with static sites server-side analytics are doable. You can still cookie the browser, record it to access log and you can get pageviews and uniques easily
Problem is if you're using a CDN it might not give you access to complete logs. Still there's at least one better free option than GOOG analytics IMO[0]
So? I have javascript disabled so a frontend analytics option also won't give you complete analytics.
It's a tradeoff, you get to decide if you run code on your visitor's computers without consent and get analytics that are wrong in one way, or if you run code on your server with your own permission, and get analytics that are wrong in another way and simpler.
