I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not always using the best software for monitoring stats for web sites (and by stats I mean anything from hits to referrers to user patterns, and everything in between and on each side), including personal projects such as this site, and commercial projects for clients. I’ve tried built-in log-analysis offerings from various hosts (e.g. Webalizer), as well as free scripts such as Shaun Inman’s ShortStat and Dean Allen’s Refer (usually combinations of more than one such application and/or script), some of which provide useful information, but I’m not entirely convinced that I’ve found the correct collection of tools to evaluate and monitor (and allow clients to do likewise) web site statistics.
So my question is this:
What scripts/applications/solutions do you or your company use to monitor and evaluate statistics for your own web projects and for your clients?
I’ll compile and post my thoughts after I finish evaluating any and all suggestions, but the comments for this post will remain open for as long as I can put up with the comment-spam, so keep your suggestions coming, thanks!
Comments
45 responses to “Stat Tracking for Web Projects”
I’ve used bbclone on my site for some basic stats and I’ve been pleased. It is pretty simple, so it might not be what you are looking for, but it is worth a look.
I use Refer and Shortstat, but with the recent increase in refer spam, I don’t really count on those to be as reliable as they once were. I have 2 or 3 stat programs available from my host, and usually end up going with the reports that AWStats spits out just because I like the organization of it.
For our clients, we usually download their raw log files and run them through a local installation of Webalizer here at the office. That way we can filter out stuff if we need to, such as the clients IP range for more accurate external stats.
I use Urchin and it’s more than capable of the more detailed reports you seem to be looking for.
I’ve recently found awstats and have been very impressed by it…
We use Urchin, but it is a commercial package…
And it is Shaun Inman…
I use AWStats, and I highly recomend it. It is easy to use, shows graphs where they are needed (and not where they are not). The only problem I notice is that it counts hits to include files just like a regular page, and that querey driven pages are not trackable (as it only deals with static info).
If you are in to Webalizer, you will definately wan’t to check out WebDruid. It is based on Webalizer, but also returns some super sweet user path charts that just blew me away.
Oh yeah, it’s written in C and so it took about 13 seconds to parse what AWStats went though in 45 minutes. ;-)
#5 – Thanks for the spellcheck Byron, I was writing a contract today for someone named “Shawn” and must have typed it 20 times throughout the day, and my fingers were on their own :) I’ve corrected his name in the post.
pphlogger is a nice one and very extensive..
ProNet: Nick O´Neill is working on a visitor statistics plugin for Movable Type (MTStats). [Beta-Testing]
For my site stats, and on other small projects I use the simple AXS.
On bigger commercial projects I worked with Redsheriff, but it’s another, costly, universe ;-)
@Dan Rubin: No problem. Even though I have known Shaun since college, I too am guilty of flubbing his name, mainly due to my boss’s name being Sean…
StatCounter . It’s free and sufficient for smaller sites.
Strange…that link doesn’t work for some reason. Try this: How StatCounter Works.
Urchin. Wouldn’t give it up for the world.
For my site I use Php-stats. It’s simple to install and offers very detailed information.
I use http://webstat.com/. It is inexpensive, only $9.95/month and has amazing detailed reports that you can export to PDF, Excel and even send as an attachment.
Also, you can track GoogAd Words or other campaigns separately which is great.
You can try it for free for 14 days.
No need to buy expensive license or install any software on the server.
Good luck.
-S
I’ve used a http://www.reinvigorate.net/system/ as a pretty, open source, alternative. No heavy lifting here.
I’ve been very satisfied with AWStats as well. Simple and clean. The charts make it real easy to get overview just at a glance.
Shaun is working on a new version of ShortStat that is absolutely brilliant. I’ve been beta testing it for him, and I can tell you that it blows the socks off the old version. I’ve not used a lot of other apps, but I sure love this one!
Well it depends on the type of client. If it is anything serious (i.e. enterprise level) then i suggest getting webtrends from netIQ.
It will put those other pakcages to shame, but it comes with a pricetag. as they say you pay for what you get…
In Order…
Big Bucks To Spend:
Sitecatalyst
Webside Story
Urchin
Web Trends
Click Tracks
Price matters:
Web Stat
Stat Counter
Personally, I use on many web sites my own traffic logger built in my customized CMS.
On comercial sites or bigger clients, I use a local stats logger provider service (Trafic.ro).
I think for any site you wish to have some realistic stats data and choose to use the services of some company, it is better to use a provider either from your country, or at least one that will have a very low-response time to the majority of your web site visitors. What I mean is you shouldn’t use a company’s services, if it is located on another continent then user target.
I suggest free “Funnel Web Analyser” > http://www.quest.com
I use TFStats. Works well for me, fast and simple with good analysis. http://www.oplossing.net/
I use WebLog Expert for personal stat generation. I love it. Provides standard reports — hits and visitor counts, referrers, hosts, browsers, enter/exit pages etc. — plus various filter capabilities allowing to include or exclude specified filtering criteria, or tracking particular files. Also, some nice extras include the ability to schedule report generation, and to e-mail and/or ftp the generated result to desired destination, for instance. Not only that, the tool can also download logs via http or ftp.
