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Looku

Looku and the alternatives

This page compares how Looku and four other self-hosted analytics tools collect and store data. It is not a ranking. Each of them suits some sites better than Looku does. Everything here can be checked from the linked sources, which were read on 4 November 2026. Versions change, so check the sources before you decide.

All of them can record page views on the server

Section titled “All of them can record page views on the server”

Looku’s page views come from your site’s server, not from a script in the browser. The others can do that too:

  • Plausible has an Events API for “server side tracking”. You send the visitor’s user agent and IP address with each page view.
  • Umami accepts page views at /api/send without a token, as long as the request has a proper user agent.
  • GoatCounter has an HTTP API for backend middleware, and it can import the logs of nginx, Apache, Caddy and other servers.
  • Matomo can import web server logs (Log Analytics), with fewer features than its JavaScript tracking.

The difference is the default. In the others, the browser script is the usual way, and the server route is an alternative you build yourself. In Looku, the server route is the only basic way, and the connectors for Next.js and Node.js do it for you, including passing on the visitor’s address and user agent. For Cloudflare Workers there is a ready example.

At a glance

Section titled “At a glance”
Looku 1.0.0 Plausible CE 3.2.1 Umami GoatCounter Matomo 6
Usual way to collect Your site’s server (connector) Browser script Browser script Browser script Browser script
Server-side route The only basic route Events API /api/send HTTP API, log import Log Analytics (log import)
Database SQLite PostgreSQL and ClickHouse PostgreSQL SQLite or PostgreSQL MySQL 8+ or MariaDB 10.6+
What you run One image: receiver and dashboard (2 containers in the Compose file) 3 containers: app, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse 2 containers: app, PostgreSQL One static program PHP 8.1+ application and its database
License AGPL-3.0, connectors MIT AGPL-3.0, tracker script MIT MIT EUPL 1.2 (modified), script ISC GPL-3.0 or later

Notes:

  • Plausible Community Edition leaves out some features of Plausible’s cloud service, such as funnels, ecommerce revenue goals, SSO and the sites API. It is released about twice a year and has basic bot filtering.
  • Looku can also run as one process (looku all) without Docker. See Without Docker.

Choose Looku if

Section titled “Choose Looku if”
  • your site runs on a server of its own (Next.js, Node.js, Express) or behind Cloudflare,
  • you want one small service and one database file that is easy to back up,
  • you want shop orders and page views in the same place, or a dashboard in Finnish.

Choose another tool if

Section titled “Choose another tool if”
  • you can only paste a script into your pages (a hosted site builder, plain static hosting): all four others work with a script,
  • you need several users or teams with their own logins: Looku has one admin password and API keys,
  • you need heatmaps or session recordings: Looku has neither,
  • you already run PostgreSQL or ClickHouse and want to use them.

Sources

Section titled “Sources”

Read on 4 November 2026.

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