PageViews Counter is a free WordPress plugin designed to efficiently track page views without relying on external services like Jetpack or Google Analytics. It addresses the common issue of caching, which can hinder accurate page view counting when implemented at the PHP level. Instead, this plugin uses AJAX requests to increment counts every time a page is loaded, ensuring reliable tracking regardless of caching mechanisms in place.

This plugin stands out by storing the counters outside of the WordPress ecosystem in fast storage solutions such as Memcached or Redis. It features a recurring cron task that regularly updates the counters and saves the values as postmeta for each post. Utilizing the PhpFastCache library, the plugin allows users to choose from various back-ends based on their hosting provider, with a default file-based storage suitable for any environment.