Web Analytics Tools
Best Web Analytics Tools
- Top Rated Web Analytics Tools include: StatCounter, Google Analytics, Google Analytics Premium, Matomo (formerly Piwik), Mixpanel, and Kissmetrics.
- Other Web Analytics Tools on the TrustMap include: Adobe Analytics, Chartbeat, AT Internet, Webtrends Analytics, and IBM Digital Analytics.
- A complete list of Web Analytics Tools is available here.
TrustMaps are two-dimensional charts that compare products based on satisfaction ratings and research frequency by prospective buyers. Products must have 15 or more ratings to appear on this TrustMap, and those above the median line are considered Top Rated.
Web Analytics Overview
What is Web Analytics?
Web analytics tools track website user activity. Tracking activity gives organizations the ability to optimize their content.
Web analytics have also grown beyond tracking web usage to include interactions with social media and mobile apps. This expanded approach is sometimes called digital analytics.
The data from web analytics tools help companies evaluate and improve their online presence. Web analytics business objectives include things like:
Attracting more visitors
Increasing sales
Improving customer engagement
Improving customer retention
Insights from web analytics tools can drive actions such as:
Refining website content
Adjusting website design
Reallocating marketing dollars
The ultimate goal is to optimize for the desired business objective.
Web Analytics Features & Capabilities
Individual-level tracking
Real-time analytics
A/B testing
Mobile analytics
Attribution modeling
On-the-fly segmentation
Ecommerce tracking
Funnel analysis
Cohort analysis
Cross-device tracking
In-page analytics (Session recording, click tracking, mouse tracking, heatmaps)
Goal conversion tracking
Event tracking
Privacy compliance
On-premise option
Benchmarking
Web Analytics Tools
Tags
Most web analytics tools use page tagging to track online activity. A ‘tag’ is placed in a website’s JavaScript code.
Using the tag, analytics tools can detect when someone visits the page. The tool can also track link clicks, video views and other events. Most tools can also track users’ IP address, geography, screen size and web browser.
Cookies
Web analytics also use cookies. Cookies are a small piece of data attached to each site visitor’s browser. They are designed to track a user’s session and future visits. This helps companies identify new visitors and returning visitors, in order to understand user behavior over time
Most tools track similar web, social and mobile metrics. The most common metrics found with web analytics tools include:
The number of people using a website (visits, unique visitors, pageviews)
Who they are (geolocation of visitors, browser and device type, registered and unregistered users)
Where they came from (referring source, search keyword)
What they are doing while there (Time spent on site, conversions, click path, bounce rate)
This information is presented on a dashboard. The dashboard of web analytics tools is a central source of information for companies. Dashboards can usually be customized to segment data by user persona, date range, or other attributes.
No web analytics vendor can promise 100% accuracy in data. This is because people can delete cookies, and browsers can restrict JavaScript, for example. Therefore, different tools will produce slightly different results for the same metric. But web analytics tools still provide valuable insight into customer needs and online behavior.
Free Web Analytics Tools
Effective web analytics don’t always have to cost money. There are a number of free and freemium web analytics tools.
Google Analytics is by far the most widely adopted. StatCounter and Matomo (formerly Piwik) are also good examples of free tools. Some companies use both multiple analytics tools alongside each other (both free and paid). Some free web analytics tools are quite robust, and the vendor monetizes the tool by using the data to power other offerings such as advertising.
Pricing Information
The pricing model for web analytics tools varies by vendor. The tools go up in price as your number of Monthly Tracked People goes up. Web analytics tools run the gamut in terms of price.
Some are completely free, while others start at around $500/mo.
Web Analytics Products
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is perhaps the best-known web analytics product and, as a free product, it has massive adoption. Although it lacks some enterprise-level features compared to its competitors in the space, the launch of the paid Google Analytics Premium edition seems likely to close the gap.
Adobe Analytics
Adobe acquired Omniture in 2009 and re-branded the platform as SiteCatalyst. It is now part of Adobe Marketing Cloud along with other products such as social marketing, test and targeting, and tag management. SiteCatalyst is one of the leading vendors in the web analytics category and is...
Kissmetrics
Kissmetrics aims to help companies get, keep and grow more customers with its customer engagement automation. This solution includes behavioral analytics, segmentation and email campaign automation all in one place.The vendor says Kissmetrics helps companies deeply understand and uniquely engage...
Hotjar
Hotjar is a conversion rate optimization tool for digital marketers. Features include heatmapping, visual session recording, conversion funnel analytics, form analytics, feedback polls and surveys, and usability testing. The tool is used by digital analysts, UX designers, web developers and...
