Did you know that there are lighter and more friendly alternatives to Google Analytics for your WordPress website visitors that can give you all the metrics you need?
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Google Analytics is a potent tool that is also free. Difficult to compete with this, right?
Most people would be fine with a more accessible option. A very high percentage of people who have a website only want and need to know the basic metrics like Most visited pages, Where visitors come, Total number of visits, And maybe some more like Bounce rate, Country, Device, Browser.
What if you could find a more straightforward, lighter, and more privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics for visitors to your WordPress website?
So here are some best google analytics alternatives.
1. Fathom
I start with what I consider the best alternative to Google Analytics (GA) if you have most of its leftover features and only need the essential metrics.
Behind this project, born in April 2018, are Paul Jarvis and Jack Elliot, two great professionals and defenders of web privacy.
Fathom does not compete in functionalities with GA, quite the opposite. Its philosophy is to collect only the essential data anonymously and display a panel that is as simple and readable as possible.
You can add the tracking code directly on the web, or if you prefer, use your WordPress plugin to do it. The plugin also allows you to check the analytics from your website (not only from the Fathom website).
We are waiting for the imminent release of version 3.0, which will come with many improvements to dedicate an exclusive article to it.
You can try a week for free and then join the $14/month plan that allows us to use it on as many sites as you want, up to a total of 100,000 visits.
Features of Fathom:
- Real-time visitors
- Allows sharing metrics with a link
- Allows you to set goals
- Allows data export
- unique visitors
- Number of page views
- Average residence time
- bounce rate
- Most viewed pages
- References (where visitors come from)
- Type of device
- Country
- Browser
- Objectives (set by the user)
- Perform web uptime monitoring (notifies you when the web is “down”)
2. Koko Analytics
WordPress plugin created by Ibericode, the company of Danny van Kooten (co-founder of Fathom and who also talks about him in the web sustainability article ), is one of the most interesting free options.
Its use is straightforward: you install and configure the plugin, displaying the data on the WordPress dashboard. It is one of the options that top bloggers use on the website, and it works perfectly.
Features of Koko Analytics:
- Real-time visitors
- Total visitors
- Number of page views
- Most viewed pages
- References (where visitors come from)
- Does not use external services
- The data is stored on your server
- Allows not to use any cookies
- You do not need to show cookie notice (if you choose the setting not to save cookies)
- Open Source
3. Statify
This WordPress plugin was created by pluginkollektiv, a very active group of developers in the WordPress community. Statify is the easiest option on the list.
It is a perfect option if you want a free Google analytics alternative option that only allows you to know the total visits, which are the most visited pages, and where they come from.
Statify does not use external services. Also, you do not need to show cookie notice and an open-source Google analytics alternative.
Features of Statify:
- Total visitors
- Number of page views
- Most viewed pages
- References (where visitors come from)
It is very simple to use: you just have to install and configure the 3 options offered by the plugin, and that’s it. I am using it on the website of several clients, and it does what it promises.
In addition to the official plugin, other developers have created plugins that extend its functionality.
4. Simple Analytics
Simple Analytics is open-source google analytics created in September 2018 by Adriaan van Rossum (although the team is now more extensive). It effectively offers “simple web analytics.”
The prices of their plans start from $19 (100,000 visits).
It has a WordPress plugin that allows you to connect it easily.
Features of Simple Analytics:
- GDPR Compliant
- Does not use external services
- The data is stored on your server
- Does not use any cookies
- You do not need to show cookie notice
- API available
- Support custom domains
- Unique visitors
- Number of page views
- Most viewed pages
- References (where visitors come from)
- Type of device
- Country
- Browser
5. Plausible Analytics
This project by Uku That and Marko Saric, created in April 2019, I discovered recently, and at first glance, it seemed to me to be the European version of Fathom (it hosts the data on European servers).
It doesn’t have an official WordPress plugin, but a couple of unofficial ones can help you hook it up if you don’t feel comfortable adding the tracking script directly.
Pricing starts at $6 per month (for 10,000 visits) and has a 30-day trial period.
Metrics offered by Plausible Analytics:
- Real-time visitors
- Unique visitors
- Total pageviews
- Duration of visits
- Bounce rate
- Most viewed pages
- References (where visitors come from)
- Type of device
- Country
- Browser
- Objectives (set by the user)
6. Matomo
I have left the oldest (formerly known as Piwik ) for last and the one that best rivals Google Analytics in terms of features.
If you need a very complete web analytics tool that respects privacy, this is your best option. You can install Matomo on your server for free and connect it with the WordPress plugin.
On the other hand, if you don’t want to install and configure the software on your server, you have the Matomo Cloud option (and this other WordPress plugin to connect it). The cheapest plan starts at $19 per month (for 100,000 visits) and has a 21-day trial period.
Matomo Store (anonymized) data on its own servers (or Matomo Cloud) for better security. Along with these features, API is also available on+ Matomo.
Features of Matomo:
- Real-time visitors
- Unique visitors
- Number of page views and Most viewed pages
- Average residence time
- Bounce rate
- References (where visitors come from)
- Type of device
- Country
- Browser
- Objectives (set by the user)
- You do not need to show cookie notice (if you choose the setting not to save cookies)
- Allows you to set goals
- Campaign Tracking
- Segmentation
- Funnels
- User Flow
- Form analysis
- Data export
- API available
In addition to these features, it has many more. You can take a look at his page.
Conclusion
As you can see, the market has evolved a lot, and you have many good Google Analytics alternatives at your disposal.
In addition, the benefits of all of them are:
- Easy to use
- You are more respectful of visitor privacy
- You can save the cookie banner (if you don’t add others, of course)
- Reduce web load time
Fathom is a good option, and are you looking for free and easy options? Then you can opt for Koko Analytics and Statify self-hosted solutions where you just have to install the WordPress plugin.
If you need an alternative that can compete with Google Analytics also at a functional level, then the complete option is Matomo.
I hope that the article has made you wonder if you need Google Analytics alternatives for your project (or that of your clients) and helps you find an alternative that fits your needs among the previous proposals.
