PulseViews

Description

PulseViews records how many times each post or page has been viewed and gives you a clean analytics dashboard inside your WordPress admin.

No wp_postmeta writes. No database bloat. Works with any caching plugin.

Key features:

• Smart view tracking — PHP, JavaScript, or combined tracking modes
• Cache-compatible — JavaScript mode works with WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache, W3 Total Cache, and Cloudflare
• Bot detection — 30+ known bot patterns filtered automatically, stored separately
• Session deduplication — prevents the same visitor inflating your counts
• Privacy first — IP addresses are hashed, never stored in plain text
• Role exclusions — exclude admins, editors, or any custom role
• Dedicated database tables — four indexed tables, zero wp_postmeta writes
• 4 display styles — Pill, Block, Inline, Compact — all inherit your theme colour
• Auto-insert or shortcode — place the badge anywhere with [pulseviews]
• Clean admin dashboard — views-over-time chart, top content leaderboard, tracking status
• Custom view label — change “views” to “readers”, “hits”, or anything you want

Shortcode reference:

[pulseviews] — current post, default style
[pulseviews style="1" variant="filled"] — filled pill
[pulseviews style="2"] — block counter
[pulseviews style="3"] — inline text
[pulseviews style="4"] — compact badge
[pulseviews label="readers"] — custom label
[pulseviews period="week"] — views this week
[pulseviews period="today"] — views today
[pulseviews id="42"] — specific post by ID

Pro version available

PulseViews Pro is an optional add-on available at pulseviews.net/pricing/. It adds:

• Custom date range reports (any period)
• Traffic sources breakdown (Google, social, direct, referrers)
• Geographic stats by country
• Most viral posts algorithm
• CSV and XML data export

For detailed documentation, visit our Documentation Page.

The free plugin is fully functional without Pro.

External Services

This plugin may connect to the following external services. Both services are disabled by default — you must explicitly opt in.

1. ip-api.com — IP Geolocation (opt-in)

Used to resolve the approximate country from a visitor’s IP address for geographic analytics.

• What data is sent: The visitor’s IP address only. No site URL, no personal identifiers, no cookies.
• When it is called: Only when a page view is recorded AND “Geographic tracking” is enabled in Settings → Other.
• Caching: Results are cached for 24 hours per IP via WordPress transients.
• Cloudflare alternative: If your site is behind Cloudflare, the country is read from the CF-IPCountry header and ip-api.com is never contacted.
• Service provider: ip-api.com
• Terms of Service & Privacy Policy: https://ip-api.com/docs/legal

2. pulseviews.net — Usage & Diagnostic Data (opt-in)

Used to send anonymous diagnostic telemetry to help us improve plugin compatibility and stability.

• What data is sent: WordPress version, PHP version, plugin version, site language, and active plugin settings. No personal data, visitor IPs, or post contents are ever sent.
• When it is called: Only when “Allow PulseViews to collect anonymous diagnostic data” is explicitly enabled in Settings.
• Service provider: PulseViews (pulseviews.net)
• Privacy Policy: https://pulseviews.net/privacy/
• Terms of Service: https://pulseviews.net/terms/