Privacy-Focused Analytics for GitHub Pages | Generated by AI

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Question: What’s the best web analytics tool I can use for my GitHub Pages blog at lzwjava.github.io?

Answer:

For a static GitHub Pages blog, privacy-friendly and lightweight beats Google Analytics. Top picks by use case:

Plausible — open-source, self-hostable, ~1KB script, no cookies/GDPR banner needed. Cloud is ~$9/mo, but you self-host for free on your lzw@192.168.1.36 workstation. This fits your stack best.

<!-- in _layouts/default.html or _includes/head.html -->
<script defer data-domain="lzwjava.github.io"
        src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script>

Self-host with Docker:

git clone https://github.com/plausible/community-edition plausible-ce
cd plausible-ce
docker compose up -d   # serves on :8000, put Caddy/nginx in front

Umami — also open-source, self-hostable, Postgres/MySQL backed. Lighter ops than Plausible, single Node service. Great if you want full control + SQL access to your own analytics data.

docker run -d --name umami \
  -e DATABASE_URL=postgresql://<USER>:<PASSWORD>@<IP_ADDRESS>:5432/umami \
  -p 3000:3000 ghcr.io/umami-software/umami:postgresql-latest

GoatCounter — dead simple, free hosted tier for non-commercial, no cookies, tiny script. Lowest effort, zero infra. Good if you just want pageview counts without running anything.

<script data-goatcounter="https://lzwjava.goatcounter.com/count"
        async src="//gc.zgo.at/count.js"></script>

Cloudflare Web Analytics — free, no script weight concern, but only useful if you proxy through Cloudflare. Since you’re on raw GitHub Pages (no CF proxy on a github.io domain), this won’t work unless you move to a custom domain behind Cloudflare.

My recommendation for you: Self-host Umami on your RTX 4070 workstation. It’s one container + Postgres, gives you raw SQL access to your traffic data (you can run your own queries/embeddings/analysis on visitor patterns), no third-party data leakage, and aligns with your self-hosting/autonomy philosophy. Plausible is the runner-up if you prefer a more polished UI out of the box.

One caveat: your home workstation needs a stable public endpoint (Cloudflare Tunnel or Tailscale Funnel) for the tracking script to reach it. If you don’t want to expose it, use GoatCounter’s hosted tier as a zero-ops fallback.

References:

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