[awb]

Agreed if you're already self-hosting. However, I don't know of a JS-free solution if you're hosting on a 3rd party like GitHub pages or Netlify for example.

(Netlify does sell access to log data but it looks expensive for most hobby / personal sites)

[Carpetsmoker]

You can probably use the "tracking pixel" method with at least some analytics tools. This is a very old which probably predates even the invention of JavaScript.

Basically, if it accepts a GET with query parameters, it should work.

[awb]

Right, but don't you still need to own a server in order to log these GET requests?

[Carpetsmoker]

You can do it with one of the hosted services. I don't know which ones support it exactly, but GoatCounter does (although it's kind of an undocumented feature until I merge PR #122).

[awb]

Cool, I saw GoatCounter on HN a few days ago. I've looked into ways to get a user count without JS and without paying for hosting, but no luck yet. If you find out what free services support it I'd love to know.

[Carpetsmoker]

Well, GoatCounter does :-)

But any service that sends something like "GET example.com/collect?path=/foo" can be loaded with an <img>. It's perhaps not an explicitly documented feature, but it will still work :-)

[awb]

Perfect! I'll give it a go :)