Best Website Analytics for Bootstrappers

I need some stats. Google Analytics for sure, but what else?

Recommended:

• Google Analytics
• StatsCounter
• WP-Statistics
• Quantcast

Bonus

• Mixpanel
• Optimizely

Basically some stats to get started, some vanity metrics to stay motivated, until I look at metrics that matters.

Google Analytics

Only problem with Google Analytics is that it’s not real-time. (Complicated to use too) But they provide a wealth of data, and you can slice and dice, and get lots of insights. Definitely the standard.

StatsCounter

For real-time stats, I use to use StatsCounter.com. Their free plan allows up to 250k visits a month, and keeps detailed log of last 500 pageviews.

My favorite part of this service is how simple it is, and they offer tracking multiple sites for free.

WP-Statistics

This is a popular free plugin. I don’t see any downside of having this plugin, it seems well supported.

Quantcast

I’ve always liked Quantcast, not sure why. Maybe it’s cause it starts with ‘Qu’ 🙂 I like the demographic information it offers.

Mixpanel

Mixpanel is more of Optimization and an Events tracker, they have a generous free plan to get started. I’m excited to use them more.

Optimizely

Optimizely is the top a/b split testing tool. Super easy to use, and with it’s new pricing plan, it’ll work up to 50k visits a month. Pretty cool.

fyi. Here’s a huge list of stats & analytics services by popularity.

Honorable Mentions

Clicky, I’m not using it because the free plan only supports one site. I’ve used them in the past. If you have only one site, you might want to check them out.

Inspectlet, MouseFlow, GhostRec records the user session. Kind of like the new ClickTale since they’ve gone corporate.

[hide]

Segment.io competitor to Mixpanel, not as easy to use though.

Gauges, not free, but affordable at $6/month unlimited sites 100k pageviews. Looks simple to use.

[/hide]

Trying out

I’m trying out HiStats, completely free, simple, kind of out-dated. It ranked well on Datanyze list above. HiStats doesn’t seem to be real-time stats though.

I’m also trying out Heap. Seems pretty comprehensive, offers a lil bit of the other tools.