I want to add a hit counter to my webpage and wasn't sure if there's really a difference between all the free sites out there. Google returned a whole bunch of free sites to do the job that look good. Does anyone have experience with using an external site to monitor hits/traffic to your webpages?

I have used a free tracker from Extreme Tracking before and found that to be acceptable:

http://extremetracking.com/

However, their terms of service require you to place their icon somewhere on your page. In addition, based on discussions I have seen in other forums, it is not the best tracker (although, since I am just a hobbyist webmaster, it was good enough for my purposes.)

I later decided I didn't want their icon on my website, so I switched to Google Analytics:

https://www.google.com/analytics/home/

Google Analytics is the best free tracker I am aware of, providing way more information than most people will ever use.

I have also heard good things about StatCounter, but I have no personal experience with it:

http://www.statcounter.com/

I think the best counter is one that is server-based, and most web hosting companies offer such a service with their hosting. Does the host of your website not offer a traffic tracking service?

I have been using the statcounter and I found it very useful.

What confuses me is the difference on numbers of visitors between Analytics and Statcounter.

I don't know the answer because I am an Internet home user.

Thanks,
Dan
http://www.yourwealthstation.com

I have always used the free counter from www.cqcounter.com Loads of stats like hits, country, search engine, url etc.
maurellis

Try addfreestats .

I like google Analyitics

The stats are very good, they break everything down for you.

-C

I wrote a hit counter in C# that is quite simple to deploy and modify:

http://blog.arbingersys.com/2007/12/...ch-aspnet.html

You can download the VS2005 project from the above link.

Google analytics is a good free option to track web traffic, but it is limited to 5 million pageviews a month. If you are an active user of Google adwords, then its unlimited.

I suggest usewide counter.

Google analytics loads a javascript on the users pc without acknowlegement and sends message home. occupying bandwidth, processor time without permission
Classic behaviour of a spyware program.
Google analytics is blocked by both the spybot and MS MVP hosts files.
Many will not register if google analytics is your analysis tool.
google analytics results are 30% lower than the server logs on my site and do not show any of the hits from which I got my customers, not much use to me
better is a server side tool
the server logs will provide the best access to your history,
if your host package does not permit log file access, get bbclone at http://www.bbclone.de
running version of the analysis tool on site, piece of cake to install
a single include()