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0 pointsTekMol4y ago0 comments

Google Analytics is the best analytics tool out there.

By getting their companies off GA, European governments are weakening their industry.

This probably holds true for many SAAS products. Many of the best are from the USA. Forbidding European companies to use them is a desaster for the European internet industry.

0 comments

estaseuropano4y ago

For whom and what purpose is it the best?

There are many niche systems that fit specific purposes. Sure GA can benefit from scale and existing profiles with user data gatherer in other context, which a self-hosted solution would not have acces to. But does it address every need better than specific systems? And is the added benefit worth sacrificing your users' data to google?

wizzwizz44y ago

Google Analytics is hugely overrated. Most people don't use it properly, many browsers block it entirely, and you can usually do a better job just by looking at server logs.

TekMolOP4y ago

Saying so just tells me that you never been analyzing and optimizing websites with millions of users. Websites on which a whole company depends on. It would be a crazy approach to try and do it via server logs.

wizzwizz44y ago

Actually, there are some nice tools (e.g. GoAccess) that produce pretty graphs. The vast majority of people just want pretty graphs; the more fancy data Google Analytics produces is nowhere near as accurate as the number of trailing non-zero digits would have you believe.

Depending on your userbase, the regular traffic data can be off by significant proportions. I've seen pages where the number of logged-in interactions are higher than the number of Google Analytics hits.

Semaphor4y ago

But GA is indeed not very useful for many questions. FF blocks it by default.

We use server-side stats and for last month I get 30.1% Chrome, 28.8% FF. Now when I compare that to GA: 40% Chrome, 16% FF…

bovermyer4y ago

Server logs aren't the only alternative to Google Analytics. Matomo, Plausible, and Fathom are all perfectly viable.

dewey4y ago

> and you can usually do a better job just by looking at server logs

Yes, if you only want to count visits and don't have a problem having all bot traffic included. For everything a bit more advanced you need a proper analytics tool.

wizzwizz44y ago

Filtering out bot traffic is easy enough with server logs. A self-hosted JavaScript analytics tool gives you more data, but Google Analytics filters out Firefox users too; contrary to ReCAPTCHA's apparent beliefs, Firefox users are mostly not bots.

1 more reply

bovermyer4y ago

You appear to have a very different idea of "best analytics tool" than I do. What is your ranking rubric?

144y ago

You see it as weakening others will see it as strengthening.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

estaseuropano4y ago

For whom and what purpose is it the best?

wizzwizz44y ago

Google Analytics is hugely overrated. Most people don't use it properly, many browsers block it entirely, and you can usually do a better job just by looking at server logs.

TekMolOP4y ago

wizzwizz44y ago

Semaphor4y ago

But GA is indeed not very useful for many questions. FF blocks it by default.

We use server-side stats and for last month I get 30.1% Chrome, 28.8% FF. Now when I compare that to GA: 40% Chrome, 16% FF…

bovermyer4y ago

Server logs aren't the only alternative to Google Analytics. Matomo, Plausible, and Fathom are all perfectly viable.

dewey4y ago

> and you can usually do a better job just by looking at server logs

Yes, if you only want to count visits and don't have a problem having all bot traffic included. For everything a bit more advanced you need a proper analytics tool.

wizzwizz44y ago

1 more reply

bovermyer4y ago

You appear to have a very different idea of "best analytics tool" than I do. What is your ranking rubric?

144y ago

You see it as weakening others will see it as strengthening.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse