Popular Alternatives To Google Analytics
Google Analytics is the premier tool for web developers, webmasters, and SEO professionals looking to monitor their website visitors, analyze their site’s traffic sources and track their site’s sales and conversions.
It provides in-depth analysis and data that web developers need to create and manage websites that consistently perform well on the world wide web. Google Analytics is a free product. It is the industry standard and should have a place in every webmaster’s toolbox.
Some web developers and SEOs are uncomfortable with Google having such a large role in all of their online activities. For some people, the complexity of GA can often be hard to master, and so they look for simpler alternatives to track their website’s data.
5 Great Alternatives To Google Analytics
Clicky
Clicky is one of the most popular analytics tools on the market right now. Given its focus on simplicity and ease of use, it’s easy to see.
If you’re looking for a tool that makes it easy to dive in and get traffic data without having to complete an entire course, this is a great option. Open up the dashboard, and you’ll have all the data you need within a few clicks.
Clicky’s versatility is one of its secret weapons; because it doesn’t use flash, you can access the website on mobile without having to use an app (but apps are available).
Clicky doesn’t use any flash components in its user interface. This means you can access the website on mobile without having to use an app that limits functionality.
Aside from all of the usual analytics functionality, you’ll get access to heat maps and uptime monitoring on Pro Plus plans and above.
Key Features
- Comprehensive analytics
- Customizable dashboard
- Goal tracking
- Email reports
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android
- Real-time analytics (Pro plans and above)
- Heat maps (Pro Plus plans and above)
- Uptime monitoring (Pro Plus plans and above)
Perfect for Bloggers, web developers, virtual assistants, and small businesses.
Price: Free for up to 3,000 daily pageviews, with paid plans starting at less than $10 per month.
Momently
Momently is a content analytics tool designed for publishers and content marketers. The dashboard is easy to use and provides a number of critical insights into how well your content is performing.
Because of how this tool is designed, you can get data that most other analytics tools won’t provide.
For example, you can filter your content by an author to discover which of their posts gets the most engagement.
Scroll Depth tells you how much of your content is being read. And you can find out where your visitors go after reading that post — without having to mess around with extra code.
And one part of the dashboard will show you which categories are driving the most traffic, so you can plan out an informed content strategy.
You also have the option of setting up your own fully customizable reports.
Now, there will be certain data points that traditional analytics tools will give you that Momently won’t. There’s a good reason for this: a lot of data can be a distraction. Momently just shows the important data that matters to content performance.
Key Features
- Actionable analytics
- Simple dashboard
- Real-time tracking
- Scroll depth tracking
- Advanced filtering
- Customized reporting
Perfect for bloggers and any business using content marketing.
Price: Free for 3,000 views per month, paid plans start at less than $10 per month.
Matomo (previously Piwik)
Matomo is a completely free and open source alternative to Google Analytics. This means you own your data, your privacy is protected, and you have an analytics solution with no data limits.
There are two versions of Matomo:
- Self-hosted: This allows you to install Matomo on your own server. It’s completely free and puts you entirely in control of your data.
- Cloud-hosted: Skip the technical setup entirely, and host the software on Matomo’s secure servers.
Whichever version you choose will give you access to a comprehensive yet straightforward analytics platform.
You’ll have access to real-time data, a dashboard to view data for all of your websites, goal and funnel tracking, and a lot more.
For self-hosted users, additional features can be added by downloading plugins from the Matomo marketplace (some are paid plugins). For cloud-hosted users, depending on which plan you sign up for, you’ll receive additional features from some of those paid plugins.
Key features
- Comprehensive analytics
- Real-time data
- Customizable dashboard
- Goal and funnel tracking
- Top-level dashboard for all of your websites
- Custom dimensions and variables
- Extendable via third-party integrations
Perfect for bloggers, web developers, and businesses of all sizes.
Price: Free for the self-hosted version with the option of adding plugins to expand functionality (some are paid plugins). Cloud-hosted version starts at less than $10 per month for 50,000 monthly pageviews.
The cloud-hosted version includes some of the premium features from paid plugins in the self-hosted version, but which premium features you get depends on your plan.
Mixpanel
Mixpanel is a powerful event-based analytics tool that enables you to get deep insights into how your users behave across mobile and web.
You’ll get all of the usual traffic analytics you’d expect, along with funnel tracking and useful content analytics. And your key metrics can be added to a customizable dashboard.
You can use the insights functionality to analyze data and glean meaningful insights, then save your reports.
It’s worth pointing out that this is one of the more complicated tools on this list, but that’s because you’re getting far more than an analytics platform.
Not only does this tool give you the power to gather data, but you also have the functionality in place to act upon that data.
For example, you can use their re-engagement functionality to send targeted messages and campaigns to users. All via a variety of different platforms – email, push notifications, in-app notifications, and SMS text messages.
You can then experiment with your message using the a/b split testing feature to boost your conversions.
Key features
- Analytics across desktop and mobile
- Data analysis functionality
- Custom dashboards
- Funnel tracking
- Retention analytics
- User profiling
- Mobile split testing (paid plans only)
- Re-engagement features (campaigns, messaging and a/b split testing)
Perfect for Large businesses.
Price: Free for up to 5 million data points with limited functionality. Paid plans start at about $100 per 1 million data points (billed annually).
Kissmetrics
Kissmetrics is a behavioral analytics and engagement platform that promises to help you get, keep, and grow more customers.
You get all of the usual activity, metrics and funnel tracking functionality you might expect, and a lot more. You can also track across both websites and mobile apps.
Kissmetrics is for large eCommerce and SaaS companies who need a comprehensive marketing tool to gather and analyze data so they can transform it into actionable goals.
It is a comprehensive marketing tool. You can gather data, analyze that data and act upon it.
Usually, you’d need an email marketing automation tool and a separate analytics tool. But the problem is that the two don’t usually work together.
And the data that most email marketing tools provide tends to be limited. Fortunately, tools like Kissmetrics can bridge the gap.
Instead of being focused on pageviews, or events, it’s focused specifically on how people interact with your website (or app). Every event is tied back to a person so you get a 360-degree view of what’s going on.
Key features
- Person-focused analytics
- Email marketing functionality
- Website and app-based tracking
- Funnel tracking
- Tie events back to people
- Track segments of people
Perfect for Large businesses, particularly eCommerce and SaaS companies.
Price: Prices start at about $500/month.
Conclusion
Clicky is a great starting point because of their free plan. Paid plans offer extra features and are cost-effective, giving an opportunity to grow. Momently is a bit of budget-friendly to play with content marketing. Matomo is a complete package of control and ownership of your data. But it requires an additional setup due to it being self-hosted unless you go for the cloud-hosted version. Kissmetrics and Mixpanel are both solid options that can bridge the gap between analytics and marketing automation. It’s important to remember that the last two are complex alternatives to Google Analytics, so it’s better to hire an agency that has experience with those platforms.