Google Analytics is the world’s most widely used web analytics service. Because Google Analytics is free (unless you need the enterprise level of service), constantly evolving, and backed by one of the technology industries’ largest companies, the service has become the industry standard for measuring website performance.
But like most industries, the web analytics industry has a number of other options you may want to consider when deciding which technology to use to track the performance of your website. Below we’ve compiled a list of 10 top Google Analytics alternatives you may want to consider when making this choice, each with a different approach to how Google tracks the performance of your pages. If you’re looking for a different viewpoint or set of metrics around how and why your website is performing at the level it currently is, and what you can do to improve those metrics, each of these Analytics alternatives can help out.
1. KISSmetrics
KISSmetrics is one of the most popular Google Analytics alternatives available today. Because the service provides a great deal of extra information to website owners that GA simply does not, KISSmetrics is rapidly gaining popularity in the online space.
KISSmetrics is heavily user focussed, and is a refreshing change for analytics packages. With KISSMetrics you can quite clearly determine and profile who your ideal customers are, which channels they’re coming from, and make informed decisions about how best to market to these individuals over time, and in turn capture more of user visitation via your highest performing channels.
Of the many cool features within the KISSmetrics package you’ll really enjoy, is profiling what your customers do over time, and how long it takes for them to change from casual visitors to paying customers. Even if it takes months for a particular customer to move from being an ordinary visitor to a paid customer, all this data is available for you to peruse within this service. Combine this with a heavy focus on channel profiling, and KISSmetrics is bound to give you some excellent insights into your online marketing activities.
KISSmetrics pricing starts at $150 per month.
2. Clicky
Clicky is another highly popular web analytics tool you can try. Similar to Google Analytics, Clicky has a vast array of features ranging from basic web analytics and measuring concepts, to advanced split testing, heat mapping, campaign and goal tracking, visitation charting, and even some really handy social media engagement tools.
If your business relies on traffic from social media sources such as Twitter, Clicky includes a social media monitoring service which has a free 21 day trial period for those of you who are penny conscious. However this service starts at $9.99 per month for the add-on, which shouldn’t worry too many serious webmasters considering the base service comes free.
What we really liked about Clicky was that it was super easy to use, and the initial dashboard was packed with features, meaning we didn’t have to go digging for our analytics. We recommend the “Big Screen” real time data feature which was a lot of fun.
3. Woopra
Woopra is a customer centric web analytics platform that is not too dissimilar to KISSmetrics. Woopra comes in a little cheaper than KISSmetrics, with prices starting at $79.95, and also offers a basic version at no cost for users with low traffic volumes.
Woopra has some excellent features including funnel reports, customer profiles, analytics reports, retention reports, and real-time triggers which we felt was a really nice feature when setup for mobile notifications.
We found Woopra to be exceptional for profiling customers, and generally very simple to use. Where Google Analytics tells you how much traffic your generating, Woopra takes aim at what your customer data is telling you, and how long you’re retaining their interest. Woopra’s user interface was very nice, and the detail of information was high, yet incredibly easy to understand and make use of.
4. Mix Panel
Mixpanel is a really well backed web analytics tool with some seriously well known companies on their growing client list including Amazon, eBay and Klout just to name a few.
Mixpanel, whose goal is to develop the most advanced analytics platform for web and mobile, offers exceptionally high quality segmentation, funnels, retention analysis, customer notifications, and a new focus area they call ‘people’ to help you truly understand your customer base.
If you’re looking to understand where you lose your customers, where the majority of your customers are coming from, and truly profile the demographics of your customer base, Mixpanel is a sure-fire winner in this space. With an interesting pricing structure where you can choose to pay via what’s called ‘data points’, or website visitors, Mixpanel is an excellent option worth considering, and is sure to gain momentum in the coming years.
5. Gauges
Gaugues is a real-time analytics service, and an affordable option for those at the lower end of the market who are only looking to spend a small amount each month on this type of service. Gauges have plans ranging from $6 per month, to $48 per month, and is a fast, effective, and easy to use service for interpreting the movements of your visitors on the fly.
Similar in focus to a more traditional analytics package, the key benefit of Gauges is that it breaks data down into a much more segmented and smaller array of useful information, so you can really begin to target and understand your visitors more effectively.
Not only this, but Gauges includes a very handy service for geo-profiling customers through a system they call ‘AirTraffic’. This system captures exactly where on the globe your visitors derive from, so that you can truly measure your real-time analytics with a global perspective in mind.
Summary
If you’re looking to step outside the parameters of Google Analytics, or even use a secondary tracking mechanism to measure your website performance, each of the above mentioned options is worth considering. The interesting thing to note about the above items, is that each has recognized that to survive in the market against a giant of the web such as Google, they have had to differentiate themselves enough to stand out. With a common focus on the customer, as oppose to page views or impressions as the primary metric, this is a regular occurrence you are likely to encounter when reviewing analytics alternatives currently available in the market today.
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