Google Analytics vs. Open Web Analytics

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Analytics
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Google Analytics is perhaps the best-known web analytics product and, as a free product, it has massive adoption. Although it lacks some enterprise-level features compared to its competitors in the space, the launch of the paid Google Analytics Premium edition seems likely to close the gap.
$150,000
per year
Open Web Analytics
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Open Web Analytics is an open source web analytics software product licensed under GPL and provides website owners and developers with ways to add web analytics to their sites using simple Javascript, PHP, or REST based APIs. OWA also comes with support for tracking websites made with content management frameworks such as WordPress and MediaWiki.N/A
Pricing
Google AnalyticsOpen Web Analytics
Editions & Modules
Google Analytics 360
150,000
per year
Google Analytics
Free
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google AnalyticsOpen Web Analytics
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Google AnalyticsOpen Web Analytics
Features
Google AnalyticsOpen Web Analytics
Web Analytics
Comparison of Web Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Google Analytics
8.2
Ratings
2% above category average
Open Web Analytics
-
Ratings
Lead Conversion Tracking7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Bounce Rate Measurement8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Device and Browser Reporting8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Pageview Tracking8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Event Tracking7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting in real-time10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Referral Source Tracking8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Dashboards8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Google AnalyticsOpen Web Analytics
Small Businesses
StatCounter
StatCounter
Score 9.0 out of 10
StatCounter
StatCounter
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Siteimprove
Siteimprove
Score 10.0 out of 10
Siteimprove
Siteimprove
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Optimal
Optimal
Score 9.0 out of 10
Optimal
Optimal
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google AnalyticsOpen Web Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google AnalyticsOpen Web Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
Honesty, there is no reason that a company wouldn’t want to implement Google Analytics. The regular version is completely free, is very easy to configure, and provides immense volumes of website data. There are also tangible benefits to the other Google tools it can connect to, and it integrates with any BI/data platform that you might use. The only time I’d advise not using standard Google Analytics is if you’ve purchased Google Analytics 360.
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Open Web Analytics is an opportunity for those that like to have skeletons for the start of customized solutions. The package offers several best practices set of features and functions. The possibilities add up to higher performance API for example from Google Analytics. The vast of additional features are of higher value because the market does not have other solutions. There are solutions around Open Web Analytics for example in SAP Design Studio that integrate beyond Content Management systems and attached Shops Systems to Warehousing, Logistics, and Deliverment Management. The market situation are covering all that is possible and has demand. The universality is implemented at the user interface and therefore unmatched and even robust for new kinds of visualization interfaces or input device types. A draw is that against payment system remains a security gap and data security and data safety might be a topic for each customer and user.
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Pros
  • Multiple reports to see website use and behavior
  • Allows you to customize reports with days, weeks, months, and years
  • You can build out a dashboard to easily view stats from multiple websites in one place
  • You can share analytics reports via the dashboard, automatically emailed PDFs or in other formats
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  • High performance track and state-of-the-art analyze the human use of website pages and apps.
  • Combines conventional Google Analytics-like-tracking with heatmap-like-tracking features.
  • Offers JavaScript and PHP based APIs for web analytics page integration of versatile tracking features.
  • Supports best practices established for content management frameworks based on WordPress or MediaWiki.
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Cons
  • While raw data is nice to have, I do wish there was an easier way to provide reports from Google Analytics directly. Something that could answer questions straight-forward for people.
  • I would appreciate "helpful hints" or a cheat sheet of some sort, so when quickly searching for something such as time on a certain page, I can find it quickly.
  • I really don't have a third point!
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  • Open Web Analytics can be available for integration for the broad mass in all PHP- and Javascript-based Content Management Frameworks.
  • A shop for custom add-ons of the platform Open Web Analytics may be a big chance.
  • Enhance in documentation, examples, best practices are a great chance to get more users active and a broader audience.
  • Offer a closer integration to the leading tool Google Analytics in so many features and functions. Learn from Matomy for example.
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Likelihood to Renew
Having used Google Analytics for the last 9 years, I have no intention of discontinuing my service. Google Analytics is a fantastic product that provides me with almost everything I could wish for. The positives in this product outweigh any negatives that you might find. I can not think of a single reason to not immediately start using Google Analytics for your business.
