10 Ways Piwik is Better Than Google Analytics
Piwik is is better than Google Analytics in many ways, at least 10 of them. It's:
Free, really free, you don't pay with your data. Once you use Google Analytics you'll get Adwords ads via mail both electronic and in real life.
Open Source - Do I need to say more? No big Google like corporation behind it or small business that could go bankrupt out of the blue.
Respects privacy while Google Analytics does send your data to the US where at least 40 different secret government agencies can access it.
Easy to use once it's installed. GA is way to complex by now. You have to click several times to find some crucial reports.
Simple goal tracking. I have explained that in a recent how to post on SEOptimise. The way Piwik organizes goal tracking is easy to grasp and implement.
Customizable. While GA is also customizable you can make your Piwik dashboard show anything and everything you want.
Self hosted, so that you control your data and they stay i the same country you're in and nobody else can view them, not even Google employees.
Tracks Google Image Search. While GA, sham on them, doesn't properly track Google Image search traffic Piwik does with ease.
Full referers: you have to perform bizarre workarounds to see the actual referers people come from to your site in GA. Once you have them you have to click several times just to see them. Piwik simply shows them after one click.
Almost real time - While Google Analytics data appears with sometimes a substantial delay Piwik shows your visitors right away.
Did I overlook something? I bet Piwik has even more advantages. I've been playing around with it for roughly two weeks now. Add them in the comments. I also have to admit that Google Analytics has some advantages over Piwik. I'd miss advanced segments for instance.
So I won't quit GA just yet but may in the future. Piwik gets developed fast. Last time I tested it they were Beta 0.4 or something, right now the current version is 1.1.1
Also
and other entry level paid web analytics tools have to look out. I use all of them except Chartbeat but I almost stopped after I started using Piwik.
never used this but i am sure i will. the point that inspired me the most was “open source”.
Tad,
So out of curiosity, it it’s 10x better than GA, why are you still using GA?
I’m not saying to be an ass. I’m asking because based off what i’ve read here, i’m considering installing and moving to Piwik…
10 Ways Piwik is Better Than Google Analytics…
Piwik is is better than Google Analytics in many ways, at least 10 of them. The article enticed me to look into Piwiki. Their site makes it look even more enticing. I’m really considering installi……
You have mentioned that Piwik respects privacy? How do you know that? Are you working with them? Or have you done a research about that?
Moosa: Yeah, it was one of my main motives as well. Open source software beats dependency on a strictly commercial proprietary vendor.
Chris: Good question but as mentioned in the article itself at the bottom I’d miss some features of GA like advanced segments.
Also most clients use GA already so I have to use it as well.
Last but not least I got used to it so I stay with it out of habit. It’s like giving up smoking, you know it’s bad but you don’t.
Also I didn’t say “10 times better”, I just cited the ten advantages Piwik has over GA.
Yeah I hear you. I suppose I was misrepresenting by saying 10x better. I love the fact that it’s self hosted. I think I have to try it out now. Thanks for sharing the find!
I downloaded a beta version of Piwik a few months ago and haven’t as yet gotten down to setting it up on some of the websites I manage.
I have read several blog posts saying that it is a really simple and easy to use open-source alternative to GA and I think your blog post has now given me a proverbial “kick in the butt” to get it installed on one of my domains to check it out.
The one thing I dislike about GA is the delay in data displayed, so if Piwik is “almost real time” that is definitely a great feature all on its own, and one I’ve gotten used to while using a GA client for my Android smartphone.
I’m not sure I’m gonna drop GA but I’ll definitely give Piwik a really good test drive.
Thanks for highlighting Piwik’s benefits and features.
I use Google Analytics regularly but I am always amazed by how unfriendly it is to the user. Based on this post, I’ll give Piwik a try, but I think for the time being Google Analytics will remain the standard. Hopefully these open source reporting systems will at least make Google realise that they need to improve their own tool.
You’ve hit the nail on the head in the reply Tad.
“Also most clients use GA already so I have to use it as well.”
No matter how good Piwik is, you’ve got to see what your clients are seeing. And unfortunately, that could stop it becoming as popular as you’ve said that it deserves to be.
[...] wegen unklarer Gesetzeslage scheut, dem sei z.B. Clicky empfohlen oder aber das kostenlose Piwik (toller Artikel dazu). Ab einem gewissen Punkt kommt man um ein solches Tool einfach nicht mehr [...]
Chris, Perdo, Gemma: Tell me what you think once you tried Piwik.
Andy: I’m afraid you are right.
Hey,
Just found you through SERPD and found this interesting as I have written about PIWIK before.
When I first installed PIWIK, I loved it. Everything about PIWIK was great. After giving it a few months I realized that the only great thing about PIWIK was instantaneous data.
I even posted a review of why I thought Google had better analytics solution than PIWIK. You can find the link here.
http://toogoom.com/google-analytics-vs-piwik-a-social-media-case-study-and-data-interpretation/
PIWIK is missing some really basic stuff like filtering reports on a custom date range and many more.
Even though Google analytics uses and owns your data they provide a great piece of software that nothing else comes close to at that price.
I’ll give it a try for sure. I am tired of Google being everywhere & especially sharing my info.
Lot discussed. Interesting!!! Never used this. Definitely have a try then only I can be in discussion.
good points are made in this post that very well describe the value of piwik in comparison with google.
We release Google2Piwik which allow exporting Google data to Piwik. And now it’s easier then ever swap to Piwik.
The thing that gets me to use Piwik is that it is real time. Waiting a whole day for Google Analytics doesn’t work with me.
Very well narrated and open source is mind blowing. Definitely look forward to overtake the backlog.
I’ve been thinking about making the switch over to Piwik, your post has convinced me that the time is now. The real time tracking alone, is reason enough to switch.
I’ve always used Google Analytics and have been pretty happy with it. But maybe I’ll investigate Piwik.
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Great post on this tool, its really changed the way I look at GA and using the data once I actually have it in hand and not hiding in Google somewhere.
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Piwik is a really good open source analytics program. They need to promote it more.
In my opinion Google Analytics is still the best option for SEOs.
I’ve always used Google Analytics.Now I’m thinking to use piwik to know how it is.
You forgot to say about the
keyword “(not provided)” that’s becoming very annoying. Almost all my website have (not provided) as the top keyword… what’s that all about? GA sucks!
Johnson: (not provided) can’t get fixed by Piwik as it’s not just a Google Analytics issue but a Google search issue. Google blocks referrer data right in the search results.