Open Web Analytics

OWA is built on PHP and MySQL, so it runs on almost any web host that supports the standard LAMP stack — from cheap shared hosting to VPS and dedicated servers. The installer walks you through creating the database and configuration, and the tracking code then drops into any site. There is no external analytics service involved, which is the whole point of self-hosting it.

Yes. Beyond page views, OWA tracks unique visitors, clicks, and heatmaps that show where users click, plus e-commerce metrics such as revenue and conversions. It integrates with WordPress and MediaWiki through dedicated plugins, or can be embedded as a standalone tracker on any website. This makes it a fuller behavioural analytics tool than a basic counter.

Because OWA is self-hosted under the GPL-2.0 license, every visitor record stays on your own server and is never shared with a third party, which simplifies GDPR compliance. You keep full ownership of the data and can export it whenever you want. The trade-off is that you are responsible for maintaining the PHP/MySQL installation and keeping it patched.