Bye bye Google Analytics, hello Piwik
I used to love Google Analytics, I’ve been using it for all my personal or client projects. However, the “new” version has been pissing me off more than usual. First I never got used to the new layout. Then the non integration with the google account that you normally have active it’s insane. If I have multiple accounts it always makes me logout from all of them and login with just one. If I’m using just one, it always make me hit the login button.
Anyway, long story short I started looking for an alternative. I had two requirements: I wanted to control the updates of the service; and I wanted to be able to use it like the old analytics. Nice and clean.
So I found Piwik Analytics. The first thing I heard while talking to people about this matter was: “why would you bother with Piwik, when you have Google Analytics working fine?” — Like I said, Google Analytics doesn’t work fine.
When you start really looking around you’ll find some stuff that Piwik has that Google Analytics doesn’t.
- Tracking file downloads
- Tracking outbound links
- Tracks cart abandonment
- Handy summaries in the conversion report to quickly figure out what is going on
- Officially supported Mobile App
- They publish a clear and open road map of where the application is going
- Piwik’s team offers Professional Services to help customize your site for a fee. (You need Google Premium at a $100,000/year to get that)
If this is not enough for you, consider this:
- What if you do not wish to be limited by Google Analytics or their API
- Is it important to own/control your data?
- Do you need a tool to collect data so you can create custom dashboards.
Personally, having control over my data, and the fact that Google is not using my data for something else it’s more than enough for me to choose Piwik.