Mar

List of Google Analytics Alternatives

Posted by Brett in News, Tools

Tags: Analytics, Flash Tracking, Hit Tracking, Tools

To begin I’d like to say that Google Analytics is a good web analytics program, but it doesn’t give me some features I need. The main feature I don’t like about Google Analytics is that the stats don’t come in real time or close to it. Also I’ve wanted to have all the stats on my own server. So if you didn’t read my last post I decided to go with Piwik. Piwik is an open source web analytics software that allows you to install on your own server and the data is stored in mySQL. Since Piwik is still in its alpha stage I am still using Google Analytics and I am also using the WordPress Stats Plugin.

Now on to the list. The list below is categorized by the tracking Code. Granted that some of these tools don’t work exactly like Google Analytics or have the same features, they are still good alternatives to Google Analytics.

CGI

AWStats – AWStats is a free powerful tool that generates advanced web, streaming, ftp or mail server statistics, graphically. There is no tracking code you must install on your website in order for AWStats to track users, It uses your server or hosting log to track your visitors. I have used AWStats in the past and it is a great tool.

PHP

Stuffed Tracker (Buy to Use) – Although Stuffed Tracker is a Analytics Software you must buy to use. It still has some great features like Click Fraud detection, Examine Exact Path Visitors Take, and you can track sales, downloads, and sign ups. The purchase cost is $99.95 for 5 websites. I am not sure but I think it allows for a Javascript Tracking code.
PHP-Stats – One of the best features of PHP-Stats is that you are able to see what pages your visitors view in order they do it. Another good feature is that you install it on your own server and all the stats are tracked on your server. The one reason why I didn’t choose this software is fact the forums and support are currently in French. But they are currently translating it in English.
SlimStat – SlimStat is a simple web stat analyzer. SlimStat was based on ShortStat which is not supported anymore. SlimStat is a fairly in depth that allows you to get IP addresses from visitors. The problem I have with Slimstat is that it doesn’t have any graphs, but then again it does reside on your server and gives you decent data to go through.
BBClone - BBclone is a web counter written in PHP and gives a detailed view of the visitors of your web site by displaying the number of pages a visitor has visited with the details of the browser and operating system. It gives you some very good details on your visitors. Thanks to Tim for bringing this to my attention.

Javascript

Clicky – Clicky is a web analyzer that works great with any web site, even Ajax and Flash sites. Clicky also allows you to fully modify your dashboard. Clicky is a free service for any website with under 1,000 page views per day. The Free service will put ads on your site. The next level up is the Blogger level that costs 3.99 a month. Clicky is a great service with many more features than Google Analytics.
StatCounter – StatCounter is a free Analytic software that tracks visitors in real time. StatCounter has no Ads. StatCounter is very similar to Google but a great alternative. I have used StatCounter in the past and have had no problems at all with it.
HitStats – HitStats is completely free with no limits, no ads, and real time web stats. HitStats will allow you to add a counter on your website. It has a great support forum for any questions. I haven’t tried HitStats but the backend the dashboard has some very beautiful graphs with some great data.
SiteMeter – SiteMeter is a real time website tracking tool. Sitemeter is about the same as everything else except that it allows you to view who is on your site now. It is a neat feature that could be pretty useful. It also has a counter that could go on your website.
Mint (Buy to Use)- Mint is a self-hosted web site analytics program. It costs $30 for a site license. A great feature that Mint has is that it allows you to track your RSS Feed subscriptions. It also subscribes names to users that visit your site so you can track these visitors.
W3Counter - is a web tracker for your website or blog. It has multiple plans that you can sign up for. The free signup is limited to 5,000 page views per day and one website. The cool thing about W3Counter is that it tracks visitors in real time and it tracks your RSS feedburner account. I’m not sure if the free version puts ads on. Also thank you Jimbo letting me know about this stat tracker.
Reinvigorate – Reinvigorate is very cool it streams website and blog events to you live, in real-time on to your desktop. It tells you exactly what page your visitors are on and there IP address. To get this working you must first register with the Beta, then download and Install Snoop which is the reinvigorate desktop application, and last input the Javascript code on your page. Thank you parrfolio for bringing this to our attention.

Flash

Mochibot – I decided to end with a tracking software different from the rest. MochiBot is a Flash traffic monitoring tool that tracks the performance of individual Flash content files no matter where they end up on the web. Mochibot is completely free and it works very easy. Just put some Actionscript code into your flash file and it will be ready to be tracked. If you have lots of Flash files than Mochibot is for you.

If you would like to add more please comment below are give your feedback. Feedback is always appreciated.

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Jimbo says, March 21st, 2008

There’s also w3counter @ http://www.w3counter.com (this isn’t my website btw, but I have a free account there and it’s a great stat counter)

tim says, March 21st, 2008

Nice list, thanks…Personally i use http://bbclone.de/ a lot. It`s nice mean and lean.

