Alexa Internet (discontinued) vs. StatCounter

I recommend Alexa for small businesses where you don't need much customization. Otherwise, I think big companies should implement their own tools.

Incentivized

Free services provide a wonderful resource for people on tight budgets. If willing to put forth work in data managing/analysis and If basic high traffic information or drilling down specific users in low traffic situations is needed, then StatCounter may fit your needs. If automation and low overhead are a high priority then some more expensive packages can provide the same and more information with less hassle. Because StatCounter is free, there is low risk to see if StatCounter works in your specific usage scenario.

• 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.

Incentivized

• I can visit my site in real time showing pages visited and the duration of the visit.
• It shows very detailed data on where visitors came from.
• I could monitor the performance of campaigns in real-time as visitors came to my site from a promotion.

Incentivized

• Hidden costs may end up losing lot of money, Pricing model is not good
• API calls fail sometimes
• Website suggestions are irrelevant sometimes

Incentivized

• I would like to see our referral traffic ranked in order of most to least. I'm not sure if this function exists already, but if it does, I do not know how to do it.
• Maybe put the average time on site on the same chart as the visitors and page views graphs.
• I feel as though some tasks can be streamlined, but this is not just unique to statcounter but to other analytics sites I've used. But people like digging really deep into the data, but for people like me who use it for one purpose, a shorter one-stop-shop version would be nice. Like one page where everything can be seen.

I have not had any issues with malfunctions when using statcounter, so that would lead me to continue using the program. I would like to see more social media measuring tools, but again, we don't use the program to dig really deep. We're just looking to figure out who is reading what articles on our website are the most liked. And it helps lead our editorial team in the right direction.

I never have to call tech support and never get frustrated because I can't get the information that I need.

It is well structured for Internet analytics and traffic data.

Incentivized

If you want to focus only on your own web analytics, then Google Analytics is the way to go as no product will give you more accurate data. However, what Google Analytics cannot do is the competitive analysis functionality, which is where a product like Alexa comes in. It's about on par with SimilarWeb in many ways, they just go about the analytics in slightly different ways. Really, it comes down to personal preference as to which you prefer. Thankfully both offer free trials so you can test out the platforms before fully committing. SimilarWeb may be a bit better in terms of mobile web data.

Incentivized

Wish StatCounter had a more comprehensive report feature comparable to Google Analytics. I feel StatCounter is easier to use and to understand when compared to Google. Some people prefer Google Analytics, but it provides so much more information that the average person really needs. It meets basic needs. If you are looking for something more robust and high level of detail, I would recommend Google Analytics instead

Incentivized

• I am ready to write a full blown Alexa skill application to make money
• I got exposed to the Web development environment of Amazon web service by learning Alexa

Incentivized

• StatCounter enabled us to track what works and doesn't work with regards to driving web traffic. On a personal use level, StatCounter enabled me to gauge how much additional effort I needed to make to reach the traffic levels needed on my website.