Mixpanel
Mixpanel aims to help companies build beloved products with leading analytics software for mobile and web. The vendor says as the only product analytics company featured in Forbes Cloud 100 and Forrester's Digital Intelligence Wave, Mixpanel provides the insights teams need to understand their...
Webtrends Analytics
WebTrends provides an enterprise web analytics platform and, according to Forrester, has a strong focus on support for mobile and social channels and a very open platform. Webtrends competes directly with Adobe Site Catalyst, IBM Coremetrics. and comScore DigitalAnalytix.
Smartlook
Smartlook is a product analytics solution that helps businesses of all sizes and industries get an insider look into how their websites and apps work. The product is used by 200,000 businesses.Smartlook enables you to see exactly what your visitors see through always-on recordings and multi-device...
IBM Digital Analytics
IBM acquired Coremetrics in 2010, and has since re-branded the platform to the IBM Digital Marketing Optimization Solution. This cloud-based solution includes IBM Digital Analytics, the core analytical product, as well as several add-on modules, including Benchmark, Product Recommendations,...
Exponea Experience Cloud
With its marketing cloud, Exponea aims to provide real-time 1:1 omni-channel personalization, a single 360-degree customer view, and dynamic A/B testing with AI. It equips marketers to raise conversion rates, improve acquisition ROI, and maximize customer lifetime value. The vendor says Exponea...
AT Internet
One of the world’s major players in digital analytics since 1996, AT Internet helps companies measure their audience and optimise their digital performance across all marketing channels. From data collection to exploration, activation and the sharing of insights, AT Internet’s Analytics Suite...
Matomo (formerly Piwik)
Piwik is an open source analytics platform that enables users to measure web and mobile apps as well as intranet portals. It protects the privacy of users through advanced privacy features and its approach to data ownership. Piwik offers On-premises and Cloud deployment options. Available in over...
Google Analytics Premium
Google Analytics Premium is an enterprise-level analytics solution that includes a full service suite of features offering a singular view of the consumer across platforms and devices. It also provides full integration with the Google stack, data-driven attribution, and the ability to optimize site...
GoSquared
GoSquared provides real-time website analytics to sites of all sizes. The real-time dashboard displays website analytics on an individual visitor basis. The Now App displays concurrent analysis (the visitors who are on your site right now) of your site performance. The Trends App displays...
StatCounter
Web analytics product designed for SMB.s Statistics collected are based on page loads.
Chartbeat
Chartbeat provides real-time web analytics, but is specifically designed for magazine and newspaper publishers making the switch from print to digital. The product tracks where traffic is coming from and helps maximize traffic and engagement.
Lead Forensics
UK company Lead Forensics offers their eponymous platform for lead generation and web analytics.
LeadLander
LeadLander is essentially an IP reverse look-up tool. It does a reverse look-up of the IP address to distinguish between corporate visitors and “home/ISP” users. Although having somewhat similar functionality as web analytics products like Google Analytics and WebTrends, it is actually designed...
Digital Analytix Enterprise
comScore's Digital Analytix Enterprise (DAX) product was acquired by Adobe in 2015 largely for its European customer base, with the goal of migrating former DAX customers to the Adobe Analytics cloud. Thus, DAX is no longer available. Formerly, it helped users optimize content for visibility and...
Segment
Segment is an SF-based customer data platform that helps engineering teams at companies like Tradesy, TIME, Inc., Gap, Lending Tree, PayPal, and Fender, etc., achieve significant time and cost savings on their data infrastructure. The vendor says they also enable Product, BI, and Marketing teams to...
VisitorTrack
VisitorTrack is a web analytics product from netFactor. It works beyond traditional web analytics to convert anonymous website "clicks" into intelligence on business visitors – without any registration action. Positioned as “Caller ID for Your Website”, the reporting and content are designed for...
Amplitude Analytics
Amplitude Analytics is an analytics platform for mobile and web. It is designed to help organizations segment users and analyze funnels, retention and revenue.
Heap
Heap is a web analytics platform captures every user interaction on web iOS with no extra code. The tool allows you to track events and set up funnels to understand user flow and dropoff. It also provides visualization tools to track trends over time.
Bound
Bound (formerly Get Smart Content) is a website segmentation and targeting platform that enables marketers to read a website visitor's digital body language and serve relevant content based on the person's stage in the buying journey. Using behavioral, demographic, and firmographic data, Bound...
Hubble
Hubble® is an integrated suite of performance management apps from insightsoftware.com. This solution offers reporting, analytics and planning in a single real-time solution. The vendor says Hubble integrates a company’s critical business systems so users at all levels have access to live...