Chartbeat
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Top Rated
92 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 9.1 out of 100
Based on 92 reviews and ratings
1 Rating
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 9 out of 100
Based on 1 reviews and ratings
Attribute Ratings
- Chartbeat is rated higher in 2 areas: Likelihood to Recommend, Likelihood to Renew
- HitsLink is rated higher in 1 area: Usability
Likelihood to Recommend

9.1
Chartbeat
91%
54 Ratings

9.0
HitsLink
90%
1 Rating
Likelihood to Renew

10.0
Chartbeat
100%
5 Ratings

9.0
HitsLink
90%
1 Rating
Usability

8.7
Chartbeat
87%
45 Ratings

9.0
HitsLink
90%
1 Rating
Support Rating

8.0
Chartbeat
80%
11 Ratings

HitsLink
N/A
0 Ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
Chartbeat
If you are looking for a tool that tracks traffic, content performance, author performance, and reader retention with a relatively simple interface and gleaming graphics then this is for you. Trickier things like report generation are made much more seamless now, and except for some friction in the sidebar navigation –– I find it to be a pretty flawless tool that I would recommend to friends or others in the media field. It's just a basic necessity to understand content these days, so Chartbeat is a great tool at that!
Sustainability Reporter
WWDOnline Media, 501-1000 employees
HitsLink
If you're looking for a comprehensive, user-friendly web analytics tool, you should definitely consider Hitslink. Before you subscribe to the software, take a test run on their Demo version of the site, as it behaves exactly like the full professional version. The biggest disadvantage is that Google+ registered users' search engine traffic data will be mostly (if not completely) blocked. However, this drawback is rarely a significant hindrance to analyzing your website's traffic, but it is something to be aware of.
Content Manager
Texas Pension Review BoardMarketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees
Pros
Chartbeat
- Provides easy at-a-glance look at what people are reading right now
- Heads-up Display allows you to make sure the homepage is showing the content people want to read
- Headline testing tool provides fascinating insight into what makes people read a story and improves headline-writing ability

Verified User
Professional in Other
Newspapers Company, 1001-5000 employeesHitsLink
- View website traffic stats and trends in user-friendly charts, graphs, and lists.
- Easily parses out website users by search engine, search term, geographic location, referral website, and other specific characteristics.
- Shows which websites users are coming from, what pages on your site they've landed on and which ones they leave your site from.
- Gives statistics on how long users are viewing specific pages, which allows for the analyzing of the effectiveness of each webpage on a website.
- Easily view real-time as well as long-term traffic statistics
Content Manager
Texas Pension Review BoardMarketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees
Cons
Chartbeat
- Source of traffic needs improvement. Search and social make sense, but "internal" and "links" is a grey area. It would be helpful to define those with an organization and provide an information icon so users can easily remember what each of those buckets is tracking.
- More ways to customize the real-time board. For example, with video content, that's great that I can see a user has started a video, but what is the completion rate, was that only on O&O or can that track Facebook, too?
- Would like to see demo (age) information included as a way to slice the data so I can see what's working with my older and younger demo.

Verified User
Director in Other
Publishing Company, 1001-5000 employeesHitsLink
- Specific information such as search term and geographic location is blocked for users coming into your site through Google who are also signed into a Google+ account, making it increasingly more difficult to analyze trends as more and more people acquire Google+ accounts. This is part of Google's strategy to make companies pay them directly through their Google Analytics software, and it is working against services like Hitslink.
Content Manager
Texas Pension Review BoardMarketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees
Pricing Details
Chartbeat
General
Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Chartbeat Editions & Modules
—
Additional Pricing Details
—HitsLink
General
Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
$20 per month
HitsLink Editions & Modules
Edition
10,000 Page Views | $19.95 |
---|---|
25,000 Page Views | $24.95 |
50,000 Page Views | $29.95 |
- none
Additional Pricing Details
—Likelihood to Renew
Chartbeat
Chartbeat 10.0
Based on 5 answers
I gave Chartbeat a 5 for a renewal rating, because, while it delivers clear and understandable content, Google Analytics also provides many of the same features for free. For a small to medium website, I believe it would be more cost effective to use Google Analytics. A website with a high amount of traffic, however, could merit spending the money on Chartbeat to maximize their potential.

Verified User
Contributor in Other
Writing and Editing Company, 1-10 employeesHitsLink
HitsLink 9.0
Based on 1 answer
Hitslink is as useful as it is user-friendly. I haven't seen another website analytics tool as comprehensive and at the same time straightforward as this service. The only downside of Hitslink is Google's blocking of information from its registered Google+ users to the software. As Google+ continues to reign in more of the population, I can see this being a significant problem for Hitslink to overcome. However, there is still a vast majority of search engine users whose actions are visible through Hitslink, and as long as this stays the case, the service will be an invaluable tool for website administrators.
Content Manager
Texas Pension Review BoardMarketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees
Usability
Chartbeat
Chartbeat 8.7
Based on 45 answers
It's easy to use and understand, which can't be said for all data-tracking sites that I've used in the past. It's easy for me to navigate and I didn't need to Google anything in order to find what I needed

Verified User
Team Lead in Other
Media Production Company, 1-10 employeesHitsLink
HitsLink 9.0
Based on 1 answer
The service is incredibly intuitive and very easy to learn. The only drawback is not having a mobile-optimized website to easily view website reports on the go. But on a PC or Mac, Hitslink is as user friendly as it gets. I have yet to see a navigation system on any SaaS website that makes a service that is this comprehensive seem so straight-forward.
Content Manager
Texas Pension Review BoardMarketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees
Support Rating
Chartbeat
Chartbeat 8.0
Based on 11 answers
I have had limited experience of support for Chartbeat but whenever I have needed help it has been there. Recently there was an issue of seeing different forms of data in real time - app and otherwise effectively, and the issue was being clearly dealt with and communicated back to us.
Editor
Birmingham MailNewspapers, 51-200 employees
HitsLink
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Chartbeat
Chartbeat really remains the gold standard in the tracking, measurement and display of realtime engagement metrics. If your site has sufficient audience benefit from immediate changes in content programming, display and design, it's a great tool with a highly refined and intuitive user experience. Plus, it's API allows for broad integration.
Director
Tribune PublishingNewspapers, 1001-5000 employees
HitsLink
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Chartbeat
- I do not have access to the financial arrangements in place, but I would view Chartbeat as a key tool for the company with significant advantages over other analytical software.
- Continued enhancement of the product, for instance picture previewer, would provide additional value to the service.

Verified User
Professional in Other
Online Media Company, 5001-10,000 employeesHitsLink
- Faster lead conversion
- Improvement of the effectiveness of landing pages (and all webpages on our sites for that matter)
- Increased employee efficiency by allowing us to make targeted changes to webpages in real time
Content Manager
Texas Pension Review BoardMarketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees