Why is Piwik better than the competition?

This presentation will describe why Piwik, the open source web analytics software, can be a better alternative than the other web analytics tools available (google analytics, clicky, etc.).

This presentation illustrates 5 important key features of Piwik:

  1. Open APIs
  2. Plugins Architecture
  3. Data abstraction layer
  4. Customizable dashboard
  5. Innovative User Interface

More information:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 ; category Documentation, Meta ; RSS comments.

22 Responses to “Why is Piwik better than the competition?”

  1. WayFarer Says:

    I am user of phpMyVisites with 50+ sites setup.
    Currently I have troubles with stats archives. (Archiving process takes long times and overloads server (mysql))
    Are this problem will be solved in piwik?

  2. Matthieu Says:

    Actually phpmyvisites is working on installation with 20,000+ sites registered. The tip is to use a crontab to archive your stats http://www.phpmyvisites.us/faq/crontab-launch-automatically-statistics-archiving-process-every-62.html

    Piwik is currently still alpha and we are testing it on med to high traffic websites, but is not ready yet for production use on high traffic websites. The roadmap says that it will be ready by mid 2008.

  3. Sajal Kayan » Piwik the Google Analytics Killer! Says:

    [...] friendly. The idea seems to be to make an Open Source alternative to Google Analytics and the advantages seems to be many. Piwik is the new version of phpMyVisites and is supported by OpenAds (a very [...]

  4. Webseo >> Código abierto para el análisis web Says:

    […]Piwik, una herramienta de código abierto para controlar las estadísticas de la web que sin duda se presenta como un posible competidor serio para el gigante […]

  5. Sajal Kayan Says:

    using piwik alpha on 3 sites.
    for me piwik seems to load up mysql to 100% while generating reports for 2 sites (2k and 15k UIP/day)
    for the smaller site with 50 to 300 UIP/day piwik runs smoothly.
    is there some maintainance script or something to be run regularly?

  6. Jose Gonzalez Says:

    I'm running one server with Plesk control panel. Have you got a plan to integrate piwik with any comercial product?

  7. Matthieu Says:

    Sajal,
    Piwik is not yet optimized for medium to high traffic websites as it is still in alpha stage. Before the next beta version we are going to improve performances on medium to high traffic websites and it shall work better.

    Jose,
    Integrating Piwik in other products, thanks to piwik APIs and modular architecture, is quite easy and straightforward. We will soon release an example of integration (I think with Wordpress).

  8. An Open Source Alternative to Google Analytics is on the Rise | Inspired Geek Says:

    [...] the server. PHP 5.1 and a Mysql database is required for the proper functioning. They also have a Why is Piwik better than the competition? video so check it out as [...]

  9. Anthon Says:

    Anyone look at subspacetracker.com? It's another web analytics package that you can host.

  10. Mike Landis Says:

    The thing I am constantly wishing for is the ability to drill through a map to a user and through the user to the pages they viewed, in the order they visited them (including dates and time), or drill through a page and see all users that visited that page and when. It's my biggest frustration with Google Analytics. I hope you'll similar functionality high on your priority list.

  11. Mike Landis Says:

    I refined and expanded my thinking a bit …

    I'd like be able to switch any geo-coded view from list to map and vice versa, just as chart views can be presented as tables, signals (where time is involved), bars, and pies.

    Once that was in place, I'd like to be able to link through a particular user on a map/list to display the path any given user took through the site (including dates and time for each page).

    I'd like to be able to map/list content density, i.e. how many pages are being read by users in a particular geographic location.

    I'd like to be able to generate a map/list of visitors for any given page.

  12. Matthieu Says:

    Mike, selecting the user on a maps and see his path through the website is something that is high priority on our roadmap.

  13. gifts Says:

    Wow, this is totally excellent. I never knew there was an Opensource alternative. I'm totally stoked that there is one. I sent the link immediately to a friend of mine as well. I'm going to spread the word! It's about time someone made an opensource alternative to Google Analytics – I always wondered to myself if there was one and now, at last, I find myself stumbling across this website and seeing all about it!

  14. Open source project Piwik puts Google Analytics on notice | Edward A. Webb (.com) Says:

    [...] Piwik site has a great presentation detailing the 5 reasons they are better than the [...]

  15. fine art Says:

    Hi Matthieu,

    Any updates on Piwik? Is it still in beta stage or alpha version now? When will you also release the integration information for WP?

    Regards,
    John

  16. Matthieu Says:

    fine art, Piwik is still in beta stage, but we are going fast and we hope to be stable in the next few months. Please check out the blog, and the last version to see how much Piwik has changed over the last few weeks!

  17. Dave Says:

    Sorry..
    The fact that this relies on PDO extensions is a MAJOR problem for me. I've tried installing on two separate hosting companies. One flat out can't install PDO because they are using HSphere and the other tried to recompile and it caused grief.

    I'd love to use this, but using a set of libraries that aren't stock on the major hosting companies is going to prevent this software from getting any major traction.

    Just my two cents from the gravel pit.

  18. Edward Webb Says:

    @Dave

    I don't think you can count out all major hosting providers based on your experience with two.

    GoDaddy supports this application without issue.

    Also I spoke with a person on DreamHost who also does not have issue.

    Together I imagine the two make a large percentage of the hosting population.

  19. Jon Says:

    We are testing Piwik now. Is there a more detailed description of it somewhere? What is stored in the database, can we add parameters, how do we make new views etc?

  20. Sun Glasses Says:

    I don

  21. Aceo Art Says:

    There is obviously a lot to know about this subject. Im only a learner. Some interesting points made there.

  22. DarkWolf Says:

    I'm with AlterVista (best free Italian Hosting) and i don't have pdo_mysql.
    Even i can't use (or test) piwik :(
    Actually i continue to use php-stats (real old but already the best statistics script).

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