Website Analyzers and Tracking Tools
1. AWStats – http://awstats.sourceforge.net/
What I like about this analyzer is that it’s simple and clean. The analytics show up within one page and the user can get a quick analysis of all of its traffic and user activity. Another benefit of this analyzer is that it includes much more information on referring sites than other tools. In addition, it also has a great way of tracking bandwidth usage on the server. The benefit of this is that it allows great protection from bandwidth thieves.
Sitepoint.com is a highly respected and well ranked company within the web development industry and they recommend this service as #1 within its top ten list of web analyzer tools.
What I would change about this analyzer is the look. Though it does cover a large list of features, I don’t believe it to be very pleasing to the eye. By adding more links and tabbed panels, it would allow for users to easily navigate throughout the tool with ease.
Nonetheless, this is still a great tool for someone looking for a simple yet detailed synopsis of their website traffic.
2. eLogic – http://www.elogicwebsolutions.com/website-statistics.html
What I like about this tool is that it creates a list of three different packages for different types of users. Nonetheless, I also believe this to be the downfall of the tool. The tool is offered free for those looking to handle smaller task. However, to get the full list of features, there is a charge of $9.95 a month for the Pro version.
However, though it does cost and I may not like it, it may be a cost worth paying. The Pro version includes tools that other analytic tools just don’t have. These tools consist of real-time traffic statistics, log file storage, custom email alerts and unlimited history.
While eLogic does have a plan for all types of users, I don’t believe that paying a monthly fee for a web analyzer tool is a great move. With the multiple free tools within the market, eLogic may not be making a smart move with charging its users a fee.
Techchia and Sitepoint, both of who are respected names within the web development and technology marketplace, have named eLogic within the top 3 web analytics tools.
3. Extreme Tracking – http://extremetracking.com
I would not recommend this tool. While I do love the simplicity of Extreme Tracking, I just don’t believe it to be a professional tool that gives in-depth details on user activity. This tool is good for someone with a small website with a few pages of information. The downfall of this tool is that it only provides a small amount of detail about the users. This information includes, date, referring site, browser type and how many visitors ventured onto the website for that day, month or year. As a user and web developer who looks to find a true understanding in its users, I don’t receive much valuable information from this tool.
Nonetheless, for a monthly subscription of $4.95, users can receive more information on their traffic.
My suggestion would be to get rid of the free and paid versions, and to just allow users the full benefit of using the tool. In addition, the paid version still doesn’t compete with free versions of analyzer tools. By charging its users, this tool is hurting its brand. This is mainly due to web developers not promoting it to their customers as a valuable tool to use that’s free of charge. By charging a fee, most developers and users won’t even test the tool.