Blogging Elements

3 Free Web Stats & Traffic Reporting Tools You Could Use

Posted on 18. Feb, 2010 by Ashwin in Traffic

When you have Google Analytics and your wordpress stats, why should you bother with any other tool for trends analysis and traffic report  for your blog? You should. Google Analytics is an excellent program and there is no doubt about it. However, it is an uncomfortable tool to use because apparently Google wuld know everything about your site; you are falling for the almost monopoly that Google is. I, for one, would never like it if all my traffic data, traffic trends, visiting trends and traffic stats are made available for someone else to keep track of. In my search for alternatives, I found the following Free but still popular web stats tools:

Analog: When you use analog, everything is displayed to you in a single HTML file and it really makes it easy for you to see all you need to know at a snapshot. Analog is a solid offering and is pretty popular with a lot of users who prefer simplicity over anything else. Of course, the disadvantages are that it doesn’t come with anything more than just the basics. It lacks any deep, colorful reporting features such as charts, for instance.

AWstats: Although it is completely free, AWstats has a very professional feel to it. The interface is easy to use and understand. AW stats is pretty popular too. Another cool aspect of AWstats is that it is written in PERL which is a robust script and is pretty much reliable. AWstats still lacks reporting features and it could have been nice to see some better charts and graphs — any visual demonstration for data presentation– although it does have some basic reporting features.  Hundreds of web-hosting providers already have AWstats installed on cpanels so setting it up is a matter of a few clicks.

Webalizer: Webalizer is one of the best free web stats tools available on the Internet today. It is efficient, fast and is written in C. It boasts of a simple interface and it adopts a straight to the point approach. However it represents the data in stacked metric diagram forms which takes some time to get used to. Also, it doesn’t even have the basic reporting features like graphs as found in AWstats. However, it is still a popular application for your use. Most webhosting providers have this web stats tool as an option on cpanels too.

Tags: Analog, AWstats, Traffic reports, Web stats, Webalizer, Wordpress Stats