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whos.amung.us vs Hitsteps at a glance
whos.amung.us vs Hitsteps: Which fits your site?
whos.amung.us has been showing site owners how many people are online for years, and it does that job well. It promises "FREE REAL-TIME STATS FOR YOUR WEBSITE" with "NO ACCOUNT REQUIRED": you pick a widget, paste the code and the counter starts. Hitsteps answers a different question: who are those people, which pages have they seen, and can you talk to them before they leave? If that's the question you keep asking, read on. (whos.amung.us, checked 17 Oct 2026.)
Product proof
Understand your visitors. Take action with confidence.
Use it when you need live visitor context, practical installation routes, and action tools around the traffic you already have.
Works where your site already lives
WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Google Tag Manager, HTML, CMS, commerce, browser, and desktop setup paths are documented from one hub.
From tracking hit to next action
Live dashboard, visitor profiles, heatmaps, chat, Segments, uptime, reports, and alerts stay connected after tracking is installed.
whos.amung.us vs Hitsteps at a glance
Pick whos.amung.us if you want a free live counter or map widget on your site with no signup and no traffic cap. Its free widgets come "without limits", and it says "With no pageview or users online limits you can be sure we'll capture all your visitors." Hitsteps Free covers one site up to 2,000 pageviews a month with 14 days of history, so on free volume whos.amung.us wins clearly.
Pick Hitsteps if you want to open one live visitor, follow the pages they viewed and act on it. The live visitor view is on Free. Live chat starts on Starter at $4.99 a month, click heatmaps on Growth at $9.99 a month, and funnels and uptime monitoring on Pro at $21.99 a month.
| Question | Hitsteps | whos.amung.us |
|---|---|---|
| Is there a free plan? | Yes. One site up to 2,000 pageviews a month, 14 days of history, live visitor view included. | Yes. "Free stats widgets for your website without limits", no account needed. |
| Is it real time? | Yes. Visitors appear in the real-time visitor view while they browse. | Yes. "Real-time web stats and analytics", and on Pro "Our stats are self updating." |
| Can I show a counter or map widget on my site? | Not the focus. Hitsteps reports live visitors in your dashboard. | Yes. Dynamic, small, classic, colored, tab and map widgets, plus a full screen visitor map. |
| Can I open one visitor and see their page path? | Yes, visitor profiles with page paths, on Free. | A per-visitor profile with page path is not listed on whos.amung.us' public pages (checked 17 Oct 2026). It lists "Readers", "a list of your most popular pages". |
| Can I chat with a visitor? | Yes, from Starter ($4.99), with one chat agent. Growth has three, Pro has ten. | Live chat is not listed on whos.amung.us' public pages (checked 17 Oct 2026). |
| Are click heatmaps listed? | Yes, click heatmaps from Growth ($9.99). | Yes, on Pro. "Heatspy" heat maps "See exactly where all the clicks happen on your website", from $4.95 a month (USD view, checked 17 Oct 2026; the vendor shows prices by location, including EUR for EU visitors). |
| Goals and funnels? | 3 goals on Starter ($4.99), funnels from Pro ($21.99). | Goals and funnels are not listed on whos.amung.us' public pages (checked 17 Oct 2026). |
| Website uptime monitoring? | Yes, from Pro ($21.99). | Uptime monitoring is not listed on whos.amung.us' public pages (checked 17 Oct 2026). |
| How long is history kept? | 14 days on Free, 30 on Starter, 60 on Growth, 180 on Pro, 360 on Business. | It offers History to "Go back in time and see when you had the most people online". A retention period for stats is not listed on whos.amung.us' public pages (checked 17 Oct 2026). |
whos.amung.us column sources: whos.amung.us, /getstarted/, /help/ and /pro/, checked 17 Oct 2026.
What whos.amung.us does well
Setup is about as simple as analytics gets. "No signup required, just choose from a selection of widgets to instantly enable real time stats." There are six widget styles, from an 80x15 pixel counter to a tab that pins to the edge of the screen and an embeddable map that shows your visitors where everyone else comes from. Click the widget and you land on your stats pages. (Get started, checked 17 Oct 2026.)
The free stats cover History, Readers (your most popular pages right now) and Maps, where you can "Open a full screen map and zoom in to precisely see where visitors are located." There are browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox that show your current visitor count without opening anything. (whos.amung.us and Help, checked 17 Oct 2026.)
The paid Pro plans add more. whos.amung.us lists "Ad free", "Unlimited pageviews", "Public or private stats pages", "Invisible widgets", an API and Heatspy click heat maps. Its general Pro feature list says "Works with Wordpress and Blogger", but the price cards list "Wordpress support" only on Pro Plus and Pro Silver, not base Pro (checked 19 Oct 2026). Its help page says browser stats, "page views & uniques data", invisible widgets and private stats pages need a Pro account, and that "It is not possible to make the free account stat pages private." (Pro and Help, checked 17 Oct 2026.)
