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  5. Google Analytics vs Piwik

Google Analytics vs Piwik

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Google Analytics
Google Analytics
Stacks128.5K
Followers50.7K
Votes5.1K
Piwik
Piwik
Stacks1.4K
Followers512
Votes74

Google Analytics vs Piwik: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this comparison, we will analyze the key differences between Google Analytics and Piwik, two popular web analytics tools.

  1. Hosting and Data Ownership: Google Analytics is a cloud-based service, where data is processed and stored on Google's servers. In contrast, Piwik allows users to self-host the software on their own servers, giving them full control over their data and ensuring data privacy.

  2. Cost Structure: Google Analytics is free for most users but offers a premium, paid version for enterprise users with advanced features. Piwik, on the other hand, is an open-source tool with no licensing fees, providing all features for free to all users.

  3. Customization and Flexibility: Google Analytics offers a wide range of standard reports and metrics but has limitations when it comes to customizing reports and data visualization. Piwik, being open-source, allows for extensive customization of reports, dashboards, and tracking capabilities.

  4. Data Sampling: Google Analytics uses data sampling for larger datasets, which can affect the accuracy of reports, especially for high-traffic websites. Piwik, being self-hosted, does not use data sampling, providing more accurate and detailed insights into website performance.

  5. User Interface and Ease of Use: Google Analytics has a user-friendly interface and is known for its simplicity in setting up and tracking website performance. Piwik, while offering extensive customization options, may require more technical knowledge to set up and configure according to specific requirements.

Summary

In summary, Google Analytics is a cloud-based service with limited customization but is user-friendly, while Piwik is self-hosted, open-source, highly customizable, and provides detailed insights without data sampling.

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Advice on Google Analytics, Piwik

florence_ads
florence_ads

Feb 24, 2022

Needs adviceonGoogle AnalyticsGoogle Analytics

I'm looking to switch from Google Analytics to other more privacy compliant analytics tools. My ideal tool would have the basics (visits, pageviews, duration, rebound rate, source/medium) and more: breakdown by page, conversion goals, campaigns set-up... But I'm a bit confused by the different choices, and I would greatly appreciate any feedback ;)

41.9k views41.9k
Comments
Dennis
Dennis

Founder, Software Engineer & Product Manager at BlazingMedia

Nov 28, 2020

Decided

We have integrated Panelbear on our Website, rather than Google Analytics, because it is way more respecting of the User's Privacy. Whilst Google Analytics gives us in-depth information on virtually everything, we don't even need that much. Panelbear keeps it simple and in addition to that, displays the data well structured in a simple and intuitive dashboard

19.8k views19.8k
Comments
Matt
Matt

Dec 14, 2021

Decided

Caring about privacy I've chosen to go with self-hosted Ackee analytics for incoming traffic analytics and ahoy ruby gem to build inside-app analytics. Still getting Caring about privacy I've chosen to go with self-hosted Ackee analytics for incoming traffic analytics and ahoy ruby gem to build inside-app analytics. Still getting a plenty of data without sending visitors' information to Google

32.3k views32.3k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Google Analytics
Google Analytics
Piwik
Piwik

Google Analytics lets you measure your advertising ROI as well as track your Flash, video, and social networking sites and applications.

Matomo (formerly Piwik) is a full-featured PHP MySQL software program that you download and install on your own webserver. At the end of the five-minute installation process, you will be given a JavaScript code.

Analysis Tools- Google Analytics is built on a powerful, easy to use, reporting platform, so you can decide what data you want to view and customize your reports, with just a few clicks.;Content Analytics- Content reports help you understand which parts of your website are performing well, which pages are most popular so you can create a better experience for your customers.;Social Analytics- The web is a social place and Google Analytics measures success of your social media programs. You can analyze how visitors interact with sharing features on your site (like the Google +1 button) and engage with your content across social platforms.;Mobile Analytics- Google Analytics helps you measure the impact of mobile on your business. Additionally, if you build mobile apps Google Analytics offers Software Development Kits for iOS and Android so you can measure how people use your app.;Conversion Analytics- Find out how many customers you're attracting, how much you're selling and how users are engaging with your site with Google Analytics' range of analysis features.;Advertising Analytics- Make the most of your advertising by learning how well your social, mobile, search and display ads are working. Link your website activity to your marketing campaigns to get the complete picture and improve your advertising performance.
Real time data updates;Customizable Dashboard;All Websites Dashboard;Analytics for e-commerce;Goal conversion tracking;Event Tracking;Site Search Analytics;Geolocation;Pages Transitions;Page Overlay;Site speed & pages speed reports;Track different user interactions
Statistics
Stacks
128.5K
Stacks
1.4K
Followers
50.7K
Followers
512
Votes
5.1K
Votes
74
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 1483
    Free
  • 927
    Easy setup
  • 891
    Data visualization
  • 698
    Real-time stats
  • 406
    Comprehensive feature set
Cons
  • 11
    Confusing UX/UI
  • 8
    Super complex
  • 6
    Very hard to build out funnels
  • 4
    Poor web performance metrics
  • 3
    Very easy to confuse the user of the analytics
Pros
  • 35
    It's good to have an alternative to google analytics
  • 27
    Self-hosted
  • 10
    Easy setup
  • 2
    Not blocked by Brave
  • 0
    Great customs
Cons
  • 2
    Hard to export data
Integrations
Mad Mimi
Mad Mimi
Hipmob
Hipmob
Visual Website Optimizer
Visual Website Optimizer
Squarespace
Squarespace
ClickTale
ClickTale
CloudFlare
CloudFlare
Segment
Segment
Optimizely
Optimizely
FreshDesk
FreshDesk
SnapEngage
SnapEngage
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Google Analytics, Piwik?

Mixpanel

Mixpanel

Mixpanel helps companies build better products through data. With our powerful, self-serve product analytics solution, teams can easily analyze how and why people engage, convert, and retain to improve their user experience.

Clicky

Clicky

Clicky Web Analytics gives bloggers and smaller web sites a more personal understanding of their visitors. Clicky has various features that helps stand it apart from the competition specifically Spy and RSS feeds that allow web site owners to get live information about their visitors.

Plausible

Plausible

It is a lightweight and open-source website analytics tool. It doesn’t use cookies and is fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA and PECR.

Databricks

Databricks

Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, from the original creators of Apache Spark™, unifies data science and engineering across the Machine Learning lifecycle from data preparation to experimentation and deployment of ML applications.

userTrack

userTrack

userTrack is now called UXWizz. Get access to better insights, a faster dashboard and increase user privacy. It provides detailed visitor insights without relying on third-parties.

Quickmetrics

Quickmetrics

It is a service for collecting, analyzing and visualizing custom metrics. It can be used to track anything from signups to server response times. Sending events is super simple.

Matomo

Matomo

It is a web analytics platform designed to give you the conclusive insights with our complete range of features. You can also evaluate the full user-experience of your visitor’s behaviour with its Conversion Optimization features, including Heatmaps, Sessions Recordings, Funnels, Goals, Form Analytics and A/B Testing.

Maze

Maze

Maze empowers product and marketing teams to test anything from prototypes to copy, or round up user feedback—all in one place. Rapidly collect user insights across teams and create better user experiences, together.

Ackee (Analytics)

Ackee (Analytics)

Self-hosted, Node.js based analytics tool for those who care about privacy. Ackee runs on your own server, analyses the traffic of your websites and provides useful statistics in a minimal interface.

Volument

Volument

Volument is a new take on analytics: it focuses solely on conversion optimization and leaves out everything else. To be launched in 2020, it aims to change the way people measure and optimize their websites.

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