Web Analytics Software - Factors to Consider

We cover many web analytics software in our Support Center. Just like the content management system (CMS) you choose, the best web analytics app for you depends on multiple factors. Below are some factors and comparisons between the following tools we’ve covered to help you decide:

Remember: We’ll update this article as we cover more analytics tools.

Pricing Support Stats Scalability Maintenance Ease of Use / Screenshots

Pricing

Although this sometimes depends on the version of a service, this is usually the first thing we want to know about a new product. Is it free? Is it a one-time, monthly, or annual subscription? All analytics tools we’ve covered have a free option which should suffice for most users. Clicky has more features and stores analytics longer per subscription plans and Matomo has paid plugins for some premium features.

Support

They all have documentation and easy-to-find email support options for direct questions. Google and Matomo have forum communities as well. Open Web Analytics uses the Github Issues and Wiki sections for bug reports and documentation respectively.

Basic or In-Depth Stats

How much info do you want on visitors? Do you want to track location, IP address, device type and version, and time on a page? They all do that. But if you want more – expected age range, gender, trends, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) settings – you should check out Matomo and Google. Matomo adds plugins with new features regularly.

Note: For deeper segmentation development options, also check out Mixpanel. We’ve covered integrating Mixpanel with WordPress and Drupal.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Do you need to comply with GDPR? Each analytics app has documentation on compliance:

Clicky quickly explains how it’s GDPR compliant.
Google has an entire section explaining the topic.
Matomo has an opt-out function and other plugins for GDPR compliance.
Open Web Analytics has little documentation but can be compliant with a few clicks.

Real-time Data

All except Open Web Analytics have real-time stats views. Clicky has an elegant full-screen big screen option for monitoring.

Length for Archived Tracked Data

Clicky free plan only stores the last 3,000 daily page views a day for the last 3 months. All others have no limit.

Scalability

Google has a long list of features and integrations available upen setup. Matomo has a long list of downloadable plugins to customize it as you learn more about your audience. Open Web Analytics has four preinstalled modules.

External Web Service or Self-maintained

External Web Service

Clicky, Google

Pros	Cons
Doesn’t rely on your website server resources	May need to pay for more features and data storage
Downtime less likely as all users using it via central location and interface	Less customization for user interface
Don’t need to worry about security other than login credentials	If service discontinues, no way to continue using it or export data to another app

Self-Maintained

Matomo, Open Web Analytics

Pros	Cons
More customization as they’re all open source	Must maintain upgrades
Can develop own tools, processes, and cron jobs	Server downtime affects analytics app
Can continue using if developer team discontinues development	Must monitor security yourself

Ease of Use

It takes time to learn some user interfaces and each affects your productivity. Matomo is very customizable via coding and plugins. Open Web Analytics is customizable with coding.

Below are some screenshots of the web analytics web applications we’ve covered.