I have used Google Analytics ever since I registered my first website and haven’t had any complaints so far. It does what it does ti my satisfaction and answers most questions about my site visitors plus some more. I haven’t had the need or urge to look for an alternate web analytics offering so far.
I recently came across an interesting alternative, Woopra that seemed worth looking at. One of the main features of Woopra that attracted me was live visitor tracking. Let’s look at some of the other features Woopra offers:
Woopra Features
- Woopra offers web analytics and site statistics that is updated at least once a day with several stats getting updated multiple times a day.
- It offers Live Tracking of visitors so you have more immediate information.
- Woopra can be installed on WordPress, vBulletin forums as a plugin and is also supported by manual installation on other major blog/CMS platforms. (more info)
- It comes with a cool multi-platform client software that is available for Windows, Mac & Linux.
- With the real time information on search trends, traffic spikes, user queries, generating content or taking action becomes immediate based on user actions.
- You can search your data by specific data points to get a deeper understanding of visitors that matter to your site.
- Embed a click to chat button in your site to let your visitors chat with the webmaster.
- If you run WordPress, vBulletin, MediaWiki, etc it allows tracking registered users.
- Custom notification based on your set events like certain user’s visit, or users from certain country, browser, etc or an event like an ad click or sales, etc.
- Woopra is designed to be a platform rather than a solution and can be extended with plugins and skins through their API.
- It has a thriving forum for any questions or issues you may have with the product.
Woopra is free during beta and allows tracking one site. When the paid service becomes available, Woopra says there will still be a free service.
I have registered ShanKri-la to test out this beta service and will share my impressions on it after some time and see if I can compare it to Google Analytics. I am waiting for site approval at the moment to start using Woopra and excited that the client is supported for my Linux desktop as well.
Linux Installation Tip
If you are trying to install Woopra in your Linux desktop like Ubuntu or openSUSE, make sure you have JRE 1.6 installed.
Also, if you get an error when installing with sh woopra_unix.sh command,
gzip: sfx_archive.tar.gz: not in gzip format
Try downloading the file with this from the linux command line,
w get http://static.woopra.com/woopra_unix.sh?anti-cache=12398794379
Then rename the file to woopra_unix.sh before executing it to install the client. ( ‘w get’ is just one word without the space but WordPress won’t let me save the post spelt right)
A contact of mine on Twitter said he’s been waiting for 2 weeks for approval so I’m not sure how soon mine will be approved. As soon as it does, I will post a followup with more first hand information on this service.
Update: I have used Woopra for a while and the statistics are so addictive that I keep spending a lot of time watching users go through different pages and even has helped me provide a bit of customer service at one point.
I have downloaded the client and the plugin. Going to install plugin now.
Hey, when your blog is approved can you please provide me the invitation code for immediate approval of my own blog?
It’s just a request.
Rakshits last blog post..How to configure Firefox address bar with Search Engines
Even if its good, it will be difficult to get the current analytics users.
Nirmals last blog post..Read Air- Google Reader Build on Adobe Air
I’ve never heard of it before. I’ve been using Google Analytics for a while and have only run into a couple small problems (but AdWords and Yahoo’s Marketing Solutions can solve that). The chat feature is really cool, but it might be tough for a lot of sites to have someone there to do it.
Deans last blog post..What is new about the NEW line of Linear Ball type XY-Stages?
Agree with Nirmal, Lets wait for the verdict 😀
MoiN
I installed Woopra a couple weeks ago now, and I can honestly say it beats the pants off Google Analytics. Live tracking is very cool, and I think one of the coolest things is it is a separate program, that runs on your computer… you don’t need to log in to Google to check everything, it is all at your fingertips.
Enough with google analytics…. just installing lots of codes makes the page bulky… Let me think of that when analytics goes paid… never will….
Pavan Kumars last blog post..Vakow! For sms geeks
Rakshit, I am waiting for an approval but if I get an invitation code I’d definitely share it with you.
Nirmal, I know but if its any good I might end up using both.
Dean, very true.. as Jonathan’s post below says it’s gonna turn some bloggers into stalkers and create all kinds of fun situations and posts. As a blogger, I can foresee how I can even say that I can chat with my readers every Friday 3-5 pm or something like that to answer questions. Not sure if anyone would really want to. LOL
MoIN, true that! 🙂
Jonathan, that’s great to hear and that’s what I am reading elsewhere too and Woopra is generating a lot of buzz. Would you happen to have an invitation code to share?
Pavan Kumar, Google analytics is one of the nice playing scripts in my blog atleast. It’s MyBlogLog that hangs up loading most often for me.
It is okay to test it but at last, I don’t see why you need two analytics tools running. Just choose the one, imo.
I will try this one and see how it is
Madhur Kapoors last blog post..Microsoft Worldwide Telescope launched
Thanks K…
😀
Rakshits last blog post..How to configure Firefox address bar with Search Engines
Woopra is the perfect alternative for Google Analytics. I have been using it for the past 3 weeks, and I must agree that it rocks!
Hariss last blog post..Enable Thumbnails For PSD Files
Seems like a great alternative. Maybe everyone can cease to be so Google dependent.
I think I remember seeing this covered on the Geekbrief.tv podcast the other week – at least I think it was this – I don’t really remember the name.
The potential features are very interesting, especially the interactivity with visitors – which is what I would like to see more of on my blog, be it comments or any other dialogue with my readers.
