Flag Counter has been handing out country-flag counters since 2008 and is genuinely free, which is why it's still everywhere. The differences are in what you get back: it renders as an image that links to a public stats page, while ours renders as HTML you can style, keeps the stats where you choose, and doesn't need a link back.
The 2008 original, still running — and still an image you can't style. Everything below is checked against flagcounter.com itself — but pricing and limits move, so confirm anything that matters on their own page before deciding.
| FeedPulse | Flag Counter | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free forever, no tier, no card. | Free, no paid tier — same as us. Nothing to argue about here. |
| Signup | No account, no email, ever. | No account needed, but registering an email is the only way to password-protect your stats or stop your own visits counting |
| What you get | Real HTML you style with your own CSS — fonts, colours, layout, dark mode. | A static image (or forum BBCode), generated server-side and cached — you cannot restyle it, resize it cleanly, or match it to your fonts |
| Required link back | No required link back. Keep it or remove it, the widget works either way. | The code it gives you wraps the image in a link to its own public stats page, so every install is a link out |
| Cookies & privacy | No cookies, no IP storage, no public stats page unless you want one. | Country lookups via MaxMind GeoLite2; your stats page is public by default unless you register and lock it |
| Customisation | Pick flags, counts, order and theme in the customiser, then re-paste. | Flag set, layout and colours come from their generator's options — what's there is what you get |
| Where the data lives | Aggregate counts, visible in your own dashboard. | Lives on their stats page. No export, and if you lose the code you regenerate it from that page |
| Removing it | Delete the snippet. Nothing left behind. | Delete the image tag. The historical stats stay on their site |
If you want the exact look of the classic counter — that specific flag grid people recognise from forum signatures — Flag Counter is the real thing and a clone of it is just a clone. It also works in places that only accept an image or BBCode, like old forum signatures, where a script tag is not an option at all.
Pick Flag Counter for the nostalgic image in a forum signature. Pick FeedPulse when the counter sits on a site you style, and you'd rather not link out to a third party from every page.
Pick Flag Counter for the nostalgic image in a forum signature. Pick FeedPulse when the counter sits on a site you style, and you'd rather not link out to a third party from every page. If you want the exact look of the classic counter — that specific flag grid people recognise from forum signatures — Flag Counter is the real thing and a clone of it is just a clone. It also works in places that only accept an image or BBCode, like old forum signatures, where a script tag is not an option at all.
Yes — that's this. The FeedPulse flag counter needs no attribution link, renders as styleable HTML instead of a flat image, and keeps working if you later change your site's design. It's free with no paid tier, so there's nothing to upgrade to.
Nothing, at any traffic level. There is no paid tier to upgrade to, no session cap and no card on file — the whole product is free, including every other widget and all the SEO tools.