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Usability
Google Analytics provides a wealth of data, down to minute levels. That is it's greatest detriment: find the right information when you need it can be a cumbersome task. You are able to create shortcuts, however, so it can mitigate some of this problem. Google is continually refining Analytics, so I do not doubt there will be improvements
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No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
We all know Google is at top when it comes to availability. We have never faced any such instances where I can suggest otherwise. All you need is a Google account, a device and internet connection to use this super powerful tool for reporting and visualising your site data, traffic, events, etc. that too in real time.
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Performance
This has been a catalyst for improving our site's traffic handling capabilities. We were able to identify exit% from our sites through it and we used recommendations to handle and implement the same in our sites. We have been increasing the usage of Google Analytics in our sites and never had any performance related issues if we used Analytics
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Support Rating
The Google reps respond very quickly. However, sometimes they can overly call you to set up an apportionment. I'm very proficient and sometimes when I talk to reps, they give beginner tutorials and insights that are a waste of time. I wish Google would understand my level of expertise and assign me to a rep (long-term) that doesn't have to walk me through the basics.
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Online Training
love the product and training they provide for businesses of all sizes. The following list of links will help you get started with Google Analytics from setup to understanding what data is being presented by Google Analytics.
  1. How to Use Google Analytics for Beginners – Mahalo’s how-to guide for beginners.
  2. A beginner’s guide to Google Analytics – A free eBook walking you through Google Analytics from setup to understanding what data is being presented.
  3. Getting to Know Your Google Analytics Dashboard – The title says it all! This is a brief post with one goal: to introduce you to the Google Analytics dashboard.
  4. Google Analytics for Beginners: How to Make the Most of Your Traffic Reports– This guide doesn’t cover setup, but it does a great job of helping you to better understand the data being presented.
  5. Google Analytics Video Tutorial 1: Setup – A video presentation that walks you through Google Analytics setup.
  6. Google Analytics Video Tutorial 2: Essential Stats – A video presentation that introduces you to some of the most important data being presented in Google Analytics.
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Implementation Rating
Make sure to put the tracking code on every page. Ideally this would be part of a template or "include" so you can update the code on all pages (or at least within pages of the same category) at once.
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Alternatives Considered
I have not used Adobe Analytics as much, but I know they offer something called customer journey analytics, which we are evaluating now. I have used Semrush, and I find them much better than Google Analytics. I feel a fairly nontechnical person could learn Semrush in about a month. They also offer features like competitive analysis (on content, keywords, traffic, etc.), which is very useful. If you have to choose one among Semrush and Google Analytics, I would say go for Semrush.
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Google Analytics is the market leader for web analytics. The package offers search engine marketing that can be integrated into Open Web Analytics. The features and functions of Open Web Analytics compare close to Matomo Analytics. In terms of market share Google Analytics has all and the other two have very little and their other competitors have almost nothing. That changes in specialized markets. Google Analytics is everywhere and much more influential than other search engines because of that particular service. There had been a dying period for such web analytics software packages. There are three kinds of web analytics software packages. Free/open source like Open Web Analytics and Matomo, Proprietary like Urchin from Google, and hosted/software-as-a-service-packages like the market leader Google Analytics. I consider all as rather different in performance. Those closer to the busiest server are the best for traffic. Heat maps are well placed on the hosting server.
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Scalability
Google Analytics is currently handling the reporting and tracking of near about 80 sites in our project. And I am not talking about the sites from different projects. They may have way more accounts than that. Never ever felt a performance issue from Google's end while generating or customising reports or tracking custom events or creating custom dimensions
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Great for visualizing website drop-off pages to theories and test update/iterations.
  • Bounce rates on pages to pinpoint bugs and issues.
  • Inaccuracy can lead to incorrect conclusions and decisions around CRO.
  • Segments can be very useful for validating split testing, providing a free tracking of variation vs. control - great ROI.
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  • Moderate lifetime operating costs.
  • Enhances the performances of all online business interests enormously.
  • Enables a great customized experience of web analytics.
  • Compatible to web analytics standards and references.
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ScreenShots