This is the simplest hit counter I could imagine (well, almost). Every time a 
page is requested, it adds one to the count. The display is not an image, just 
text. There is no javascript to hit some third-party server, no tracking, no 
distinction among pages: just an old-fashioned site counter CGI, implemented in 
WordPress. The plugin stores its count in its own MySQL table.
Once the plugin is installed (described below), you can display the count by 
putting code like this somewhere on your page:
<pre><code><?= simplehitcounter_hit(); ?>
</code></pre>
That will both increment the counter and display its value. There is no method 
for getting the value without incrementing it. I suppose I could write such a 
thing if anyone likes.
There is a minor race condition. First the plugin updates the database by one 
(atomically), then it queries for the current count. Therefore in heavy traffic 
it is possible for two updates to happen before either select. In that case, 
the counter will correctly increment, but the number displayed may be the same 
for each user, representing the total page hits. As far as I can tell, this 
race condition is inevitable without locking the table. It seems trivial 
enough, though I guess you should be warned if you run a contest to give away a 
free car to the 1,000,000th user.
By default the plugin keeps its data in a table called <code>wp_simplehitcounter_hits</code>. 
You can change this by editing the <code>simplehitcounter.php</code> file.

Simple Hit Counter

Prints a count of the number of hits your blog has received, tracked in the 
database.

