SQMViews

Privacy & Control:

• 100% privacy-focused (no external services)
• All data stays on your server
• Encrypted tracking payloads (you don’t need to reveal everything you track)
• Full control over what gets tracked
• GDPR-friendly (no personal data collected by default), we focus on pageviews

Flexibility:

• Track custom post types and taxonomies
• 30+ developer hooks for customization
• WP-CLI commands for automation
• Translation-ready (i18n)
• REST API for integrations

What Gets Tracked?

Content Types: * Posts and pages (configurable) * Custom post types * Category and tag archives * Custom taxonomy archives * Author archives * Date archives * Home page * Search results

Engagement Metrics: * Count – Total number of views * Time on Page – Total time spent on page * Active Time – Time user was actively engaged * High-Frequency Events – User browsing on the page (scrolling, mouse movement) * Low-Frequency Events – Deliberate actions (clicks, touches, typing)

Perfect For

• Publishers monitoring content performance
• Marketers analyzing user engagement
• Developers needing custom analytics
• Privacy-conscious site owners
• Anyone wanting Google Analytics alternative

How It Works

1. 01Lightweight JavaScript tracker injected on tracked pages (inline or external)
2. 02Fast endpoint receives tracking data
3. 03File-based storage for raw data writes data to JSONL files (no database overhead)
4. 04Background processing via WP-Cron aggregates data hourly/daily and put them in the database
5. 05Interactive dashboard displays charts and metrics

Extensibility

30+ Developer Hooks:

• Frontend Hooks – Control what gets tracked and how
• Processing Hooks – Modify data before database storage
• REST API Hooks – Customize chart data and permissions
• Activation Hooks – Adjust default settings and storage

WP-CLI Support

# Process statistics manually wp sqm-views process

Multisite Compatible

Planned

Why Choose SQMViews?

vs. External Analytics: * No external JavaScript libraries * No tracking cookies required * No data sent to Google servers * Faster page loads (no external requests) * Complete data ownership

Requirements

• WordPress 6.0 or higher
• PHP 8.1 or higher (PHP 8.2+ recommended)
• PHP Sodium extension (for encryption)
• MySQL 5.6 or higher / MariaDB 10.0 or higher
• Write permissions for wp-content/uploads/sqm-views directory

Credits

SearchQueryMaster.com team

Powered by: * D3.js for visualizations * WordPress CMS * Sodium crypto library

Privacy Policy

SQMViews is designed with privacy in mind. The plugin:

Does NOT collect: * Personal information * Cookies not required for tracking * Sessions – there is no session tracking at the moment, only pageviews tracking * Usernames or emails * Browser fingerprints

IP address and user agents are: * collected in raw log files for troubleshooting, spam, bot, and system abuse prevention * removed from aggregated data and not used anywhere else

Does collect: * Page URLs being viewed * Tags and categories on the current page * Timestamps of visits * User interaction metrics (scrolls, clicks) counter * Browser user-agent string (for bot filtering) * Referrer URL (if available)

Data storage: * All data stored on your WordPress server * No data sent to external services * You control data retention and deletion

Your responsibilities: * Update your site’s privacy policy to mention analytics tracking * Implement cookie consent if required in your jurisdiction * Handle data subject access requests per GDPR/CCPA requirements * Configure the plugin to exclude personal data if necessary

Support

Free Support: * WordPress.org Support Forum

Developer Notes

Architecture: * Namespaced PHP code ( SQMViews\ ) * PSR-4 autoloading via Composer * REST API endpoints for integrations * File-based queueing system

Database Tables: * sqm_views_trackables – Catalog of tracked content * sqm_views_events – Event type definitions * sqm_views_records – Individual tracking records * sqm_views_daily – Daily aggregated statistics

Hooks:

Hooks Reference:

Filters (apply_filters):

