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analytics goatcounter google-analytics plausible umami gdpr

Analytics Setup — GoatCounter, GA4, Plausible & Umami

Step-by-step setup for all four supported analytics providers. Scripts load only in production — local development stats are never polluted.

Table of Contents

jekyll-infops-theme supports four analytics providers simultaneously. All scripts are injected only when JEKYLL_ENV=production — running jekyll serve locally never fires any tracker.

How production mode works

# Development — no analytics injected
bundle exec jekyll serve

# Production build — all configured providers active
JEKYLL_ENV=production bundle exec jekyll build

# Docker production — sets JEKYLL_ENV=production automatically
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d --build

# GitHub Actions — pages.yml sets JEKYLL_ENV=production in the build step

The analytics.html include evaluates jekyll.environment at build time. If it’s not production, the output is an empty string — no <script> tags, no network requests.

Why GoatCounter: free up to 100k pageviews/month, open-source (MIT), GDPR-compliant, no cookies, no consent banner required, and provides a public JSON API that the sidebar visitor counter reads.

Setup

  1. Create an account at goatcounter.com
  2. Choose a code (e.g. myblog → https://myblog.goatcounter.com)
  3. Add to _config.yml:
analytics:
  goatcounter_code: "myblog"
  1. Rebuild and deploy

Enabling the live visitor counter

The sidebar widget reads from GoatCounter’s /api/v0/stats/total endpoint. This requires public stats access:

  1. GoatCounter dashboard → Settings → Allow public access to stats → Save
  2. No rebuild needed — the JS fetch happens at runtime

Without public stats, the sidebar shows — and a link to your private dashboard.

GoatCounter is enough for most blogs

For a personal or team tech blog, GoatCounter’s dashboard covers everything you need: pageviews, referrers, browsers, countries, screen sizes — all in a clean single-page UI with no sampling.

Google Analytics 4

GA4 provides audience demographics, user journeys, conversion funnels, and deep cohort analysis — worth it if you need detailed marketing insights.

Setup

  1. analytics.google.com → Admin → Create property → Web
  2. Enter your site URL → Create data stream
  3. Copy the Measurement ID (G-XXXXXXXXXX)
  4. Add to _config.yml:
analytics:
  google_analytics_id: "G-XXXXXXXXXX"
GDPR & cookies

GA4 sets third-party cookies (_ga, _ga_XXXXXXXX). A cookie consent banner is legally required for EU/EEA visitors (GDPR) and UK visitors (UK GDPR). Consider GoatCounter or Plausible for a cookie-free alternative.

The sidebar shows a direct link to your GA4 property when configured.

Plausible Analytics

Lightweight (< 1KB script), privacy-first, no cookies, no consent banner. Paid SaaS ($9/mo for up to 10k pageviews), with a self-hosted option.

Setup

  1. plausible.io → Add website
  2. Enter your domain exactly as it appears in the browser (e.g. blog.yourdomain.com)
  3. Add to _config.yml:
analytics:
  plausible_domain: "blog.yourdomain.com"

Self-hosting Plausible

git clone https://github.com/plausible/community-edition.git plausible
cd plausible
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env — set BASE_URL, SECRET_KEY_BASE, DATABASE_URL
docker compose up -d
Self-hosting

The Plausible Community Edition is free and MIT-licensed. A VPS with 1GB RAM is sufficient for up to ~1M monthly pageviews.

Umami (self-hosted)

100% self-hosted, open-source, no data sent to third parties. Free forever on your own server.

Deploy with Docker Compose

# umami/docker-compose.yml
services:
  umami:
    image: ghcr.io/umami-software/umami:postgresql-latest
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgresql://umami:umami@db:5432/umami
      APP_SECRET: replace-with-a-long-random-string

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    volumes:
      - umami-db:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB:       umami
      POSTGRES_USER:     umami
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: umami

volumes:
  umami-db:

docker compose up -d
# → http://your-server:3000
# Default login: admin / umami  ← change immediately

Get your Website ID

  1. Umami dashboard → Settings → Websites → Add website
  2. Copy the Website ID (UUID format)

Configure

analytics:
  umami_website_id: "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
  umami_src:        "https://umami.yourdomain.com/script.js"

Comparison

  GoatCounter GA4 Plausible Umami
Cost Free Free $9+/mo (or self-host) Free (self-hosted)
Cookies ❌ None ✅ Yes ❌ None ❌ None
GDPR banner needed No Yes No No
Self-hostable No No Yes (CE) Yes
Sidebar visitor counter ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌
Data stays yours ❌ ❌ Depends ✅
Script size ~4 KB ~47 KB < 1 KB ~2 KB
Mix and match

All four providers are independent. You can run GoatCounter for the sidebar counter + Plausible for detailed reporting at the same time — just add both keys to _config.yml.

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