Goodbye Google Analytics and Clicky, Hello FireStats

Whether you're a new blogger or a seasoned one, the latest version of FireStats (version 1.4.4-stable, November 24, 2007) may be the only analytics program you need.

I installed Google Analytics back in February of this year and it served me well enough. There's a problem: There's no way to verify the data. Is data verification important? I'd like to be able to decide what visitors to exclude and which to allow. I left Google Analytics in place and installed a second analytical service, Clicky, in March. I like Clicky because it gives near real time data. The same problem exists though: There's no way to verify the data.

The last time I looked at FireStats, it was months ago. I didn't like what I saw so I passed on it. I went back and looked yesterday and liked what I saw. I installed it, on both blogs, shortly after midnight local time. I removed the Clicky code from both footers and deactivated the WordPress Ultimate Google Analytics plugin on both blogs. I'd been thinking about replacing the plugin for a few days now with another one called Local Analytics, especially after watching the Google code hang while loading my blog up in my browser.

What I like about FireStats is that all the data is collected and stored in my own database. No third-party services are used. FireStats is not without problems. Most of the robots are excluded, but there are some unknowns that seem to be making it through. I've caught 2 so far and there's probably more that aren't on the default list. I don't have a problem with it, however, because I know how to verify the data. There may be more problems that I'll discover as I use it, but it looks good so far.

Like I said earlier, FireStats provides me with the only data I need:

• The number of page views
• The number of visitors
• Referrers
• Search terms
• Popular pages
• Visitor browser information
• Visitor operating systems
• Visitor countries
• A table of hits

This is the information I used the other analytics for. Your mileage may vary, so it's up to you what kind of statistics you need to see. If you want the extra information provided by the other analytics services, this plugin is not for you.

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December 16th, 2007 By RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines | Categories: Blog Changes | Tags: analytics, Clicky, FireStats, Google, services, WordPress | Full Article Feed | Summary Article Feed | Comments Feed | Full Articles by Email | Respond | Trackback URL

2. Steve on 2007-12-16 at 2:17 am (Reply)

   There is another fairly decent stats plug-in, RT. CyStats for WP is quite good, and uses your own database. I used Google Analytics, but like you, the load times were excessive.

   Steve's last blog post..shadow exercises

   2. RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2007-12-16 at 2:27 am (Reply)

      I was wondering who my visitor from China was.

      I added the icons to the comments too. Someone mentioned avatars and sivatars and I thought it about it and decided against it. It's a third-party solution as well.

      2. Stevo on 2007-12-16 at 10:08 pm (Reply)

         I'd like to ditch the built-in gravitars in my comments. I'll have to look at the code.

         That is a sweet plug-in, can I ask where to get it?

         Stevo's last blog post..shadow exercises

      3. RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2007-12-16 at 10:39 pm (Reply)

         It's part of the FireStats plugin on mine, but I saw it somewhere else a while back as a separate plugin.

3. Joyce Babu on 2007-12-18 at 11:03 am (Reply)

   Thanks for the mention, RT.

   I have been using both Google Analytics and FireStats. You can see the pros and cons of both Google Analytics and FireStats in this post
   http://www.joycebabu.com/blog/best-traffic-analysis-programs-for-your-blog.html

   Btw, did you checkout the latest feature in Google Analytics?
   http://analytics.blogspot.com/2007/12/announcing-new-graphing-tools-gajs.html

   Joyce Babu's last blog post..Local Analytics Update

4. Stephen Cronin on 2007-12-18 at 11:11 am (Reply)

   I'm in China too. Let's face it RT, you're read all over the world… For people who want the country / os / browser icons for each comment, without FireStats, you can use the Easy IP2Country plugin. The link to it is at the bottom of the FireStats page.

   I've been using Firestats for almost a month now and I love it.

   The one thing I don't like is that it shows a rolling figure for the last 24 hours, rather than the figures for a particular day. I've hacked it so I can get how many visitors there were today, yesterday, or any number of days previously. I've also done the same thing for weeks and months. I'm about to hook it up to some GPL chart software, so that I can get a graphical representation of visits.

   I'm not sure what I'll do with my hacks, as FireStats isn't GPL. I'll pass them back to Omry (Firestats creator) to see if he wants to include them, but I'm not sure if I'll write them up or not.

   Stephen Cronin's last blog post..Make Money Online - Don’t Forget Your Existing Skills

   2. RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2007-12-18 at 11:50 am (Reply)

      Stephen, you're a programmer. Why don't you write your own stats package that IS GPL? I'd be happy to collaborate with you on it.

      I don't have the wherewithal to hack FireStats myself, but one item I would love to have is a little tickbox on the side of the hits log to delete specific hits that I know are spambots.