customization WhoKnew Views gives you more styling control than any other WooCommerce view counter on the market: – Colors — background, text, border, icon, shadow – Typography — font size, weight, family, line height – Layout — padding, margin, border radius, width – Animations — fade, slide, pulse, bounce, and more – Shadows and borders — full box-shadow and border control – 100+ professional CSS presets — Luxury, Hover Effects, 3D, Elite, and a continuously growing collection Live Preview System Every styling change is reflected instantly in a live preview panel before you publish. Test your view counter across desktop and mobile viewports without leaving the settings screen. 5 Icon Libraries Choose from over 500 icons across five professional libraries: – Font Awesome (v6.7.2) — the web’s most popular icon set – Ionicons (v4.6.3) — clean, modern icons from the Ionic team – Elegant Icons — premium icons from Elegant Themes – Dripicons v2 — a refined stroke-based icon collection – Dashicons — WordPress native icons, always available Bot Filtering + IP Whitelist Accurate analytics require clean data. WhoKnew Views filters known bots and crawlers automatically and lets you whitelist your own IP address so your visits never inflate your view counts. The bot filter catalog is regularly updated to keep your social proof numbers trustworthy. Product Leaderboard with Growth Badges See which products are trending across your entire WooCommerce catalog with a built-in leaderboard. Growth badges highlight products with accelerating view velocity — a simple but powerful analytics signal that tells you where buyer interest is building before your sales data does. 5-Year Data Retention View analytics data is stored locally in your WordPress database and retained for up to five years. No external servers, no third-party analytics platforms, no data sharing — just clean, private, long-term view counter history that belongs entirely to you. Mobile-Responsive Display The view counter and social proof display are fully responsive and tested across phones, tablets, and desktops. Position controls let you place the counter above the title, below the price, above the add-to-cart button, or in a custom location — all without code. Pro Features — Advanced Analytics and Prophet AI Prophet AI Forecasting The Pro version of WhoKnew Views includes AI-powered demand forecasting built on Prophet — the open-source time series forecasting library developed by Meta’s Core Data Science team and trusted by data scientists worldwide. Prophet analyzes your WooCommerce view counter history and identifies seasonal patterns, trend inflections, and demand acceleration signals that are invisible to the naked eye. The result: accurate product-level forecasts that tell you which items are about to spike in traffic and sales — up to 90 days before it happens. This isn’t generic analytics. Prophet was specifically designed for business time series data with strong seasonal effects and missing data tolerance — exactly the kind of messy, real-world view counter data that WooCommerce stores produce. WhoKnew Views applies Prophet at the individual product level so you get a forecast for every SKU in your catalog, not just store-wide trends. What Prophet AI forecasting gives you: – Predict which products will go viral up to 90 days early – Identify seasonal demand peaks before your competitors do – Spot declining products before they drag down your analytics – Make smarter inventory, advertising, and merchandising decisions based on real view counter data – Visualize forecast confidence intervals so you understand prediction certainty at a glance No data science background required. WhoKnew Views handles all Prophet model configuration, training, and rendering automatically. You see a clean forecast chart — the AI does the rest. Smart View Padding (15 Presets) New products suffer from the “cold start” problem — a view counter showing “3 views” actually hurts social proof more than having no counter at all. Smart view padding solves this by applying a configurable baseline to your view counter display so new products launch with credible social proof from day one. Choose from 15 padding presets ranging from subtle to aggressive, or set a custom value per product. Padding is applied only to the display number — your underlying analytics data is always accurate and unaffected. Email Alerts for View Spikes Get notified the moment a product starts trending. WhoKnew Views Pro monitors your view counter data in real time and sends automated email alerts when a product crosses configurable view velocity thresholds. Catch viral moments early so you can respond with targeted promotions, inventory top-ups, or social media amplification before the spike peaks. Analytics Export (CSV + Images) Export your complete view counter analytics history as CSV files for use in Excel, Google Sheets, or any business intelligence tool. Screenshot exports let you share visual analytics reports with your team or clients without granting WordPress access. All exports include product-level view