Self Hosted Web Site Analytics

by on Jul 1, 2009 | 3 comments

One of the more popular tools among people who run their own web sites is Google Analytics. Rightfully so as it is able to track just about anything you want. The only problem with Google Analytics is that you don’t own your own stats. Google keeps all the data on their servers and you access it through their portal. If you are looking to self host these tracking stats, check out Piwik.

Piwik is a PHP MySQL software program that you download and install on your own webserver. At the end of the five minute installation process you will be given a JavaScript tag. Simply copy and paste this tag on websites you wish to track.

As you can see, installation on a web site is as simple as Google Analytics and all the stats are stored in a database you control. Additionally, you can expand Piwik with many available plugins.

If you run your own sites and like to study your stats, this is at least worth looking into.

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  • http://www.jma-daily.com Juscelino M. Acevedo

    Wow!!! This seems like a great Google Analytics alternative. I am seriously considering installing for my blog, at least to give it a test drive.

  • http://wpbloghost.com John Hoff – WpBlogHost

    Hello Jason. Piwik is definitely a competitor for Google Analytics, there’s a reason why you mentioned GA. Piwik (a.k.a. phpMyVisits formally) is one of the easy 1-click installer our company includes in our hosting packages.

    I personally have used it, but in the end I just stuck with Google Analytics.

  • http://www.fact-o-tron.com factotron

    One of the major advantages of using a self hosted solution is that remote analytics software requires JavaScript. Simply put, if someone visits your site with JavaScript disabled or doesn’t have scripting capabilities then the visit is missed.

    Another great way of monitoring your stats through WordPress is the StatsPress plugin.

    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/statpress/

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