Piwik: The Ultimate Open Source Web Analytics Platform
Note: This post was first published on June 24, 2013.
As website or app owners, we all desire clear and precise statistics on who visits our websites, where they are from, how long they stayed, what they clicked on, and more. Importantly, we want this without our data being sold to third parties and without invading our visitors’ online privacy as Google Analytics and other services often do.
Let me introduce you to Piwik. In this article, I will showcase the features and the amazing tools this self-hosted, decentralized, open-source Web analytics platform offers.
Getting Started with Piwik
Piwik is compatible with almost any server, thanks to its open-source nature and continuous updates to support the latest hardware and software. You can install Piwik on multiple servers at no cost.
After uploading the necessary files to your server, simply visit your Piwik directory in a web browser and follow the easy step-by-step installation process.
Piwik Dashboard
The Piwik dashboard may look familiar if you’ve used other popular analytic tools like Google Analytics.
This dashboard is the central hub for your most important statistics. You can add, replace, or move widgets, providing quick access to the stats and widgets you use most frequently.
Detailed Stats
Dive deeper into the app to find Piwik’s extensive and useful statistics. It offers detailed insights about your most recent visitors and organizes information that is valuable to website operators.
Despite its minimalistic design, Piwik’s stats are easy for beginners to read and interpret. Furthermore, Piwik ensures that your data remains private and is not shared with third parties, unlike other popular services.
Advantages
- Free and Open Source
- Complete ownership of your website data
- Supports multiple websites on a single install
- Easy setup and installation
- Advanced browser plugin identification
- Site search statistics
- Active open-source community
- Advanced real-time visitor statistics
Disadvantages
- Requires a server for setup, which may not be convenient for everyone
- Somewhat less polished design compared to other services
- Manual updates are required to access new features
- Limitations on team registration for analytics viewing
- Lacks features for sharing your statistics
Conclusion
Piwik offers a plethora of neat and useful features and is highly recommended for any website or analytics needs. Its open-source nature makes it even more appealing, as it continuously benefits from community contributions and updates.