Alexa vs Matomo (formerly Piwik)

Alexa

Alexa is perfect for PR agencies tracking analytics for their client reporting -- especially if media relations is a core competency for them. We use Alexa almost exclusively for our media relations efforts and showing the reach of our media coverage, the potential of a media opportunity, and more to our clients.

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Verified User

Director in Marketing

Public Relations and Communications Company, 11-50 employees

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Matomo (formerly Piwik)

This software can be installed manually or via a third party installer. Those less happy with coding may prefer to check availability of Piwik via the web host before choosing it as a preferred option. That aside, the important issue when choosing any analytics package is whether it tracks the range of data that you need. Piwik is very rich in this respect.

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Sharon Hurley Hall

Professional blogger, writer, journalist

Sharon Hurley Hall, WriterWriting and Editing, 1-10 employees

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Pros

It sources website analytics for most websites we're interested in tracking.
Each website's dashboard is easy to understand and pull numbers from.
We can get very nitty gritty with the numbers we're pulling or keep it simple by just pulling basic website visitor stats.

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Verified User

Director in Marketing

Public Relations and Communications Company, 11-50 employees

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One of Piwik's strengths is the provision of customizable widgets for different bits of analytics data. The ability to add and remove them, change dates and more makes this a flexible way to visualize data.
The visitor log section is also rich, providing date, keywords, actions and more in a single table, which makes it easy to identify your most effective content.
And the visitor actions table includes both bounce rate and time on site, so you can quickly tell which pages have the most engagement.
Data display is a strength for Piwik, as you have access to overview charts while simultaneously being able to drill deeper.

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Sharon Hurley Hall

Professional blogger, writer, journalist

Sharon Hurley Hall, WriterWriting and Editing, 1-10 employees

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Cons

Not all websites are included, and there isn't always a rhyme or reason for who is or isn't in Alexa.
It would be great to have more subset URLs tracked vs. only the main website URL. This could really help companies track more direct correlation between numbers and work being done.

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Verified User

Director in Marketing

Public Relations and Communications Company, 11-50 employees

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I wish there were some additional pre-formatted tiles/tabs to choose from
Creating custom data sets for tiles/tabs is not straightforward and there isn't much in the way of explanations on how to do it
I have clicked the "WP-Piwik - SEO" button in setting/statistics but can't seem to get the data to populate. Again, not much in the way of "Help" on the site to assist in figuring it out.

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Jeff Wallace

Marketing Specialist - Marketing Technologist

Critical Business Analysis, IncComputer Software, 11-50 employees

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Likelihood to Renew

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Matomo (formerly Piwik)8.7

Based on 13 answers

At this point, there is not a single conceivable reason as to why we would not renew and continue to use Piwik Analytics. Especially since it is a free program and open source. The product will only get better over time as more people look into it and donate to cause so that development can continue.

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Jeff Wallace

Marketing Specialist - Marketing Technologist

Critical Business Analysis, IncComputer Software, 11-50 employees

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Usability

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Matomo (formerly Piwik)9.0

Based on 3 answers

For the intermediate user, the overall Piwik usability is pretty straight forward. If you are a beginner or novice, install and customization could prove to be a bit tedious. Especially when it comes to connecting geo-location data for tracking specifics. Overall though, straight from the dashboard you will get an immense amount of information. From there, the menu at the top breaks things down in more specifics.

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Jeff Wallace

Marketing Specialist - Marketing Technologist

Critical Business Analysis, IncComputer Software, 11-50 employees

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Implementation

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Matomo (formerly Piwik)9.0

Based on 1 answer

Only one hiccup when we were using a beta installation. Other than that, smooth sailing.

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Erik Rühling

Director of IT & Web Development

Resource Branding & DesignMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

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Alternatives Considered

We used to use Compete until it changed what it does entirely. Alexa was the best option after we did research. It is more granular in the numbers it provides too, which is good for what we do.

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Verified User

Director in Marketing

Public Relations and Communications Company, 11-50 employees

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Most services do not give us the fine control over our own data. They have access to information they are choosing not to share with us, notably IP addresses. Even if it's anonymized (last digits dropped), we should have the access to this data!

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Verified User

Manager in Marketing

Internet Company, 11-50 employees

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Return on Investment

It helps us show the ROI and reach of our work. Since implementing Alexa into our tracking and reporting, along with other tools, we've seen greater retention with our clients b/c we are able to better show the reach and results of our labor.

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Verified User

Director in Marketing

Public Relations and Communications Company, 11-50 employees

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