ThemeRuby

Light Views Counter is a professional, high-performance WordPress plugin that tracks post views using intelligent scroll detection.
It is specifically designed for high-traffic websites and large databases, where other plugins often slow down or fail to perform efficiently. It delivers reliable view tracking without adding query overhead or slowing down your site’s performance.
Designed for news sites, magazines, bloggers, and content creators, this plugin helps you filter popular posts and show views that truly resonate with your audience.
<h4>🌟 Why Choose Light Views Counter?</h4>
Looking for a lightweight, reliable, and high-performance post views counter for WordPress? Light Views Counter is designed with precision and efficiency in mind, built to track genuine user engagement without slowing down your site.
Tracking
<ul>
<li>Scroll Detection Technology: Only counts views when visitors actually read your content (configurable scroll threshold)</li>
<li>Bot Protection: Automatically filters out search engine crawlers and automated traffic</li>
<li>Duplicate Prevention: Prevent counting the same user multiple times within a configurable time window</li>
<li>Short Content Smart Detection: Intelligently handles posts that fit in viewport without requiring scroll</li>
</ul>
Lightning Fast Performance
<ul>
<li>Zero Impact on Page Speed: Asynchronous REST API ensures counting happens in the background</li>
<li>Built-in Caching: caching system reduces database load</li>
<li>sendBeacon API: Fire-and-forget counting for maximum performance (enabled by default)</li>
</ul>
Easy to Use
<ul>
<li>Automatic Tracking: Works immediately after activation, no configuration required</li>
<li>Flexible Shortcode: Display views anywhere with <code>[lightvc_post_views]</code> shortcode</li>
<li>Popular Posts Widgets: Ready-to-use WordPress and Elementor widgets</li>
<li>Auto-Display Option: Automatically show view counts at the end of posts</li>
</ul>
Developer Friendly
<ul>
<li>Clean Public API: Simple functions: <code>lightvc_get_post_views()</code>, <code>lightvc_get_popular_posts()</code></li>
<li>WP_Query Integration: Sort posts by views: <code>'orderby' => 'lightvc_views'</code></li>
<li>Hooks & Filters: Customize everything: <code>lightvc_post_views_count</code>, <code>lightvc_views_html</code>, <code>lightvc_exclude_user</code></li>
<li>REST API Endpoints: HTTP access for external integrations</li>
</ul>
Enterprise Ready
<ul>
<li>High Traffic Optimized: Tested on sites with millions of views per day</li>
<li>Cache Plugin Compatible: Works perfectly with WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, LiteSpeed Cache, Cloudflare</li>
<li>GDPR Compliant: No personal data collection, no cookies, privacy-focused</li>
</ul>
<h4>Perfect For</h4>
<ul>
<li>Bloggers: See which posts your readers love most</li>
<li>News Websites: Track trending stories and breaking news engagement</li>
<li>Magazine Sites: Identify top-performing content and popular topics</li>
<li>Content Marketers: Measure content performance and reader engagement</li>
<li>E-commerce: Track product page views and customer interest</li>
<li>Publishers: Understand content performance across categories</li>
</ul>
<h4>🗝️ Key features:</h4>
Every feature is carefully engineered to ensure accuracy, speed, and seamless integration with your WordPress site. From smart counting logic and flexible widgets to detailed analytics and developer-friendly APIs.
Smart Counting System
<ul>
<li>Scroll-based view detection</li>
<li>Automatic short content detection and handling</li>
<li>Configurable time window to prevent duplicate counts</li>
<li>Admin user exclusion (don’t count your own views)</li>
<li>Bot and crawler filtering</li>
</ul>
Widgets & Integration
<ul>
<li>Standard WordPress widget for popular posts</li>
<li>Display options: thumbnails, view counts, dates</li>
<li>Fully customizable layouts</li>
<li>Works in any widget area</li>
</ul>
Analytics & Reporting
<ul>
<li>Admin dashboard with statistics</li>
<li>Total views across all posts</li>
<li>Most viewed posts list</li>
<li>Average views per post</li>
<li>Views column in posts list (sortable)</li>
</ul>
Performance Features
<ul>
<li>Custom database table with optimized indexes</li>
<li>WP cache support</li>
<li>sendBeacon API for fire-and-forget requests</li>
<li>Conditional script loading</li>
<li>No external dependencies</li>
</ul>
<h4>Translations & Compatibility</h4>
<ul>
<li>Translation ready with .pot file included</li>
<li>Works with any WordPress theme</li>
<li>Deep integration with Foxiz News theme</li>
<li>Cache Plugins: WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, LiteSpeed Cache, Autoptimize</li>
<li>CDN Services: Cloudflare, StackPath, KeyCDN, BunnyCDN</li>
</ul>
<h4>🔒 Privacy & Security</h4>
<ul>
<li>No personal data collection</li>
<li>No cookies used</li>
<li>No cross-site tracking</li>
<li>localStorage is client-side only</li>
<li>Complete transparency</li>
<li>Rate limiting to prevent abuse</li>
<li>Admin capability checks</li>
</ul>
<h4>Configuration (Optional)</h4>
After activation, you can customize settings:
Navigate to Settings > Light Views Counter 
With Foxiz Theme: Navigate to Foxiz Admin > Light Views Counter
The plugin features a modern admin interface with toast notifications, and organized sections.
Available Settings:
Easily customize how Light Views Counter works on your site. Every option is designed to give you full control while keeping things fast, and easy to manage.
Tracking Settings:
<ul>
<li>Scroll Threshold (default: 50%) – How far users must scroll before counting a view</li>
<li>Time Window (default: 1800 seconds / 30 minutes) – Prevents duplicate counts from same user</li>
<li>Supported Post Types (default: Posts) – Select which post types to track (Posts, Pages, Custom Types)</li>
<li>Fast Mode (default: Enabled) – Uses sendBeacon API for maximum performance</li>
</ul>
Performance Settings:
<ul>
<li>Enable Caching (default: Enabled) – Cache view counts for better performance</li>
<li>Cache Duration (default: 300 seconds / 5 minutes) – How long to cache data</li>
<li>Query Method (default: Subquery) – Choose Subquery (<100k posts) or JOIN (100k+ posts) for orderby queries</li>
</ul>
Display Settings:
<ul>
<li>Show Views on Content (default: Disabled) – Auto-display view count at end of posts</li>
</ul>
API Settings:
<ul>
<li>Enable GET Endpoint (default: Disabled) – Allow public REST API access to view counts</li>
</ul>
<h4>Getting Started</h4>

