Likelihood to Recommend 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.
Read full review 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.
Read full review Pros 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 Read full review 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. Charles Rogel Vice President of Product Development and Senior Consultant
Read full review Cons 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. Read full review 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. Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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.
Read full review 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.
Read full review Usability 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.
Read full review I never have to call tech support and never get frustrated because I can't get the information that I need.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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
Read full review Return on Investment 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 Read full review 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. Read full review ScreenShots