Why you should use Piwik instead of Google Analytics

Piwik is growing fast, it’s getting smarter and more reliable every day. Right now it’s the time to think about this alternative web analytic solution. As I’m using it for years I forgot the original cause that made me replace Google Analytics with Piwik.

So here are my most important perks for using Piwik instead of Google Analytics:

1. Data is yours

When using GA (Google Analytics) the traffic data is stored on a Google server. Apart from your Google login you don’t obtain any of this informations. So in case you care more about privacy than usability Piwik will make you happy. All informations of your Piwik installation are stored in a MySQL database.

2. Your own dependency

Google is known to have fast moving product strategy. If there’s a product in their portfolio which is no longer profitable or doesn’t apply to their product placement, they will likely drop it or at least migrate into another one. I know the chance that Google will no longer offer the analytics service is equal to zero as it’s one of their core services. But doesn’t it make your more happy when you can build up your own environment without to depend on services of some huge companies?

3. More users will increase the quality

As Piwik is an open source project everybody is able to make their contributions. Reporting issues, sharing ideas or update the source code is possible with Piwik. Piwik is community driven, the changes originate from the users and not from a specific group of people which likely can lose the connection about what really matters.

The big gap

So why not Piwik? Obvious it’s better, but why still most people rely on GA? The answer is simple, for most people it’s too difficult to install Piwik. For GA you’ll only need a Google account, but for Piwik you have to deploy your own server. However many website hoster will offer a cheap hosting for Piwik. But in case you want to install Piwik on your own, don’t hesitate, it isn’t that difficult.

To get started I recommend you to checkout my instructions for an Piwik website.