Chartbeat is a tool that helps website owners understand how visitors use their websites. Website analytics are beneficial since they enable website improvement. For example, owners can modify their website to make it easier to use by looking at how long visitors remain on it and which pages they visit the most.
Chartbeat is a popular analytics tool, but it has its drawbacks. In this article, we'll dive into Chartbeat and showcase a few alternatives that might suit you better.
- What is Chartbeat used for?
- Chartbeat Pricing
- Chartbeat Alternatives
- Things to Look For in an Analytics Tool
- Frequently Asked Questions
What is Chartbeat used for?
Before we even talk about Chartbeat’s use cases, you should understand that this is of no use to you if you are not a big publishing house like New York Times or TechCrunch. You should directly jump to alternatives instead to find better choices.
Chartbeat is a specialized analytics tool built for digital publishers to provide all the data they need regarding content analytics. With Chartbeat, you can understand how users interact with the content and get tips to improve it. Apart from these specialized metrics, you also get general metrics like pageviews and other essential metrics.
Chartbeat Pricing
Chartbeat does talk much about its pricing on its landing page; it mostly talks about its offerings. One would need to contact the sales team to get an idea of Chartbeat’s pricing.
Even though the pricing isn’t live, many sites like GetApp have mentioned the pricing to be approximately $7,000/year. Chartbeat also offers tailored enterprise solutions with extra features and assistance for companies with more prominent websites.
Chartbeat Alternatives
Real-time website analytics tool Chartbeat provides simple-to-understand statistics but has several drawbacks to take into account.
For example, small firms may find the cost prohibitive, and there may be serious concerns about data integrity for industries that depend on reliable data.
Therefore, it's crucial to look for alternatives, such as Simple Analytics, that offer precise data at a fair price.
Simple Analytics (easy to use and predictable pricing)
As the name goes, Simple Analytics is a simple and easy-to-use analytics tool. It's also one of the few analytics tools completely GDPR-compliant with EU-hosted servers. It's a robust web analytics tool that doubles as a minimal product analytics tool.
Though at first glance it may look simple, but it’s powerful, especially when it comes to event tracking, e-commerce or content marketing.
Pros of using Simple Analytics
- Simplified UI - Using tools that are easy to navigate around is always preferred over complex ones. Simple Analytics offers a straightforward user interface that makes analysis easier. Working with it is, therefore, a smooth activity.
- Affordable Pricing- Simple Analytics is exceptionally cost-effective. They offer both product and web analytics tools at a reasonable price. They have plans starting at $9/month. It packs the tools and features from the most expensive tools for a friendly price.
- Automated Event Collection- Another feature that makes Simple Analytics stand out in its product category is automated event collection. While you must manually set additional tags for other tools, Simple Analytics does the job for you. Once you link it to your website, it lets you track the metrics of all action buttons just by hovering over them.
- Mini Websites- As a business with an online presence, you often get featured in the conversation of your users. You might get a mention on Twitter or a feature on a website. While most tools let you know where you got a mention, they don’t deliver the specifics. Simple Analytics stands out here. It gives you the specifics of your feature and helps you track it through a mini website.
Cons of using Simple Analytics:
The user interface of Simple Analytics is made to look simple and easy to understand so everyone, be it the founder or marketing teams, can use it easily. A Product Manager may need a few more screens, but that is something that can be quickly built with goals.
Pricing of Simple Analytics:
Simple Analytics is one of the most cost-efficient tools available in its segment. The product is perfect for businesses. It caters to companies and has plans for individuals and businesses. Therefore it ensures that the best features are available at a very reasonable price.
The pricing of Simple Analytics starts at a low $9/month, making it a pocket-friendly tool for all businesses.
Adobe Analytics
Adobe Analytics is a small part of Adobe’s giant Marketing Cloud. It’s a tool meant to be a complex web analytics tool that also comes with Business Intelligence (BI). Also, Adobe Analytics works best when you have the other Marketing Cloud tools.
If you are just looking for a simple yet powerful analytics tool, Adobe Analytics may not be the right choice as it’s complex, needs other tools to function properly, and is expensive too.
You should only consider it only if you have specific feature requirements such as predictive analytics but be ready to shed a ton of money.
Pros
- Adobe Analytics has been in business for many years, making it a mature tool with many features.
- Apart from just web analytics, it also doubles up as a marketing analytics tool with features like ad hoc analysis and multichannel data collection.
Cons
- Adobe Analytics is a sales-led product, and you would often need an implementation partner. It’s a very complex analytics tool.
- The cost of Adobe Analytics, along with the fees/charges of the implementation partner, makes it an expensive affair.
- It needs to work with many other Adobe products to give businesses all the data it can, but then it makes it very complex.