I’d definitely give Woopra a try, just to see how it compares to Google Analytics.
Zaths last blog post..Free Tesco Mobile Sim Card
Definitely worth trying – why give google all that information?
Analytics has always proven to be (at least in my eyes) far more superior than any other Analytics program. I’d be a little weary to switch.
thank for information
sandi2000s last blog post..7 Ways Get Traffic To Yours Blog for free
Tutorial, Tips and Tricks Google, Blog, Internet, Windows, Printers Resetter and Service Manual
sandi2000s last blog post..7 Ways Get Traffic To Yours Blog for free
Seems to be some interesting thing, worth trying. Thank you for reviewing it and sharing your thoughts!
Polinas last blog post..Natural Skin Care Remedies May Provide More Relief Than Drugs
Interesting. I like Google analytics but there is something I do not like about allowing the big G too much easy information about your sites users and trends.
Taking it away to separate program seems like a sensible option as long as it can perform as well
Google Analytics does a great job doing my traffic analysis. I suspect Google will further improve it’s software.
Woopra would have to create a fantastic paid program to match Google Analytics in future.
Am still going to follow your recommendation and test Woopra though!
thanks,
-Riggie
Riggies last blog post..Get "Do Follow" Links with High Pagerank & KeywordLuv Plug-in Bloglist
The more I’ve been thinking about more real-time stats (I already use Mint for some real-time data) and it might make me more obsessed with checking them….it’s a nasty habit I seem to have developed.
Statistics Anonymous anyone? 😉
Zaths last blog post..Gamerbase – First Class Gaming
Hi K,
It’s been a little while since the post now. Did you get Approval yet? Woopra sounds really cool, I’d like to know how it goes.
I use Google Analytics and FireStats at the moment. GA has some cool stuff coming, such as the ability to track clicks on certain items, how far through a movie people play etc. That sounds interesting too, although I’m not sure I need it…
Stephen Cronins last blog post..BullGuard – What A Load Of Bull!
What is the log size for Woopra? I am using statcounter and I am quite happy about it…
Oliviers last blog post..Daniel Trezeguet – Je ne suis pas à l’Euro
Looks very pretty. But I see some basic questions:
1) Pricing: “Woopra is free of charge during the Beta testing phase. Both free and paid plans will be available as soon as Woopra is officially released.”
What does this mean ?? Hard to guess … I´m really afraid that it is like so often, that only some small basic things remain free.
2) What do I really do with the data? Currently I´m running awstats and statpress, and this already gives me much more information than actually needed. Okay, this is up to everyone…
3) User privacy. We are comming to a point, where it will be very difficult to collect data about visitiors. At least here in Germany I have doubts that it will be possible to build up and maintain electronic “user profiles”
Andys last blog post..Führerschein mit ADHS
Andy, you make some valid points. With pricing, I hope it is something like Remember the Milk where you get support with the paid but the free plan includes all the features. But that’s a highly rosy expectation.
I use Counterize for everyday stats and use Google analytics when I am trying to look at a month’s performance and see whwre I can make changes for improvement. Woopra has still been a toy and I am not sure how long I will keep it.
Privacy is another good point that I am not even going to tread on at the moment. 🙂 Thanks for the valuable discussion and see you around.
Thanks to you for finding and presenting this nice alternative! Indeed its that what happens to me quite often: Its nice, its interesting, so I try .. thinking starts later …
But I just want to spend a few words on the privacy issue, which I believe is really underestimated by most webmasters.
In fact the Eurpean commission considers allready an IP to be “personal data”, which means that storing this becomes hardly possible. Google is in heavy discussions about this with the European Commission.
In Germany there are already court activities ongoing to clarify this. Some people sued the government for storing IPs on their websites.
Indeed I´m myself thinking whether I should not remove “individual” data (IPs) from Server logs, after – or even before – statistical analysis. Running two forums I get quite many requests to “remove” personal data, its becoming very important for users.
But the consequences are clear … going much beyond removing the nice flags above the coments showing who visited you…
Hm.. Pictures are looks cute… Just registered, get an account and register 2 sites for test. I hope I like the result as I like the pictures on site 😉
Barrys last blog post..iPod Accessories News – iPod Docks
is it available for blogger? coz u said it is available for major blog/cms.
useful information, i’ll try it before getting commercial 😉
Civilismes last blog post..CPNS Departemen Luar Negeri 2008 (DEPLU)
I too have used Analytics from day one, and generally been happy with it. But it’s great to see this alternative. I’m definitely gonna give it a try. Thanks for the tip and the great site you’ve developed. Just subscribed!
I used Woopra myself and was so impressed with the whole software. I think it is way better than Analytics ever was and easier to comprehend too.
Their live chat with visitors is spooky but kind of cool.
Jeffs last blog post..Green Homes Enter Brazilian Market
I read through the rick feature set on Woopra. I track around 50 blogs and websites and will give this a shot. I would appreciate the deeper analytics. I’ll report back in a few months from what I learn.
Does anyone know the price? Can you use on unlimited domains after purchase?
I use Google analytics mostly and find that it answer all my traffic questions although I have recently started using Woopra and I have to admit it looks really good.
I have yet to explore Woopra to much but so far very impressed and it’s helpful to easily see how many people are on your site at any one point in time. Some intresting points made from your post and the rest of the comments thanks.
Very nice article !
Master Computech”