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Goodbye Google Analytics. Hello Piwik

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Re: Goodbye Google Analytics. Hello Piwik

#2

Post by aram »

Piwik is pretty good alternative and unlike GA, it gives instant analytics and is extensible.

However, it tends to behave clunky after some time, depending on the number of sites, traffic and server where you host it. This is most visible when you try to display a larger date range or just dig in the history.

There is one more important thing to consider: it collects IP addresses of all your visitors out of the box, which might be in conflict with your local laws. Be sure to check that out before adding it to the site.

Re: Goodbye Google Analytics. Hello Piwik

#3

Post by Nursie »

Site has slowed down considerably now.

Anyone fancy telling the lot at gov.uk about this? It would be nice if they weren't using foreign owned (and likely foreign-located) servers to record and analyse what UK citizens do on UK government websites.

Re: Goodbye Google Analytics. Hello Piwik

#4

Post by tombrossman »

Our local police force has set up a site for 'anonymous' reports from rape victims, and it had GA tracking on every page (plus Google CDN content, another issue). I wrote them to explain why this wasn't the best idea and how Piwik was a better choice.

Crimestoppers (A UK charity) are doing this too, and I wrote them to explain the potential for privacy issues. 'You've outsourced crime victims' privacy to an ad company' was my basic message.

I told both the local police and Crimestoppers how easy Piwik was, and how I thought it was a better idea but I don't think I got my point across. There is a gap in the understanding where the site owner doesn't see the raw data (bot Google does) and so they think it's okay.

Anyhow, interesting privacy issues and it may be that I am overlooking something or being overly cautious.

I posted a related question over on Stack Exchange if anyone's interested in providing some feedback there. http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/q/47069

Re: Goodbye Google Analytics. Hello Piwik

#5

Post by dkuntz2 »

aram wrote: post #2

Piwik is pretty good alternative and unlike GA, it gives instant analytics and is extensible. However, it tends to behave clunky after some time, depending on the number of sites, traffic and server where you host it. This is most visible when you try to display a larger date range or just dig in the history. There is one more important thing to consider: it collects IP addresses of all your visitors out of the box,…

You can get Google analytics to show you real time info too, it just don't save it as the default view.

Re: Goodbye Google Analytics. Hello Piwik

#6

Post by aram »

dkuntz2 wrote: post #5
aram wrote: post #2

Piwik is pretty good alternative and unlike GA, it gives instant analytics and is extensible. However, it tends to behave clunky after some time, depending on the number of sites, traffic and server where you host it. This is most visible when you try to display a larger date range or just dig in the history. There is one more important thing to consider: it collects IP addresses of all your visitors out of the box,…

You can get Google analytics to show you real time info too, it just don't save it as the default view.

Thanks for that; I remember that it used to display only data older than 24h, but didn't know they changed that.

Re: Goodbye Google Analytics. Hello Piwik

#7

Post by arb99 »

dkuntz2 wrote: post #5
aram wrote: post #2

Piwik is pretty good alternative and unlike GA, it gives instant analytics and is extensible. However, it tends to behave clunky after some time, depending on the number of sites, traffic and server where you host it. This is most visible when you try to display a larger date range or just dig in the history. There is one more important thing to consider: it collects IP addresses of all your visitors out of the box,…

You can get Google analytics to show you real time info too, it just don't save it as the default view.

I've found that with GA the previous 24 hrs or so stats are not really accurate, especially with bigger traffic sites.

Re: Goodbye Google Analytics. Hello Piwik

#10

Post by narrowingorbits »

aram wrote: post #2

Piwik is pretty good alternative and unlike GA, it gives instant analytics and is extensible. However, it tends to behave clunky after some time, depending on the number of sites, traffic and server where you host it. This is most visible when you try to display a larger date range or just dig in the history. There is one more important thing to consider: it collects IP addresses of all your visitors out of the box,…

The GA real-time view does really work well now, but I think I'll have to give Piwik a try; looks like a fantastic alternative!
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