Add visitor tracking/analytics to website

[jeremymanning]

Overview

Add visitor analytics to track site usage. Prefer a free, privacy-respecting solution that doesn't require cookie consent banners.

Options to Consider

1. Cloudflare Web Analytics (Recommended)

• Cost: Free
• Privacy: No cookies, privacy-focused
• Setup: One-line script, requires Cloudflare account (free tier)
• Pros: Simple, lightweight, no consent banner needed
• Cons: Requires routing through Cloudflare (or just using their analytics snippet)

2. GoatCounter

• Cost: Free for non-commercial use (or self-host)
• Privacy: No cookies, GDPR-friendly
• Setup: One-line script
• Pros: Popular in academic circles, very simple
• Cons: Limited features compared to GA

3. Umami (self-hosted)

• Cost: Free (self-host on Vercel/Railway)
• Privacy: No cookies, open source
• Setup: Requires deploying a service + database
• Pros: Full control, nice dashboard
• Cons: More setup/maintenance

4. Plausible Analytics (self-hosted)

• Cost: Free if self-hosted, $9/mo hosted
• Privacy: No cookies, GDPR-friendly
• Setup: Self-host or pay for hosted version
• Pros: Beautiful dashboard, lightweight
• Cons: Self-hosting requires more effort

5. Google Analytics (GA4)

• Cost: Free
• Privacy: Uses cookies, requires consent banner
• Setup: Script + consent management
• Pros: Most features, industry standard
• Cons: Privacy concerns, heavier, needs cookie banner

Decision Criteria

• No cookie consent banner required
• Free or very low cost
• Minimal page load impact
• Basic metrics (pageviews, referrers, popular pages)
• Easy to implement on GitHub Pages

Next Steps

1. Research Cloudflare Web Analytics setup process
2. Evaluate if we need Cloudflare for DNS/CDN or just analytics
3. Make decision and implement