A good web analytics tool is a must have for any website or blog owners out there and when we talk about web analytics the only thing comes to mind is Google Analytics. If you have used It before then you know it’s a bit dated and Google Analytics is definitely not that user-friendly for newcomers who are just getting started with web publishing.
Here we present you the top 3 best and free alternatives to Google Analytics.
Matomo
Matomo is the leading open-source analytics solution free from data limitations. Make more informed decisions and enhance your customer experience while ensuring data privacy and ownership. Matomo is the trusted solution for over 1.5 million websites globally. Take back control of your data ownership and challenge the status quo. Matomo does most of what Google Analytics does.
Matomo features include metrics on the number of visitors your site recieves, data on where the traffic is coming from (both on the web and geographically), the pages from which they leave, and the ability to track search engine referrals. Matomo also offers many reports, and you can customize the dashboard to view the metrics that you want to see.
Matomo integrates with WordPress, Magneto, Joomla, and vBulletin, using plugins. For anything else, you can simply add a tracking code to a page on your site and you’re good to go.
Open Web Analytics
The second one on our list is Open Web Analytics. Open Web Analytics includes key features that rival Google Analytics or there are instances where Open Web Analytics can outperform Google Analytics.
In addition to the usual analytics and reporting functions, Open Web Analytics tracks where on a page, and on what elements, visitors click; provides heat maps that show where on a page visitors interact the most; and does e-commerce tracking as well.
Open Web Analytics has a WordPress plugin and you can add a snippet of JavaScript or PHP code to your web pages to enable tracking as well.
Plausible
Plausible is a modern and beautifully designed alternative for Google Analytics. It’s lean, it’s fast, and only collects a small amount of information that includes numbers of unique visitors and the top pages they visited, the number of page views, the bounce rate, and referrers. Plausible is simple and very focused.
What makes Plausible different from its competitors is its heavy focus on privacy. The project creators state that the tool doesn’t collect or store any information about visitors to your website, which is particularly attractive if privacy is important to you.