I've used Piwik for years and it is incredibly simple to use and set up but this post makes it much more complex than it needs to be. In all honesty, it's just as simple as setting up Wordpress. Drop the Piwik folder on a server somewhere, run the installation (connecting to your database and if I recall correctly you don't need to use the root user, just a user with sufficient privileges), and you're done.
I want to love Piwik, and I do like it a lot, but I do have some problems. Piwik gets slow after a while. This may have to do with the server its running on partly but over time the software will slow down especially if you try to pull out somewhat longer date ranges.
It isn't as pretty as GA. I know this is petty and that its themeable but the UI was important to me. Keeping it up to date and maintaining it was also something that requires vigilance. It isn't hard to update but you have to make sure to check for updates. Sounds simple but you'd be surprised how lazy one can be. Also, integration with Webmaster Tools isn't available which is kind of a bummer.
On the plus side there's very little that GA offers that Piwik doesn't. There's even a great mobile app which GA doesn't yet have to my knowledge. You can monitor multiple sites on different servers using a simple JavaScript snippet just like GA, and it breaks down the data in just about every way you'd want.
In the end, despite really wanting to use Piwik long term I wasn't able to do it. I don't see a problem with using Google Analytics for tracking purposes. Google has the power to abuse the data they collect but I trust them not to. I'm not running a site where visitor privacy is a big priority. If I were running such a site I'd reconsider this position. But from an ethical standpoint if it's somehow not okay for Google to collect tracking data on your visitors (and promise not exploit it) why is it okay for any of us to use Piwik and collect that data ourselves. Google has far more data that can do far more damage but they also have far more resources to put into security than most of us. I can take a pledge not to exploit my user's data but Google does too? I know I can trust myself but my users don't. My users might even prefer that if I were to use analytics software that I use software that comes from Google, a name they know and trust, rather than me, a guy who they know a little bit but doesn't have a reputation that can even remotely compete with Google. To me, that's the more interesting aspect of Piwik. The question of why running your own anaytics software is more ethical than using Google.
Edit: When I said I wasn't running a site that made visitor privacy a priority I was excluding the site I run that actually does make user privacy a huge priority. I'm aware I look like a hypcrite now and I think I might actually spend some time thinking of whether or not to switch over to a self-hosted analytics solution for that site. I'm still not sure that a self-hosted service is preferable in my case but I'm open to the idea.
By default, Piwik will aggregate data when you a) make an API request - b) Load the dashboard (which in fact calls the API). Cron archiving makes this process faster by processing all the data beforehand so that the API can simply request it from the DB.
I just want to mention that Cron archiving really does wonders for performance.
I've got a site that is receiving nearly 10,000 daily uniques since Google's last [panda|penguin|whatever] update in May, and while Piwik's performance was not terrible, setting up the cron a few weeks ago made the whole experience very snappy.
Apologize for hijacking the thread.
I am trying to convince one of my clients to do exactly this. Switch from GA to Piwik for their site which is deployed on Adobe CQ5.
I know I can use client side tracking easily (hence my recommendation). However, do you know if there is support for server side CQ5 logs?
I'm tracking sites by loading their Apache access logs into the database. I'm not sure what's CQ5 logs structure is, but it should be possible (tho it might require some modifications).
Edit: It should be noted that you will get lots of bots requests showing up when you load access logs (the regular tracker relies on javascript, which gets rid of most of the bots). I have a small awk script that cleans the access logs prior to importing them, by trying to detect bots. I can upload that if you're interested.
I think the important distinction is that trust will be either first-party or third-party, and most of your users will never think about it.
If I'm using your site or service I've already decided to trust you somewhat. Self-hosted analytics is just an additional baby step.
If you put a third-party resource on your site (and most of us do) then that third-party is going to have their own entirely separate terms & conditions, which you as webmaster have little or no control over.
It's down to whether you (and/or your users) are okay with farming out visitor privacy to a third-party. Once that question is satisfied it's just a question of performance.
I'm on iOS and I used a bunch of the GA apps and they all sucked or asked you to pay which I'm not opposed to but its not worth it for me. Maybe things in iOS land have gotten better since I last tried one.
It isn't as pretty as GA. I know this is petty and that its themeable but the UI was important to me.
I explored this too--it turns out that they make money off of the design of custom Piwik UIs for sale. A site license for their white-labeling plugin costs just under 2,000 euro.
Comments
I've used Piwik for years and it is incredibly simple to use and set up but this post makes it much more complex than it needs to be. In all honesty, it's just as simple as setting up Wordpress. Drop the Piwik folder on a server somewhere, run the installation (connecting to your database and if I recall correctly you don't need to use the root user, just a user with sufficient privileges), and you're done.