WebberZone

Ajay

WordPress doesn’t have an in-built system to track page views or displaying popular posts. <a href="https://webberzone.com/plugins/top-10/" rel="nofollow ugc">Top 10</a> is an easy to use, yet, powerful WordPress plugin that will count the number of page views of your posts, pages and any custom post types. You can then display the page view counts as well as display your most popular posts.
Top 10 adds two widgets that you can use to display a list of popular posts and the counta cross all your blog posts.
Although several similar plugins exist today, Top 10 is one of the most feature-rich popular post plugins with support for thumbnails, shortcodes, widgets, custom post types and CSS styles. The inbuilt caching system also helps reduce server load by caching your popular posts output. The tracking uses ajax and is thus compatible with most popular caching plugins.
Top 10 also has powerful API and is fully extendable with WordPress actions and filters to allow you easily extend the code base to add new features or tweak existing ones.
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Page counter: Counts page views on single posts, pages and custom post types on an hourly basis which can then be easily displayed automatically, using shortcodes or functions</li>
<li>Popular posts: Display a list of popular posts either for total counts or for a custom period. You can choose how many posts are to be displayed along with loads of other customisation options</li>
<li>Gutenberg / Block Editor support: You can find a block called “Popular Posts [Top 10]” with its own configurable set of options</li>
<li>Widget ready: Sidebar widgets available for daily popular and overall popular posts. Highly customizable widgets to control what you want to display in the list of posts</li>
<li>Shortcodes: The plugin includes two shortcodes <code>[tptn_list]</code> and <code>[tptn_views]</code> to display the posts list and the number of views respectively</li>
<li>Thumbnail support
<ul>
<li>Support for WordPress post thumbnails. Top 10 will create a custom image size (<code>tptn_thumbnail</code>) with the dimensions specified in the Settings page</li>
<li>Auto-extract the first image in your post to be displayed as a thumbnail</li>
<li>Manually enter the URL of the thumbnail via <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Custom_Fields" rel="nofollow ugc">WordPress meta fields</a>. Specify this using the meta box in your Edit screens.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Exclusions: Exclude posts from select categories from appearing in the top posts list. Also exclude posts by ID from appearing in the list</li>
<li>Styles: The output is wrapped in CSS classes which allows you to easily style the list. You can enter your custom CSS styles from within WordPress Admin area or use the style included.</li>
<li>Admin interface: View list of daily and/or overall popular posts from within the dashboard. Top 10 also adds two sortable columns to your All Posts and All Pages pages in your WordPress Admin area</li>
<li>Export/Import interface: Export the count tables and settings to restore in the same site or on other installs</li>
<li>Works with caching plugins like WP-Super-Cache, W3 Total Cache or Quick Cache</li>
<li>Extendable code: Top 10 has tonnes of filters and actions that allow any developer to easily add features, edit outputs, etc.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Features in Top 10 Pro</h4>
<ul>
<li>
Advanced Blocks and Widgets
<ul>
<li>Top 10 Query Block: Query and display popular posts directly from the block or site editor.</li>
<li>Enhanced Top 10 Featured Image Block: Supports multiple image sources for more flexibility.</li>
<li>Popular Posts Block Enhancements: </li>
<li>Save and clear default block settings with a single click.</li>
<li>Auto-insert default and global settings attributes with an option to disable.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Improved Admin Tools
<ul>
<li>Admin Bar Integration: New admin bar menu item to view daily, total, and overall post counts, access admin pages, and clear the cache quickly.</li>
<li>Dashboard Access Control: Control which user roles can view the Top 10 dashboard.</li>
<li>Display Settings: Choose which post type screens display admin columns.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Custom Display Options
<ul>
<li>Taxonomy-Specific Displays: Use the <code>display_only_on_tax_ids</code> parameter to restrict popular post displays to specific taxonomy terms.</li>
<li>Category Inclusion: Include popular posts from specific categories using a new option in the Edit Post meta box.</li>
<li>RSS Feed Filtering: Enhanced RSS feeds with category and post type filtering, available via URL parameters (?category=news, ?post_type=product) and dedicated settings.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Enhanced Tracking and Performance
<ul>
<li>Fast Tracker: A new, faster tracking method to improve post view speed.</li>
<li>Query Filters: Enable parent term inclusion in post queries for more accurate filtering.</li>
<li>Query Optimization: Add MySQL MAX_EXECUTION_TIME directive to prevent long-running queries from consuming excessive server resources. Configurable via settings and the <code>top_ten_query_max_execution_time</code> filter.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Developer-Friendly Features
<ul>
<li>Filters and Hooks: New filters like <code>top_ten_query_exclude_terms_include_parents</code>, <code>top_ten_query_include_terms_include_parents</code>, and <code>get_tptn_short_circuit</code> for greater customisation.</li>
<li>Custom Post Type Sortable Columns: Display columns on post types and make them sortable.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>GDPR</h4>
Top 10 is GDPR compliant as it doesn’t collect any personal data about your visitors when installed out of the box. You can see the data the plugin stores in the <code>wp_top_ten</code> and <code>wp_top_ten_daily</code> tables in the database. Note: the prefix <code>wp</code> might be different if you have changed it from the default.
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ENSURING THAT ALL GDPR REQUIREMENTS ARE MET ON YOUR WEBSITE.
<h4>Translations</h4>
Top 10 is available for <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/top-10" rel="nofollow ugc">translation directly on WordPress.org</a>. Check out the official <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/rosetta/theme-plugin-directories/" rel="nofollow ugc">Translator Handbook</a> to contribute.
<h4>Contribute</h4>
Top 10 is also available on <a href="https://github.com/webberzone/top-10" rel="nofollow ugc">Github</a> 
So, if you’ve got some cool feature that you’d like to implement into the plugin or a bug you’ve been able to fix, consider forking the project and sending me a pull request. Please don’t use that for support requests.
<h3>Other plugins from WebberZone</h3>
Top 10 – Popular Posts is one of the many plugins developed by WebberZone. Check out our other plugins:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/contextual-related-posts/" rel="ugc">Contextual Related Posts</a> – Display related posts on your WordPress blog and feed</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/add-to-all/" rel="ugc">WebberZone Snippetz</a> – The ultimate snippet manager for WordPress to create and manage custom HTML, CSS or JS code snippets</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/knowledgebase/" rel="ugc">Knowledge Base</a> – Create a knowledge base or FAQ section on your WordPress site</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-search/" rel="ugc">Better Search</a> – Enhance the default WordPress search with contextual results sorted by relevance</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/autoclose/" rel="ugc">Auto-Close</a> – Automatically close comments, pingbacks and trackbacks and manage revisions</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/popular-authors/" rel="ugc">Popular Authors</a> – Display popular authors in your WordPress widget</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/where-did-they-go-from-here/" rel="ugc">Followed Posts</a> – Show a list of related posts based on what your users have read</li>
</ul>

Top 10 – WordPress Popular posts by WebberZone

A very good plugin that helps to display top 3 popular posts via shorcode.

Good Plugin

Track daily and total visits on your blog posts. Display the count as well as popular and trending posts.

Simple Hit Counter vs Top 10 – WordPress Popular posts by WebberZone