counter data, trend indicators, and Prophet AI forecast data where applicable. Per-Product Counter Control Show or hide the view counter on any individual product with a single checkbox in the product edit screen. Useful for hiding counters on low-traffic new arrivals, showing social proof only on bestsellers, excluding clearance items from view counter display, or applying different counter strategies across product categories. Priority Support Pro license holders receive priority email support with faster response times and direct access to the WhoKnew development team. WhoKnew Views vs. Other WooCommerce View Counter Plugins Most WooCommerce view counter plugins do one thing: count views and show a number. WhoKnew Views is the only view counter plugin that combines: Real-time social proof display with full visual customization Clean analytics with bot filtering and IP whitelisting Prophet AI forecasting for predictive demand intelligence Smart padding to solve the cold start social proof problem Email alerts for view spike detection 5-year analytics retention with local-only data storage If you want a simple view counter, WhoKnew Views delivers that in minutes. If you want a complete social proof and analytics platform with Prophet AI built in, WhoKnew Views Pro is the only WooCommerce plugin that offers it. Performance and Privacy WhoKnew Views is engineered for production WooCommerce stores: Async view tracking — JavaScript tracking never blocks page load Daily aggregation — raw view data is rolled up nightly to keep your analytics tables compact 90-day rolling window — timestamp data prunes automatically to prevent database bloat No external analytics — all view counter data stays in your local WordPress database Cache compatible — works with WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache, W3 Total Cache, SiteGround Speed Optimizer, and all major caching plugins GDPR-conscious design — no personal data transmitted to external servers for view tracking No coding required. Works with any WooCommerce theme. Free forever with optional Pro upgrade. Upgrade to Pro → | Download Free Third-Party Libraries WhoKnew Views includes several third-party libraries to enhance functionality and provide a better user experience. All minified files below link to their publicly accessible source code: Color Picker: – Coloris (v0.17.1) – Author: Momo Bassit – Source: https://github.com/mdbassit/Coloris/tree/v0.17.1 – Minified Files: coloris.min.js (14KB), coloris.min.css (8KB) – License: MIT License – License URI: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT – Location: /assets/coloris/ Icon Libraries: – Font Awesome Free (v6.7.2) – Author: Fonticons, Inc. – Source: https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-Awesome/releases/tag/6.7.2 – Minified Files: all.min.css – License: SIL OFL 1.1 (fonts), CC BY 4.0 (icons), MIT (code) – License URI: https://fontawesome.com/license/free – Location: /assets/icons/font-awesome/ Ionicons (v4.6.3) Author: Ionic Framework Source: https://github.com/ionic-team/ionicons/releases/tag/v4.6.3 Minified Files: ionicons.min.css License: MIT License License URI: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT Location: /assets/icons/ionicons/ Elegant Icons Author: Elegant Themes Source: https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/resources/elegant-icon-font License: MIT License / GPLv2 (dual licensed) License URI: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT Location: /assets/icons/elegant-icons/ Dripicons v2 Author: Amit Jakhu Source: https://github.com/amitjakhu/dripicons License: CC BY-SA 4.0 License URI: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Location: /assets/icons/dripicons/ All included libraries are used under their respective open-source licenses, which are compatible with this plugin’s GPLv3+ licensing. External Services WhoKnew Views Free connects to WhoKnew.io services for the following optional features: Audio Walkthrough Files (Setup Wizard) – Purpose: Downloads narrated onboarding guides for first-time setup – Service URL: https://whoknew.io/wp-content/uploads/whoknew-views/assets/audio/ – When Used: Automatically downloaded when an administrator first accesses the Plugin (if not already present) – Data Sent: None (simple file download request) – Data Received: Audio files (OPUS format, ~2.3 MB total) + version manifest – Data Stored: Audio files are cached locally in your WordPress uploads directory (wp-content/uploads/whoknew-views/audio/) for offline use – Privacy Policy: https://whoknew.io/privacy-policy/ – Terms of Service: https://whoknew.io/terms-of-service/ Important Privacy Notes: – No personal data, user information, or site analytics are collected or transmitted during audio file downloads – Audio files are used solely for providing narrated guidance during plugin setup – Files are downloaded once and cached locally; no recurring connections are made – All product view tracking data remains in your local WordPress database – Pro version includes audio files in the plugin package (no external download required)