One may generate reports encompassing all logged activity, or various subsets. Furthermore, it is possible to specify a time range of the activity to be analyzed. Quite nice … a snap too install, simple to use, and relatively fast. Frequently updated as well … latest beta contains export functionality(CSV and PDF).
WebLog Expert supports IIS and Apache logs, though this is a Windows client only. Comes in two flavours: freeware Lite version, and full 30-day free trial pay version.
While much of the functionality this tool provides is overkill for my personal needs, it is certainly a great option for corporate use.
ib.
The company I work for uses Web Analytics with http://247media.com/ for user and behavior tracking. Costs quite a bit, but it helps us analyize web users and their movements quite effectively.
I really like ClickTracks (http://www.clicktracks.com). It’s stat software made for marketers.
For $500, you can run as many log files as you want. It’s great value-added for your clients.
s
I have tried refer for a while and i didnt find it very handy. Left a few emails with the author regarding refer spamming, not once did I get a reply. Later I tried Shortstats ( a lot better) and awstats too.
Having moved my hosting with Segpub I got urchin as a part of the hosting package. Urchin is a really good product and does webstats to a great depth. The only downside is its a commercial product and too expensive investing for personal use. If i didnt have urchin i would rely more on shortstats more than anything else. Although, I would recommend password protecting stats, It helps cut down a lot of unwanted spammers and bandwidth crawlers.
For my personal site, I just use awstats, which comes with the hosting.
My company uses NetTracker, which I don’t think anyone else mentioned. I don’t know how much it costs, but it’s very powerful – you can do all sorts of custom reports. The UI could be a little better, but it’s usable.
I used http://www.xiti.com for some time.
It’s a commercial service.
I work for a large university, and while we wait for our institutional log analysis software to be implemented on our web server, we’ve been running 123 Log Analyzer on local machines. It’s not the greatest software availalbe, but offers good functionality with a decent interface for a reasonable price.
I’ve also used Urchin on several servers, which is a pretty slick package.
Maybe you should check out HotTracker. Its also available in a free ASP version (but a commercial service – pricing depends on number of page impressions). Using pixel (aka webbug) technology has many advantages over logfile analysis (proxies, tracking over multiple websites
and many more…). You can visit a demo and sign up for a free and unlimited (time) test-drive.
My site has not yet opened, but Globat provides awstats for me. However, it is kind of a bunch of raw data just piled together in a totally unorganized manner.
I like all the data that it gives me, but I wish it would organize it more.
I will probably end up implementing my own logging system. However, I don’t really need it for a while, and it’s kind of going to be something I’ll be working on over an extended period of time.
Hopefully, it will feature nice little things such as search engine crawling activity, search engine ranking, user paths, user referrers, most used image, etc..
Has anyone tried Web CEO? I’m wondering specifically about their HitLens feature. How does it stack up against ClickTracks, Urchin, et al.?
i’ve used the Perl-based AXS for a while and it’s been pretty useful. but i haven’t really figured out how to track more than one page with AXS.
reinvigorate is open-source & it’s great but it’s down now.
i would reccomend http://www.statcounter.com
its what i use for all my statistical needs
For basis stats, I’m using AWStats.
But recently, I’ve discovered MyBlogLog (http://www.mybloglog.com/), which tracks your outgoing links. It’s an amazing tool.
At my place of work, we use a highly grainular, amazingly powerful website analysis tool by the folks at Omniture ( http://www.omniture.com/ ). IMO, this is the best reporting/analysis I have ever seen/used. There is nothing you cannot due using the website analysis tool Site Catalyst. The high cost limits their usage to professional, e-commerice driven websites, but if that is what you have, I wouldn’t recommend anything else.
For personal websites and websites I produce for personal clients, I just go with the quite limited AW Stats which is free and quite lacking in grainular analysis of any kind.
I’ve been using TrackPro on most of my recent projects (http://www.curve2.com/trackpro2.php). Its got tons of different statistics summaries, and its free.
I’ve always found Sawmill to be very good and flexible.
They also offer a free license if you keep track of how you used it.
For all you ASP’ers out there:
I’ve been using the awesome StatCounteX for 3 years, an open-source ASP real-time statistics server. However, I totally re-wrote the code and added awesome new features, like implementing flash charts using fusionCharts.
open-source project homepage:
http://www.2enetworx.com/dev/projects/statcountex.asp
an example of many of available plugins:
http://www.digitalusmedia.com/go/flash-statcountex-media.html
example in action:
http://www.flaviobonomini.it/publicstatcountex/reportpathy.asp
the awesome fusionCharts LITE (free!) (their not really b/w btw):
http://www.infosoftglobal.com/FusionCharts/Lite/Gallery.asp
openwebscope is $99, we run it locally, can run unlimited log files … see nycsoftware.com.
we find it very felxible and provides all the basic stuff filtered any which way.
I use NetTracker Lite, its free.
my vote is for http://www.statcounter.com too, it gives me all the information I need, and I can even download it in a cvs or excel file! It’s free, but I think if you pay ($25 a year…?) you can get a few more things.