Show post views without plugin

If you need to show the number of posts or pages on your WordPress site without using a plugin, you can write a simple function and add it to the functions.php

Wordpress

function simple_post_views( $post_ID ) {
	global $count_key,$count;
	$count_key = 'simple_post_views_count';
	$count = get_post_meta( $post_ID, $count_key, true );
	if ( $count == '' ) {
		$count = 0; 
		update_post_meta( $post_ID, $count_key, $count );
		echo $count . __( ' views', 'your_textdomain' );
	} 
	else {
		if ( is_single() || is_page() ) {
			$count++; 
		}		
		update_post_meta( $post_ID, $count_key, $count );
		echo $count . __( ' views', 'your_textdomain' );
	}
}

function simple_post_views( $post_ID ) {

global $count_key,$count;

$count_key = 'simple_post_views_count';

$count = get_post_meta( $post_ID, $count_key, true );

if ( $count == '' ) {

$count = 0;

update_post_meta( $post_ID, $count_key, $count );

echo $count . __( ' views', 'your_textdomain' );

}

else {

if ( is_single() || is_page() ) {

$count++;

}

update_post_meta( $post_ID, $count_key, $count );

echo $count . __( ' views', 'your_textdomain' );

}

Now, in order to display the number of views, add this code to the single.php or page.php

<?php simple_post_views( get_the_ID() ); ?>

Bonus

If you also want to show the number of views in the WordPress admin dashboard, use this code:

Wordpress

// show views for posts
add_action('manage_posts_custom_column', 'admin_postviews_column_content');
add_filter('manage_posts_columns', 'admin_postviews_column');
// show views for pages
add_action('manage_pages_custom_column', 'admin_postviews_column_content');
add_filter('manage_pages_columns', 'admin_postviews_column');
 
function admin_postviews_column( $defaults ) {
    $defaults['viewscolumn'] = 'Views';
    return $defaults;
}
function admin_postviews_column_content() {
    simple_post_views( get_the_ID() );
}