what's a good free counter to use for a website... fewest ads possible, stats if possible

Google Analytics. It's free and totally awesome. http://www.google.com/analytics/

this is great! i just started using it on my mom's site. i don't see a hit counter that displays on the page though

hit counters are.. so.. 90s. the point is that you don't need a hit counter. Google Analytics counts visits, and pageviews. you just login to the site to view the stats. btw, you have to put ...