---
title: "Privacy-First WordPress Analytics with HitKeep | HitKeep"
description: "Add privacy-first analytics to WordPress with the HitKeep plugin, cookie-free tracking, DNT defaults, automatic events, cloud, or self-hosting."
canonical: "https://hitkeep.com/use-cases/wordpress-analytics/"
---

# Privacy-First WordPress Analytics with HitKeep

HitKeep gives WordPress sites privacy-first analytics without editing a theme template or adding a tag manager. Install the first-party plugin, choose EU Cloud, US Cloud, or a self-hosted HitKeep URL, and WordPress loads the normal cookie-free `hk.js` tracker.

WordPress.org plugin

Install HitKeep Analytics from the public WordPress plugin directory: [https://wordpress.org/plugins/hitkeep/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/hitkeep/).

![HitKeep WordPress plugin settings with instance selection, privacy defaults, tracking toggles, redirect tracking, and snippet preview](https://hitkeep.com/_astro/wordpress-plugin-settings.Ca85dNG3_ZqVQiy.webp)

The WordPress plugin keeps connection mode, tracking coverage, privacy defaults, optional redirect tracking, and snippet preview in the WordPress admin.

## Best fit for WordPress privacy analytics

Use HitKeep for WordPress when you want:

- analytics without editing a theme template
- conservative defaults for logged-in users and Do Not Track (DNT)
- pageview, SPA route, outbound click, download, and form-submit tracking from the same `hk.js` snippet
- optional redirect and affiliate link tracking after WordPress resolves the final outbound target
- country, city, provider, and ASN audience context for accepted WordPress traffic
- AI-referred human visits from assistants that send visitors to your WordPress pages
- EU Cloud, US Cloud, or self-hosted analytics
- an analytics dashboard outside WordPress for teams and stakeholders

![WordPress plugin list with HitKeep Analytics installed and active](https://hitkeep.com/_astro/wordpress-plugin-listing.zzRZbbMB_1oTLwT.webp)

The plugin installs through the normal WordPress plugin workflow.

## What the plugin does

```
WordPress page -> hk.js -> HitKeep /ingest and /ingest/event -> DuckDB
```

The plugin does not create WordPress analytics tables, set analytics cookies, or send traffic to a third-party analytics CDN. WordPress is the installation point. HitKeep remains the analytics backend, with events stored in the same embedded DuckDB data layer as non-WordPress sites.

The plugin is not a crawler log collector. To report AI crawler fetches for a WordPress site, forward server or edge logs into HitKeep’s AI fetch ingest path and use the plugin for the human-visit side.

## Privacy defaults

The plugin starts from the same privacy-first tracker behavior documented in [Automatic Events](https://hitkeep.com/guides/tracking/automatic-events/) and [Tracker Architecture](https://hitkeep.com/guides/tracking/tracker-architecture/):

| Concern | HitKeep WordPress behavior |
| --- | --- |
| Analytics cookies | Not set by hk.js |
| Do Not Track | Respected by default |
| Logged-in WordPress users | Not tracked by default |
| Link and form metadata | Query strings, hashes, link text, form values, and request bodies are not captured |
| Redirect link tracking | Off by default, uses a server-side API client token when enabled |
| IP metadata | Stores derived country, region, city, provider, and ASN fields for reporting, not raw visitor IP addresses |

If a site needs narrower coverage, disable outbound click, file download, form-submit, SPA route, beacon, or DNT collection options in **Settings -> HitKeep**. The [WordPress integration guide](https://hitkeep.com/guides/integrations/wordpress/) maps those toggles to the exact `hk.js` attributes.

## Start path

1. Create a cloud workspace or use your self-hosted HitKeep URL.
2. Add the WordPress site in HitKeep.
3. Install [HitKeep Analytics from WordPress.org](https://wordpress.org/plugins/hitkeep/) in WordPress.
4. Choose EU Cloud, US Cloud, or custom URL in **Settings -> HitKeep**.
5. Keep the default tracking toggles unless your site needs a narrower tracking surface.

Choose [HitKeep Cloud](https://hitkeep.com/pricing/) when you want WordPress analytics without managing TLS, updates, backups, SMTP, or the data directory. Choose [self-hosted HitKeep](https://hitkeep.com/guides/installation/) when you want the single Go binary and analytics data under your own infrastructure boundary.

Managed option

## Start WordPress analytics without editing a theme template.

Use HitKeep Cloud when you want managed hosting with a region choice on signup. Self-host when infrastructure control matters more than operational speed.

[Start free in HitKeep Cloud](https://cloud.hitkeep.eu/signup?utm_source=hitkeep_docs&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=cloud_signup&utm_content=content_cta&plan=free&billing=monthly)[Self-host instead](https://hitkeep.com/guides/installation/)

## Related

- [Google Analytics Alternative for WordPress](https://hitkeep.com/use-cases/google-analytics-alternative-wordpress/)
- [WordPress Integration](https://hitkeep.com/guides/integrations/wordpress/)
- [Automatic Events](https://hitkeep.com/guides/tracking/automatic-events/)
- [Privacy-First Web Analytics](https://hitkeep.com/use-cases/privacy-first-web-analytics/)
- [Cookieless Event Tracking](https://hitkeep.com/use-cases/cookieless-event-tracking/)
- [Tracker Architecture](https://hitkeep.com/guides/tracking/tracker-architecture/)
- [AI Visibility Analytics](https://hitkeep.com/guides/analytics/ai-visibility/)
- [AI Fetch Ingest](https://hitkeep.com/guides/tracking/ai-fetch-ingest/)
- [AI Fetch on AWS](https://hitkeep.com/guides/tracking/ai-fetch-aws/)
- [HitKeep vs Google Analytics](https://hitkeep.com/vs/google-analytics/)