I want to love Piwik, and I do like it a lot, but I do have some problems. Piwik gets slow after a while. This may have to do with the server its running on partly but over time the software will slow down especially if you try to pull out somewhat longer date ranges.
It isn't as pretty as GA. I know this is petty and that its themeable but the UI was important to me. Keeping it up to date and maintaining it was also something that requires vigilance. It isn't hard to update but you have to make sure to check for updates. Sounds simple but you'd be surprised how lazy one can be. Also, integration with Webmaster Tools isn't available which is kind of a bummer.
On the plus side there's very little that GA offers that Piwik doesn't. There's even a great mobile app which GA doesn't yet have to my knowledge. You can monitor multiple sites on different servers using a simple JavaScript snippet just like GA, and it breaks down the data in just about every way you'd want.
In the end, despite really wanting to use Piwik long term I wasn't able to do it. I don't see a problem with using Google Analytics for tracking purposes. Google has the power to abuse the data they collect but I trust them not to. I'm not running a site where visitor privacy is a big priority. If I were running such a site I'd reconsider this position. But from an ethical standpoint if it's somehow not okay for Google to collect tracking data on your visitors (and promise not exploit it) why is it okay for any of us to use Piwik and collect that data ourselves. Google has far more data that can do far more damage but they also have far more resources to put into security than most of us. I can take a pledge not to exploit my user's data but Google does too? I know I can trust myself but my users don't. My users might even prefer that if I were to use analytics software that I use software that comes from Google, a name they know and trust, rather than me, a guy who they know a little bit but doesn't have a reputation that can even remotely compete with Google. To me, that's the more interesting aspect of Piwik. The question of why running your own anaytics software is more ethical than using Google.
Edit: When I said I wasn't running a site that made visitor privacy a priority I was excluding the site I run that actually does make user privacy a huge priority. I'm aware I look like a hypcrite now and I think I might actually spend some time thinking of whether or not to switch over to a self-hosted analytics solution for that site. I'm still not sure that a self-hosted service is preferable in my case but I'm open to the idea.
Full Disclosure: I am a Piwik Dev
Whenever Piwik gets slow you will have to setup cron archiving: http://piwik.org/docs/setup-auto-archiving/
By default, Piwik will aggregate data when you a) make an API request - b) Load the dashboard (which in fact calls the API). Cron archiving makes this process faster by processing all the data beforehand so that the API can simply request it from the DB.
I just want to mention that Cron archiving really does wonders for performance.
I've got a site that is receiving nearly 10,000 daily uniques since Google's last [panda|penguin|whatever] update in May, and while Piwik's performance was not terrible, setting up the cron a few weeks ago made the whole experience very snappy.
Thank you for your work halfdan!
Apologize for hijacking the thread. I am trying to convince one of my clients to do exactly this. Switch from GA to Piwik for their site which is deployed on Adobe CQ5. I know I can use client side tracking easily (hence my recommendation). However, do you know if there is support for server side CQ5 logs?
I'm tracking sites by loading their Apache access logs into the database. I'm not sure what's CQ5 logs structure is, but it should be possible (tho it might require some modifications).
See here: http://piwik.org/log-analytics/how-to/
Edit: It should be noted that you will get lots of bots requests showing up when you load access logs (the regular tracker relies on javascript, which gets rid of most of the bots). I have a small awk script that cleans the access logs prior to importing them, by trying to detect bots. I can upload that if you're interested.
Google Analytics does have an Android app now [1]. I think it's been added within the last year.
[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...
It also got a massive update last week so now it's not as useless as before.
I think the important distinction is that trust will be either first-party or third-party, and most of your users will never think about it.
If I'm using your site or service I've already decided to trust you somewhat. Self-hosted analytics is just an additional baby step.
If you put a third-party resource on your site (and most of us do) then that third-party is going to have their own entirely separate terms & conditions, which you as webmaster have little or no control over.
It's down to whether you (and/or your users) are okay with farming out visitor privacy to a third-party. Once that question is satisfied it's just a question of performance.
I use Piwik, but GAnalytics has a billion mobile apps.
I'm on iOS and I used a bunch of the GA apps and they all sucked or asked you to pay which I'm not opposed to but its not worth it for me. Maybe things in iOS land have gotten better since I last tried one.
I explored this too--it turns out that they make money off of the design of custom Piwik UIs for sale. A site license for their white-labeling plugin costs just under 2,000 euro.
Where do you see this? I can't find it anywhere - the only premium service I see being offered is general consultancy [1].
[1] http://piwik.org/consulting/
I contacted them directly.