Visitor Analytics is a tool that helps website owners to understand how visitors interact with 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.
Visitor Analytics is a popular web analytics tool, but it has its drawbacks. In this article, we'll dive into Visitor Analytics and showcase a few alternatives that might suit you better.
- What is Visitor Analytics used for?
- Visitor Analytics Pricing
- Visitor Analytics Alternatives
- Things to Look For in an Analytics Tool
- Frequently Asked Questions
What is Visitor Analytics used for?
Visitor Analytics is a website analytics tool that calls itself a website intelligence platform. It does more than a web analytics tool, such as session recording, polls, and surveys. It's not GDPR compliant. It uses fingerprinting to track users.
It does have many features, but that’s what makes it a complex solution, as instead of a clean dashboard, you get a very crowded one. Besides this, Visitor Analytics pricing is also on the higher side for small and medium-sized businesses when considering the plan limitations.
Visitor Analytics Pricing
Visitor Analytics multiple pricing plans. The Basic package is priced at $10.39 monthly and includes heatmaps and website analytics for up to 10,000 page views. The Advanced plan, available for $19.99 per month, offers everything the Basic plan features but with higher limits.
Similarly, they have Pro, Pro Plus, and Pro ++ plans which are over the same as the other plans do with even higher limits. They also give access to “Company Reveal,” which lets you know if you are getting traffic for any organizations.
Visitor Analytics Alternatives
Visitor Analytics is an application that provides insights into website visitors and their activity. However, it has several shortcomings, such as limitations on the number of events one can track compared to the pageviews.
If you are looking for alternatives, below are some of the best options.
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 is cost-effective, privacy first, easy to use, and real-time data collection oriented. What more do you need?
Now let's review a few benefits of using Simple Analytics over Adobe Analytics.
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. The 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 of all sizes. 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 businesses of all sizes.
Pirsch
Pirsch Analytics is a privacy analytics tool based out of Germany. It’s an affordable and simple-to-use analytics tool with all the features such as event tracking, goal tracking, and much more. In addition to that, it’s a pretty affordable tool to start.
Pros
- Simple and easy-to-understand dashboard.
- Budget-friendly option.
- Easy to install.
Cons
- Proxying is very tricky and needs some technical knowledge (used to bypass adblockers)
- They have not been in business for long and have less track record than other solutions.
- Event-setting and goal-tracking features are limited
Pricing
Pirsch Analytics is a pretty affordable tool, especially for low-traffic websites. The pricing for Pirsch Analytics starts at $5/month when paid annually for 10,000 pageviews. The next pricing tier supports websites for up to 100,000 pageviews and costs $10/month.
Piwik PRO
Piwik PRO and Matomo (formerly known as Piwik) evolved out of an open-source project known as Piwik.
Piwik PRO is now an enterprise-focused analytics tool built on the open-source project. It offers web and product analytics and a few other helpful additions, such as tag manager and consent manager.
Pros
- Provides detailed reports on visitor behavior, including location, device, and more.
- Open-source, which means it's free to use.
- Offers customizable dashboards and reports.
- Provides privacy-focused options.
- Offers a cloud-hosted solution.
Cons
- Complex analytics tool that requires training
- Piwik has problems with loading, data retention, and an exponential increase in disk consumption.
- Primarily meant from enterprise, hence an expensive solution.
Pricing
Piwik PRO is an enterprise solution and is expected to be expensive. If you try looking up the pricing on their site, you won’t be able to, as it requires contacting the sales team.
Though the pricing isn’t public, but according to Optimize Smart, the pricing plans start at $419/month for 1,000,000+ actions. Note that this info was shared in 2022, so the pricing is highly likely to be updated.
Plausible
Plausible is a lightweight and privacy-focused web analytics tool that provides website owners insights into visitor behavior. It was founded in 2019 and is based in Estonia.
Plausible offers a clean and straightforward user interface that makes it easy to use.
They do have a focus on privacy, but according to many independent researchers and thought leaders, it may not be as privacy-friendly as they state. More can be read in this article, which was popular on HackerNews.
One good thing about Plausible is the easy-to-use dashboard which can be found in similar privacy-friendly analytics tools mentioned in this article.
Pros
- Provides detailed reports on visitor behavior.
- Privacy-focused, which means it doesn't use cookies.
- Offers a clean and straightforward user interface.
- Provides customizable dashboards and reports.
- Offers a free trial.
Cons
- Limited features compared to other paid options.
- A lower degree of in-depth reporting
- Store IP-address
Pricing
Plausible’s pricing starts at $9/month when paid monthly or $7.5/month when paid annually. Though this is indeed affordable, you’ll have to keep in mind that this is the pricing for websites with less than 10,000 page views.
The next tier starts at $19/month when paid monthly or ~$15.9/month when paid annually for websites with less than 100,000 pageviews.
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
Is Visitor Analytics free?
No Visitor Analytics is not free. It is also more expensive than other analytics tools like Simple Analytics.
What is the difference between Google Analytics and Visitor Analytics?
There are a lot of differences between Google Analytics and Visitor Analytics. The foremost is that Visitor Analytics claims to be GDPR-compliant while Google is not. However, Visitor Analytics uses fingerprinting to identify users, which makes it also not GDPR-compliant. Feature-wise, Google Analytics is more complex.
Is Visitor Analytics GDPR-compliant?
No, Visitor Analytics is not GDPR compliant. They claim to be, but they use fingerprinting techniques to collect personal data. This is against the terms of GDPR.
Should I use Simple Analytics?
Simple Analytics is a privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative that gives you the insights you need without collecting personal data. If you care about the privacy of your users and want an intuitive dashboard with the most important website insights, Simple Analytics might be the tool you are looking for.