GoatCounter is a minimalist open-source web analytics tool developed and operated by solo developer Martin Tournoij (GitHub: arp242). The hosted service goatcounter.com runs on Hetzner Online GmbH servers in Finland and Germany; the operator is currently based in Ireland. The project is fully open source on GitHub and self-hostable, making it a credible "no SaaS lock-in, no CLOUD Act exposure" answer for indie publishers, NGO sites, and small EU teams.
The privacy posture is exceptionally clean: GoatCounter does not store IP addresses, does not store the full User-Agent header, does not use cookies for visitor tracking, and stores only aggregate-table data per hour rather than individual pageviews (with the option to opt into pageview-level data collection if the customer enables it). The vendor's own GDPR page is hedged rather than absolute on consent: it says GoatCounter "probably doesn't require a GDPR consent notice" because no personally identifiable data is collected, likens the processing to counting foot traffic in a shop, and explicitly recommends consulting a lawyer. Account login uses cookies for session persistence; no third-party sharing of account data; backups retained up to 30 days after account deletion.
Pricing is simple because there are no paid tiers: the homepage and the terms both state that GoatCounter.com is offered for free for reasonable public usage, which covers personal sites and small to medium businesses but not millions of pageviews a day, and the service is funded by NLnet NGI0 and GitHub Sponsors donations. Best fit: indie devs, bloggers, small e-commerce shops, and EU NGOs who want a no-cookie analytics stack on Hetzner with the option to self-host the open-source build. Procurement-grade enterprise buyers who require a formal DPA, named sub-processors annex, and a corporate legal entity should look at Plausible (also Hetzner DE) or Pirsch (also Hetzner DE) instead. GoatCounter is structurally a one-person shop and does not produce those artefacts today.