Who is behind Stats4U?
Stats4U is operated by Lukas Wójcik, LW IT Solutions Company in Łódź, Poland. The project has provided free visitor counters since 2006. Operator and contact details are available in the legal notice.
From a visitor counter to Stats4U 3
- 2006
The service started with embeddable visitor counters in 2006. Older announcements remain in the blog as a record of the project’s development.
- Stats4U 3
Stats4U 3 adds reports and optional tools for campaigns, events, conversion funnels and shared statistics. The counter can still be installed without creating an account.
What is available today?
My counters brings access to several owned counters together in the current browser session. Dashboards, saved views, notes and read-only shares help organise the statistics. Campaigns, automatic events and shop measurement require their corresponding setup; installing a simple counter does not activate every report.
Step-by-step guide: Find the private management link
What Stats4U is
A visitor counter for embedding: one design, one line of code, pasted into the page. No account, no sign-up form, no confirmation mail – the counter number is already in the code that gets copied.
The basic counter counts when its image is requested. An image-only integration can also supply page information through the HTTP referrer or a manually supplied address, but this may be limited to the origin. JavaScript explicitly sends the current page and referring page. Optional events and other measurements have separate requirements and settings; browser blocking can prevent them.
Stats4U has been running since 2006 and is entirely free: no paid tier that does more, no trial that expires, and no limit at which counting stops.
What is inside
Six things that set this counter apart from a plain hit counter.
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Live and hour by hour
Today, yesterday and all time – plus who is on the site right now. The day is shown hour by hour, the week as a grid of weekday and time. The statistics page refreshes itself while it stays open.
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Where visitors come from
Countries and cities, plus regions for Germany, Austria, Poland, Ukraine, the USA and Canada – and a world map coloured by what actually arrives. The same information is available as a flag counter.
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Browser, system, device
Which browser, which operating system, phone or desktop, which language. Derived from the identification the browser sends anyway – only the result is stored, never the identification itself.
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Designs, not graphics work
781 designs in 50 families: crisp vector counters of today and the classics from 2006. Anything more individual comes together from shape, colours and font in the wizard – with a preview before anything is embedded.
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No cookies, no stored IP
The counter sets nothing in visitors' browsers. The IP address is not stored – it serves to determine country and city and goes into a daily hash whose key is deleted after 2 days.
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Fits anywhere
HTML, Markdown or BBCode. For WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Neocities, Hugo, Jekyll and forums the home page says where the code belongs – including the places where a script does not get through and the plain image steps in.
Three steps and it runs
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1
Choosing a design
The gallery on the home page holds them all. Every preview shows the design exactly as it will sit on the page – not a promotional image but the same counter.
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2
Copying the code
One button, one click. As HTML, as Markdown for a post, or as BBCode for a forum.
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3
Pasting it, done
Wherever the counter should appear – usually just before the closing body element or in the footer of the template. It counts from the next page view on.
This is what the code looks like
<script src="https://www.stats4u.net/s4u.js"
data-id="123456" data-style="30" async></script>data-id is the counter number; data-style selects the design. The statistics address uses /live/ followed by that number. Save the separate private management link from setup as well; never put its key into the public installation code.
What the statistics page shows
Reports combine server-side request information and, where enabled, signals from the website’s JavaScript. Daily visitor counts are estimates within a day, not a count of identifiable people. Individual reports have different prerequisites; the guides explain them.
- Visitors and views for today, yesterday, 30 days and a freely chosen period
- Who is online right now – the page refreshes itself while it stays open
- The day hour by hour and a week grid of weekday times time of day
- Countries, cities and regions, plus a coloured world map
- Browser, operating system, device type and language of the visitors
- The most visited pages and where visitors were referred from – of the referrer only the domain
- Search engines and bots listed separately, so it is clear what of it was a visit
- Everything downloadable as CSV or JSON, for the same period shown on screen
Privacy is not an add-on here
Four points where it is decided. The full overview – which item serves which purpose, whether it is stored and for how long – is in the privacy policy, generated there from the system configuration rather than maintained by hand.
- No cookies. The counter puts nothing on visitors' devices – verified through the response headers on every route.
- The IP address is never stored. It determines country and city and goes into a daily hash of 16 bytes that is deleted after 2 days.
- The salt for that hash changes every day and is deleted after 2 days. After that, not even a known IP allows anyone to work out which hash belonged to whom – the operator included.
- Because the counter number is part of the hash, the same visitor on two different sites cannot be recognised as the same person. A cross-site profile never comes into being.
Choose the measurement that fits the website
The integration determines which information can arrive. Start with the counter and enable additional measurements only when they are needed.
| Integration | What it provides | Requirements and limits |
|---|---|---|
| Image, Markdown or BBCode | A counting request when the counter image is loaded. | No JavaScript events from the page. Page information depends on the HTTP referrer or a manually supplied address and may be limited to the origin. A blocked or delayed image request may be missed. |
| JavaScript installation | The counter plus page and referrer information supplied by the integration. | The code must run on each intended page. Browser blocking can prevent it. |
| Optional measurements | Campaigns, form events, funnels and other configured reports. | Enable and configure the relevant feature. A submit click is not a confirmed form success; a product click is not a completed purchase. |
Step-by-step guide: Understand image-only and JavaScript measurement
About the content and its review
The articles describe Stats4U features and their limits. Technical examples are checked against the implementation. AI assists with drafting and translations; that does not replace checking facts and examples. A technical review date appears only for a version whose title and content match the reviewed version.
Questions or feedback?
The support form accepts questions about setup, access and measurements, as well as suggestions. Include the counter number when useful; never publish a private management key in a blog comment or screenshot.
Frequently asked questions
Is it really free?
Yes. There is no paid tier and no limit at which counting stops. The service is carried by advertising on stats4u.net itself – none of it appears on the page carrying the counter, where only the counter sits.
Do I need an account?
No account is required. Save the private management link displayed during setup: it is needed for owner actions and for My counters. The public statistics address alone does not prove ownership.
Can I keep my statistics private?
Statistics can be restricted with the available access settings. Keep the private management link for the owner and create a separate, revocable read-only link for anyone who only needs to view the reports.
Do I have to embed JavaScript?
A supported image, Markdown or BBCode installation counts without JavaScript. Page information can arrive through the HTTP referrer or a manually supplied address, but may contain only the origin. JavaScript explicitly sends the current page and referring page and is required for its automatic events.
Are bots counted too?
Recognised bots are shown separately. Whether they contribute to the counter depends on its bot setting. Detection has limits, so the remaining traffic is not a verified count of people.
How long is the data kept?
The daily hash 2 days, the evaluated figures 400 days. The IP address is in none of those figures – the web server access log holds it for 14 days. The nightly cleanup works to exactly these values.
Does it work on WordPress, Wix or a static site?
Yes. The home page names for each platform where the code belongs, and the setup guides go through it step by step – including the places where a script is not let through: WordPress.com on the free plan and Squarespace below Core. There the Markdown version steps in.
Getting a counter
A design, the code, one paste. It takes no longer than that, and deleting that same line undoes it.