Google Analytics vs. StatCounter

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Analytics
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Google Analytics is perhaps the best-known web analytics product and, as a free product, it has massive adoption. Although it lacks some enterprise-level features compared to its competitors in the space, the launch of the paid Google Analytics Premium edition seems likely to close the gap.
$0
per month
StatCounter
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Web analytics product designed for SMB.s Statistics collected are based on page loads.
$5
per month
Pricing
Google AnalyticsStatCounter
Editions & Modules
Google Analytics 360
150,000
per year
Google Analytics
Free
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google AnalyticsStatCounter
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Google AnalyticsStatCounter
Considered Both Products
Google Analytics
Chose Google Analytics
Google Analytics is the web's gold standard. We also use StatCounter for redundancy sake and because its visitor tracking and basic reporting are spectacular. But Google is a must-have no matter what else you end up using.

The redundancy issues plays out in terms of data …
StatCounter
Chose StatCounter
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 …
Chose StatCounter
StatCounter is a more basic tool than Google Analytics, but in many ways, it is more robust. It provides more detail by visitor. It also allows me to check Google Analytics stats to see if my data matches.
Chose StatCounter
Again, these are two, different animals. I have used others but that was many years ago. The fact that I cannot recall the others, and have stayed loyal to StatCounter is a testament to StatCounter's long term value to me and my clients.
Chose StatCounter
I have used Google Analytics as well as internal server statistics (can't recall the internal app name). StatCounter definitely has the ease of use and simplicity factors on its side. That being said, I still recommend using a combination of StatCounter plus another external …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Google AnalyticsStatCounter
Small Businesses
StatCounter
StatCounter
Score 9.0 out of 10
Serpstat
Serpstat
Score 9.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Siteimprove
Siteimprove
Score 8.7 out of 10
Siteimprove
Siteimprove
Score 8.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Contentsquare
Contentsquare
Score 8.6 out of 10
Contentsquare
Contentsquare
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google AnalyticsStatCounter
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(183 ratings)
9.6
(12 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(51 ratings)
9.9
(7 ratings)
Usability
9.9
(8 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(42 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google AnalyticsStatCounter
Likelihood to Recommend
Google
Google Analytics is particularly well suited for tracking and analyzing customer behavior on a grocery e-commerce platform. It provides a wealth of information about customer behavior, including what products are most popular, what pages are visited the most, and where customers are coming from. This information can help the platform optimize its website for better customer engagement and conversion rates. However, Google Analytics may not be the best tool for more advanced, granular analysis of customer behavior, such as tracking individual customer journeys or understanding customer motivations. In these cases, it may be more appropriate to use additional tools or solutions that provide deeper insights into customer behavior.
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StatCounter
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.
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Pros
Google
  • Multiple reports to see website use and behavior
  • Allows you to customize reports with days, weeks, months, and years
  • You can build out a dashboard to easily view stats from multiple websites in one place
  • You can share analytics reports via the dashboard, automatically emailed PDFs or in other formats
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StatCounter
  • 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.
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Cons
Google
  • Data sampling is somewhat inaccurate on the free tier - this is addressed in premium but is expensive.
  • Some of the UI is very similar in naming when presenting different data, some in-situ information might be useful.
  • Gotchas around filtering and data validation.
  • Implementation can be tricky, it can take a lot of time and expertise to get a full, accurate picture of your metrics.
Read full review
StatCounter
  • 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.
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Likelihood to Renew
Google
We will continue to use Google Analytics for several reasons. It is free, which is a huge selling point. It houses all of our ecommerce stores' data, and though it can't account for refunds or fraud orders, gives us and our clients directional, real time information on individual and group store performance.
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StatCounter
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.
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Usability
Google
Google Analytics provides a wealth of data, down to minute levels. That is it's greatest detriment: find the right information when you need it can be a cumbersome task. You are able to create shortcuts, however, so it can mitigate some of this problem. Google is continually refining Analytics, so I do not doubt there will be improvements
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StatCounter
I never have to call tech support and never get frustrated because I can't get the information that I need.
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Reliability and Availability
Google
We all know Google is at top when it comes to availability. We have never faced any such instances where I can suggest otherwise. All you need is a Google account, a device and internet connection to use this super powerful tool for reporting and visualising your site data, traffic, events, etc. that too in real time.
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StatCounter
No answers on this topic
Performance
Google
This has been a catalyst for improving our site's traffic handling capabilities. We were able to identify exit% from our sites through it and we used recommendations to handle and implement the same in our sites. We have been increasing the usage of Google Analytics in our sites and never had any performance related issues if we used Analytics
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StatCounter
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Google
The Google reps respond very quickly. However, sometimes they can overly call you to set up an apportionment. I'm very proficient and sometimes when I talk to reps, they give beginner tutorials and insights that are a waste of time. I wish Google would understand my level of expertise and assign me to a rep (long-term) that doesn't have to walk me through the basics.
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StatCounter
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Google
love the product and training they provide for businesses of all sizes. The following list of links will help you get started with Google Analytics from setup to understanding what data is being presented by Google Analytics.
  1. How to Use Google Analytics for Beginners – Mahalo’s how-to guide for beginners.
  2. A beginner’s guide to Google Analytics – A free eBook walking you through Google Analytics from setup to understanding what data is being presented.
  3. Getting to Know Your Google Analytics Dashboard – The title says it all! This is a brief post with one goal: to introduce you to the Google Analytics dashboard.
  4. Google Analytics for Beginners: How to Make the Most of Your Traffic Reports– This guide doesn’t cover setup, but it does a great job of helping you to better understand the data being presented.
  5. Google Analytics Video Tutorial 1: Setup – A video presentation that walks you through Google Analytics setup.
  6. Google Analytics Video Tutorial 2: Essential Stats – A video presentation that introduces you to some of the most important data being presented in Google Analytics.
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StatCounter
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Google
I think my biggest take away from the Google Analytics implementation was that there needs to be a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it before you start. Originally the analytics were added to track visitors, but as we became more savvy with the product, we began adding more and more functionality, and defining guidelines as we went along. While not detrimental to our success, this lack of an overarching goal resulted in some minor setbacks in implementation and the collection of some messy data that is unusable.
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StatCounter
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Google
I have not used Adobe Analytics as much, but I know they offer something called customer journey analytics, which we are evaluating now. I have used Semrush, and I find them much better than Google Analytics. I feel a fairly nontechnical person could learn Semrush in about a month. They also offer features like competitive analysis (on content, keywords, traffic, etc.), which is very useful. If you have to choose one among Semrush and Google Analytics, I would say go for Semrush.
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StatCounter
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
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Scalability
Google
Google Analytics is currently handling the reporting and tracking of near about 80 sites in our project. And I am not talking about the sites from different projects. They may have way more accounts than that. Never ever felt a performance issue from Google's end while generating or customising reports or tracking custom events or creating custom dimensions
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StatCounter
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Google
  • It has helped us gain understanding of what is going on on our website.
  • It has helped us determine areas that need fixing (i.e. pages with extremely high bounce rates may need to be redone).
  • It has helped us understand our biggest avenues for bringing traffic to the website and business in general.
  • It has helped guide our website redesign.
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StatCounter
  • 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.
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