If a public "people online" counter is what you want, whos.amung.us is a good, long-running answer.
When you need more than a visitor count
A counter tells you that 12 people are on your site. It doesn't tell you that one of them has been on your pricing page for three minutes, came in from your newsletter and already looked at your contact page twice.
That's where Hitsteps fits. Open the live visitor view and you'll see each visitor as they browse, with their source and the pages they've viewed so far. On Starter and above you can start a chat right there and ask if they need a hand, and set goals to see which visits turn into sign-ups or sales. On Growth and above, click heatmaps show where people click on the pages that matter. On Pro you get funnels to see where people drop out, and uptime monitoring to tell you when the site itself is down.
One thing to be clear about: Hitsteps doesn't record sessions. You see live visitors, their page paths, chat and click heatmaps, not video replays.
Hitsteps works on any site with a tracking code, and there are plugins for common platforms. Comparing other options too? See our StatCounter comparison, Clicky comparison and Google Analytics comparison.
Plans and limits side by side
whos.amung.us. The free widgets need no account and have no pageview or users online limits. Pro plans are priced by how many people can be on your site at once: "We offer subscriptions from 1,000 to 100,000 simultaneous visitors and up to 10 websites. All plans are ad free and come with unlimited pageviews." These prices are from the USD view, checked 17 Oct 2026; the vendor shows prices by location, including EUR for EU visitors:
| whos.amung.us plan | Price a month | Simultaneous visitors | Websites |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pro | $4.95 | 1,000 | 1 |
| Pro Plus | $9.95 | 5,000 | 1 |
| Pro Silver | $14.95 | 10,000 | 3 |
Yearly billing is listed at 10% off, and larger plans are by request. (whos.amung.us Pro, checked 17 Oct 2026.)
Hitsteps. Monthly billing, one plan per account:
| Plan | Price | Pageviews a month | Sites | History | Adds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | up to 2,000 | 1 | 14 days | Live visitor view |
| Starter | $4.99 | 10,000 a month | 2 | 30 days | Live chat (1 agent), 3 goals |
| Growth | $9.99 | 50,000 a month | 5 | 60 days | Click heatmaps, 3 chat agents |
| Pro | $21.99 | 500,000 a month | 30 | 180 days | Uptime monitoring, funnels, 10 chat agents |
| Business | $49.99 | 1,000,000 a month | 100 | 360 days | Higher limits |
| Scale | $99.99 | 12,000,000 a month | 400 | 360 days | Higher limits |
There are higher tiers beyond Scale for very large sites. See all plans.
To be straight about it: whos.amung.us gives you more for free, and its Pro plan is the cheaper way to get click heatmaps. You'd pick Hitsteps because you want to see and talk to individual visitors and track goals, funnels and uptime in one place.
Every new Hitsteps account starts with a 7-day Pro trial, no card, so you can try chat, heatmaps, funnels and uptime on your own site before choosing a plan. Create an account.
Frequently asked questions
Is whos.amung.us really free?
Yes. whos.amung.us says its free widgets "do not require an account" and come "With no pageview or users online limits". Paid Pro plans start at $4.95 a month (USD view, checked 17 Oct 2026; the vendor shows prices by location, including EUR for EU visitors) and add things like ad free stats, private stats pages, invisible widgets and Heatspy heat maps. (whos.amung.us and Pro, checked 17 Oct 2026.)
Does whos.amung.us show individual visitors or session replay?
whos.amung.us shows how many people are online, your most popular pages and a map of where visitors are. A profile of one visitor with their page path is not listed on whos.amung.us' public pages (checked 17 Oct 2026), and neither is session replay. Hitsteps shows each live visitor with their source and page path on every plan, including Free. Hitsteps doesn't record sessions either.
Can I chat with visitors or see heatmaps in whos.amung.us?
Live chat is not listed on whos.amung.us' public pages (checked 17 Oct 2026). Click heat maps are, through Heatspy on its paid Pro plans from $4.95 a month (USD view, checked 17 Oct 2026; the vendor shows prices by location, including EUR for EU visitors). In Hitsteps, live chat starts on Starter at $4.99 a month and click heatmaps start on Growth at $9.99 a month.
Which is better for a small site on a budget?
If you want a free counter or map widget and don't need to know who each visitor is, whos.amung.us is hard to beat on price. If you want to watch each visitor live, chat with them and track goals, Hitsteps is built for that. The live view is on Free, chat and goals cost $4.99 a month and heatmaps $9.99 a month.
Can I try Hitsteps before switching?
Yes. Every new account gets a 7-day Pro trial with no card needed. After the trial you can stay on Free, which includes the live visitor view, as long as your email is verified and your site fits Free's limits (up to 2,000 pageviews a month, 1 site), or choose a paid plan. You can create an account and test it on your own site.