<ol>
<li>Verify Tracking – Visit any post on your site, scroll down, then check the admin dashboard statistics</li>
<li>Add Widgets – Go to Appearance > Widgets and add “Popular Posts (Light Views Counter)”</li>
<li>View Statistics – Check the Views column in your Posts list (admin area)</li>
</ol>
That’s it! Your site is now tracking post views intelligently.
<h4>💻 For Developers</h4>
Light Views Counter provides a complete developer toolkit:
PHP Functions:
<ul>
<li><code>lightvc_get_post_views( $post_id )</code></li>
<li><code>lightvc_get_popular_posts( $args )</code></li>
</ul>
WP_Query Integration:
<ul>
<li><code>'orderby' => 'lightvc_views'</code></li>
</ul>
Hooks & Filters:
<ul>
<li><code>lightvc_post_views_count</code></li>
<li><code>lightvc_views_html</code></li>
<li><code>lightvc_exclude_user</code></li>
<li><code>lightvc_views_counted</code></li>
</ul>
REST API:
<ul>
<li><code>GET /wp-json/lightvc/v1/views/{id}</code></li>
<li><code>POST /wp-json/lightvc/v1/count</code></li>
</ul>
<h4>🔗 Useful Links</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://themeruby.com/lvc-documentation/" rel="nofollow ugc">Documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://themeruby.com" rel="nofollow ugc">ThemeRuby Website</a></li>
</ul>

Light Views Counter – Fast, Scalable View Counter for High-Traffic Sites

Lightweight and fast post view counter with smart tracking, built for high-traffic sites and large post databases.

MattGeri

WP Geeks

WP Most Popular was born out of frustration in finding a decent plugin which performs one simple task and that is to rank your most popular blog posts.
The plugin keeps a log of your most popular posts based on views and lets you display them in your blog theme with custom styling. You can display popular posts from the last day, 7 days, 30 days or all time.
It also comes with a sidebar widget to let you display your popular posts on your blogs sidebar.
If you are a developer and integrate the plugin in to a theme, you will get a lot more flexibility out of the plugin including the ability to show the most popular custom post types etc.
This plugin was built and is maintained by <a href="https://wpgeeks.com" rel="nofollow ugc">WP Geeks</a>. For extra documentation, videos, snippets and support, visit the <a href="https://wpgeeks.com/product/wp-most-popular/" rel="nofollow ugc">WP Most Popular</a> product page.
<h3>Usage</h3>
There are two ways in which you can use this plugin.
<ol>
<li>As a sidebar widget</li>
<li>Custom function in your theme files</li>
</ol>
Using the widget is the easiest way and recommended for most users. If you are a developer and want to integrate the plugin in to your existing theme, then read the information below.
Firstly, the main function which you will need to include in your theme to fetch the popular posts is called <code>wp_most_popular_get_popular()</code>.
You can pass that function the following parameters in array form:
<ul>
<li>limit (integer)
<ul>
<li>The number of posts you would like to display i.e. 5</li>
<li>Default: 5</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>post_type (string) / (array)
<ul>
<li>The post type you would like to display</li>
<li>Example: post</li>
<li>Default: All post types</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>range (string)
<ul>
<li>In what date range would you like to display popular posts in</li>
<li>Accepted: all_time, monthly, weekly, daily</li>
<li>Default: all_time</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
Those are the current parameters that the plugin supports. Let’s look at an example of how to display the most recent popular posts in a unordered list.
<pre><code><?php
echo '<ul>';
$posts = wp_most_popular_get_popular( array( 'limit' => 10, 'post_type' => 'post', 'range' => 'all_time' ) );
global $post;
if ( count( $posts ) > 0 ): foreach ( $posts as $post ):
 setup_postdata( $post );
 ?>
 <li><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php echo esc_attr(get_the_title() ? get_the_title() : get_the_ID()); ?>"><?php if ( get_the_title() ) the_title(); else the_ID(); ?></a></li>
 <?php
endforeach; endif;
echo '</ul>';
?>
</code></pre>
<h4>Filters</h4>
The following filters are available to you:
<ul>
<li>wp_most_popular_list_before – used to filter the </li>
</ul>
<ul> element of the outputted widget list 
* **wp_most_popular_list_after** – used to filter the </ul>
element of the outputted widget list 
* wp_most_popular_list_item_single – filters for a the list item generated by the widget
<h4>Actions</h4>
<ul>
<li>wp_most_popular_list_item – used for modifying the list output</li>
</ul>

WP Most Popular

Works just as expected :)
Triggers the stat update from JS on the frontend so it works with cache.

Great plugin

WP Most Popular is a simple plugin which tracks your most popular blog posts based on views and lets you display them in your theme or blog sidebar.

Light Views Counter – Fast, Scalable View Counter for High-Traffic Sites vs WP Most Popular