Pricing
Adobe Analytics provides three different plans along with many add-ons. The plans “Select,” “Prime,” and “Ultimate.” The pricing of all the plans is hidden behind a “Get Pricing” button, which makes you contact the sales team to get pricing info.
Though the pricing info isn’t public, however according to Nabler, the pricing is somewhere between $48,000 on the lower side and $350,000 on the high side.
Paying and justifying this much for an analytics tool is only justifiable when the revenue is in multi-millions, and even then, you can find better options.
Visitor Analytics
Visitor Analytics is a website analytics tool that calls itself a website intelligence platform as it comes with several other features, such as session recording, polls, surveys, and much more.
It’s a comprehensive solution for anyone who needs more than just web analytics, but at times, this can get overwhelming, too; with more features, the dashboards keep getting cluttered.
Pros
- Offers wide range of features.
- Simple and easy to install.
Cons
- Slightly expensive for small and medium-sized businesses.
- You may have to pay for features you won’t use in a higher plan.
- Uses fingerprinting and is not GDPR-compliant
GoSquared
GoSquared Analytics is a simple privacy-friendly analytics that was started in 2010 and was called “Live Stats” back then. The current version is an output of iteration.
The key benefit of using GoSquared is its easy-to-understand dashboard and simple setup. It’s also GDPR compliant and was confirmed by a 3rd party accreditation body.
Pros
- Simple and easy-to-understand dashboard.
- Hassle-free setup.
- Affordable pricing.
- Has multiple helpful integrations.
Cons
- Though the dashboard in easy-to-understand but the UI is a bit dated.
- Limited capabilities in event tracking.
Pricing
The pricing of GoSquared Analytics starts at $9/month for three projects (websites) and up to 100,000 pageviews. Their plans have standard features such as unlimited team sharing, email reports, event tracking, etc.
Things to Look For in an Analytics Tool
Selecting a tool for product analytics is a crucial decision. You might ask what could possibly go wrong when choosing one, yet you can miss out on a lot. Therefore, be sure to go through this checklist before making a choice. You're good to go if the tool provides these:
- Ease of Use: Regardless of your chosen product, it must be simple to use. You shouldn’t spend your precious time on a complex web analytics tool that takes time and experience to get familiar with.
- Accuracy: Getting an accurate picture of what’s happening on your website is important. Inaccurate data might lead to misjudged decisions that impact your business.
- Straightforward UI: Most of the time, you don’t need 75 custom dashboards (looking at you, Google). A straightforward overview of what’s happening on your website will give you the insights you need instantly. Look for a tool that gives you the insights you need without too many distracting bells and whistles.
- Lightweight: Your website is your storefront on the internet. Providing the best possible experience to your visitors matters. Installing an analytics script has an impact on your page speed. Choose an analytics tool that doesn’t slow your website down. This not only affects your visitors’ experience. Google will notice this as well.
- Privacy: The world is moving in a direction where privacy is becoming increasingly important. Google Analytics has been declared illegal in multiple EU countries. You don’t want to get caught up in this mess. Take privacy or compliance with regulation into account.
- Integration: To get a complete picture of your business, the tool should be able to integrate with other devices you use, such as your CRM or dashboarding tools.
- Pricing: Consider the tool's pricing and ensure it aligns with your budget. Take advantage of some companies' free trials or basic versions to ensure the product suits your needs before committing to a paying plan.
Although this checklist can assist you in getting started, there may be other factors for your organization that you need to consider.
Feel free to try Simple Analytics if you want a tool that checks these boxes. It provides the insights you need in a straightforward dashboard while being 100% GDPR compliant.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the purpose of Chartbeat?
Publishers, media companies, and content-driven websites use Chartbeat to track and evaluate the performance of their websites. To increase audience engagement and user retention, publishers can leverage the real-time data it gives on visitor behavior, page views, and engagement metrics to optimize their content strategy.
Who can benefit from using Chartbeat?
Publishers, media outlets, and content-driven websites that depend on audience participation will find Chartbeat helpful. It supports editors, content strategists, and marketers in understanding what content resonates with their audience, seeing areas for development, and formulating data-driven decisions to enhance the functionality of their website.
What type of tool is Simple Analytics?
Simple Analytics is a web and product analytics application that supports privacy and aids website owners in monitoring performance and user behavior. The product is simple to use and gives users access to mini-websites.
Should I use Simple Analytics?
Simple Analytics is a product and web analytics application that prioritizes privacy and gives website traffic data without collecting personal data. It is superior to other tools as it offers a more straightforward interface. So, Simple Analytics is a fantastic option for a website traffic measurement solution that prioritizes privacy.