I wrote this piece after going through several analytics packages in search of the best fit for my sites and needs. Here’s what I came up with…
What I’m looking for in an analytics tool:
Ability to track:
- Page views / Visits and visitor counts (the usual)
- Referrers / Searched terms from search engines
- IP addresses (for access spam control)
- Logged in user names (What my users are looking at)
- Near-realtime stats (as close to realtime as possible, not having to wait until the next day)
- Integration with Drupal/WordPress as a maintained module (less important)
The tools:
Google Analytics
What it does
- Tracks page views / visitor data / search terms
What it doesn’t do:
- IP addresses
- Logged-in user name
- Near-realtime stats
Cost: FREE
Traffic limit: 1 million page views per day.
Other thoughts: Some think that stats collected are used by Google to adjust search results.
Woopra
What it does:
- IP addresses
- Logged-in user names++
- Page views / visits and visitor counts
- Chat with your users##
- Real-time stats
- Referrers / search terms
- Integration with Drupal
What it doesn’t do:
- Clicking on the ‘chat’ function would crash the app.
- Clicking on the ‘analytics’ once crashed my app for several hours
Cost: Free to Expensive$$
Traffic Limit: Depends on pricing tier
Other thoughts: Requires desktop app install (Windows / Mac / Linux [Java-based]). At 3,000 monthly page views for the free package and 10,000 for the $5/mo package, this is the pricey end of analyics packages. Considering all the bugs I had with it, I would consider something else. Unlimited sites, pricing plan is per-site.
Clicky
What it does:
- IP addresses
- Page views / visits and visitor counts
- Real-time stats**
- Referrers / search terms
- Integration with Drupal
What it doesn’t do:
- Logged-in user names
Cost: Free to expensive$$
Traffic Limit: Depends on pricing tier
Other thoughts:
Stats are near-realtime as they are displayed on a webpage. A refresh takes care of loading the newest stats. Free plan is good for 3,000 page views a day. $5/mo plan is good for a lot more. Pricing plan is tied to your account. Limit to the number of websites you can track.
What it does:
- IP addresses
- Page views / visits and visitor counts
- Real-time stats (via the Live! plugin)
- Referrers / search terms
- Integration with Drupal
What it doesn’t do:
- Logged-in user names
Cost: FREE
Traffic Limit: As much as your webserver/database server can stand.
Other thoughts: This is a self-hosted software, which means you have to install it on your webserver or hosting account. Free / Open source. Though the usability and feature-set is impressive, there are a number of serious bugs which can be show-stoppers for the non-technical or easily-frustrated user. Database grows over time and requires manual purging. Can put a serious load on DB servers on high-traffic sites. No limit to the number of sites you can track. Set up login/password access for others to view stats.
Mint
What it does:
- IP addresses
- Page views / visits and visitor counts
- Real-time stats**
- Referrers / search terms
- Integration with Drupal
- Logged-in user names++
What it doesn’t do:
Come free.
Cost: $30/site
Traffic Limit: As much as your webserver/database server can stand.
Other Thoughts: At $30/site this can be expensive in multi-site operations, but this is a very well polished software package. Database growth is kept in check as detailed stats are only held for 6 weeks. Totals are kept forever. This happens to be my software package of choice.
** There’s a catch.
$$ Cost varies according to traffic / number of monitored websites
++ Requires Drupal module
## Though this is a feature, I never got it to work correctly.
1 ping
Clicky Web Analytics » Mike Beach
November 11, 2011 at 10:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] had written a previous post roughly comparing a few web analytics programs, using some criteria that was important to me, and I [...]