Tim

parrfolio says, March 21st, 2008

Nice list! Don’t forget ReInvigorate http://www.reinvigorate.net

Brett says, March 21st, 2008

Great Thanks I’ll be adding these to the list.

cariillion says, March 21st, 2008

MochiBot is awesome! I found it after a friend showed me his stats on all the places his game was copied to. I don’t release any games without it now.

nicola says, March 22nd, 2008

I’m not an analytic guru, but could quantcast be listed on this kind of service? I’m just impressed by its homepage traffic rank… I suppose more than someone is using it.

David McKay says, March 22nd, 2008

Ill be honest the above list hasnt convinced me to move away from GoAn. Awstats is ok at best, but GoAn has so much more power and features and its constantly being updated by some very smart people at G.

The only problem i have is with snooping by them and looking my private data. However with the millions of sites that use it, my traffic and data would be totally insignificant compared to some of the very big global names that use GoAn as their stat package.

Thanks for post.

ANkur says, March 22nd, 2008

there are many good options. But Goolge has that brand name.

once the competition grows the alternated will get popular (if google doesn’t but them out)

Brett says, March 22nd, 2008

@Nicola, I actually signed up for Quantcast and my visitor numbers seem fairly high not that I am complaining. I think it is more used to let advertisers know that you are getting traffic, because it shows your public statistics. But it does take statistics so I will look into it more.

@David McKay, I agree with what you are saying, even though your traffic may seem insignificant they can still use it. I mean think about how Grocery stores have Club cards. They keep track of what you buy in order to sell more. I am not saying that its bad, but Google can use your data to help them sell more or do whatever. It is just Business. Remember knowledge is Power!!! But don’t feel forced to change you stats program, if you are comfortable.

@Ankur, That is very true. Google will always be there. But I really think that any popular Open Source will always out perform.

I want to thank you all for commenting and giving your opinion. It is always welcome.

Michel says, March 22nd, 2008

http://piwik.org/

kishore blog says, March 26th, 2008

Nice links. Thanks.

http://www.kishoreblog.com

movie top says, March 27th, 2008

I would like to share with you the happy, I was admitted to Harvard University this year, we bless me!

Benny says, March 27th, 2008

Great info to work with. Do these sites give detailed traffic sources, sites they came from? Quite liked you blog – jazzy and colorful.

Brett says, March 27th, 2008

@Benny, Yes the majority of them do show the sites they came from and thanks for visiting.

Gökhan PUR says, March 29th, 2008

thnx

mik says, June 27th, 2008

I prefer Logdy as a Google Analytics alternative

James says, October 13th, 2008

Don’t forget http://extremetracking.com
I think its been around since 1999.

Great list.

mels says, November 20th, 2008

There’s also http://www.xiti.com which has a free version (which is already pretty good) and also paid plans for more advanced analytics.

This company is one of the leaders in this industry

Eli says, March 6th, 2009

Hi,

Thanks for this information. I manage Google Adwords PPc account and I’m looking for a way to report to my customers, telling them which orders (order # and order amount each sale was) were referred by adwords. As I understand Analytics will not give you individual order info.

Thanks and have a great day !

agnes says, June 16th, 2009

Thanks for providing the ohter sites to track the visitor.

movies hyderabad says, August 25th, 2009

hello

Nice list of analytics.
Thanks for sharing

lebisol says, August 27th, 2009

Thank you for putting this together. I too started to look for alternatives after feeling uneasy with being google’s data mining tool. There is also a big issue with either hosted or self hosted applications.
-hosted
Clients have easier time accessing it and it removes server load. Eliminates YOU as the cause of undesired traffic trends as well as responsibility to maintain the statistics application. But clients loose the ownership.

-self hosted
On the other hand…some shops prefer to keep their stats hidden and ‘in house’.
Clients may feel ’served’ and not necessarily ‘trust’ the application you setup for them or use to report to them. I can already hear the comments …”What is this ‘mint-thing’ you installed on our website? Is it accurate?Security?Cost?…” etc.

Many people seem to go with Google Analytic simply because it comes from a powerhouse of Google and it is free. One common thing to JavaScript powered scripts is reliability as well as speed (slowdowns) on sites-especially outsourced (hosted) solutions.

Mint is great but nothing more than SlimStat and if you are doing paid SEO work and site improvements you will need more intelligence and trending features in the application.
Stuffed Tracker looks very promising while you got me interested into PHP-Stats.
Thanks for sharing your work and research!

Jerick70 says, September 16th, 2009

Excellent list of analytics programs. This has been very helpful in my search for a new GA alternative. One that is not mentioned here is Open Web Analytics.
http://www.openwebanalytics.com/
It looks very promising. I haven’t used it but it has quite a few excellent features.