Tracking & Frontend: * sqm_views_should_track – Control whether tracking should occur (2 params: $should_track, $data) * sqm_views_tracking_data – Modify tracking data before encryption (1 param: $tracking_data) * sqm_views_trackable_post_types – Customize which post types can be tracked (1 param: $post_types) * sqm_views_trackable_taxonomies – Customize which taxonomies can be tracked (1 param: $taxonomies) * sqm_views_data_taxonomies – Modify taxonomies included in tracking data (1 param: $taxonomies) * sqm_views_encryption_key – Override the encryption key (1 param: $key) * sqm_views_tracker_endpoint – Customize tracking endpoint URL (2 params: $endpoint, $saved_endpoint) * sqm_views_minified_js – Control whether to use minified tracker JS (1 param: $use_min) * sqm_views_tracker_script_path – Customize the tracker script file path (2 params: $path, $use_min) * sqm_views_tracker_script_url – Customize tracker script URL (2 params: $url, $use_min) * sqm_views_inline_js – Control whether to inline tracker JS (1 param: $use_inline) * sqm_views_show_debug_comment – Show debug HTML comment (1 param: $show)

Processing: * sqm_views_raw_record – Filter raw record data during processing (1 param: $data) * sqm_views_calculated_metrics – Modify calculated metrics (2 params: $metrics, $records) * sqm_views_session_timeout – Customize session inactivity timeout (1 param: $timeout) * sqm_views_ping_interval – Customize the ping interval for session tracking (1 param: $interval)

Dashboard: * sqm_views_dashboard_minified_js – Control minified JS for dashboard (1 param: $use_min) * sqm_views_dashboard_script_path – Dashboard script file path (2 params: $path, $use_min) * sqm_views_dashboard_script_url – Dashboard script URL (2 params: $url, $use_min) * sqm_views_dashboard_inline_js – Control inline JS for dashboard (1 param: $use_inline) * sqm_views_dashboard_default_filters – Customize default dashboard filters (1 param: $defaults)

REST API: * sqm_views_rest_permissions – Customize REST API permissions (1 param: $capability) * sqm_views_rest_chart_data – Modify chart data in REST response (2 params: $data, $request) * sqm_views_chart_cache_expiration – Customize chart cache expiration time (1 param: $seconds) * sqm_views_rest_chart_filters – Customize available chart filters (1 param: $filters)

Activation & Settings: * sqm_views_enable_dropin – Enable/disable drop-in file creation (1 param: $enable) * sqm_views_default_settings – Customize default plugin settings (1 param: $settings) * sqm_views_data_directory – Customize data storage directory (1 param: $directory)

Actions (do_action):

Activation & Upgrade: * sqm_views_activated – Fires after plugin activation (0 params) * sqm_views_upgraded – Fires after plugin upgrade (2 params: $from_version, $to_version) * sqm_views_before_upgrade – Fires before the upgrade process (2 params: $from_version, $to_version) * sqm_views_after_upgrade – Fires after the upgrade process (2 params: $from_version, $to_version) * sqm_views_uninstalled – Fires during plugin uninstallation (0 params)

Tracking: * sqm_views_before_tracker_output – Before tracker script output (2 params: $tracking_data, $tracker_config) * sqm_views_after_tracker_output – After tracker script output (1 param: $tracking_data)

Processing: * sqm_views_before_processing – Before statistics processing starts (1 param: $verbose) * sqm_views_after_processing – After statistics processing completes (1 param: $processor_instance) * sqm_views_record_processed – After individual record processed (1 param: $record) * sqm_views_daily_aggregated – After daily aggregation completes (1 param: $result)

Cache: * sqm_views_chart_cache_invalidated – When chart cache is cleared (0 params)

Examples Frontend Hooks – Control Tracking Behavior:

Exclude logged-in administrators from tracking (will not work properly if you cache pages or use CDN):

add_filter( 'sqm_views_should_track', function( $should_track, $data ) { if ( current_user_can( 'manage_options' ) ) { return false; } return $should_track; }, 10, 2 );

Modify tracking data before sending:

add_filter( 'sqm_views_tracking_data', function( $dat