Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued) vs. Google Analytics

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Based on the former Coremetrics, IBM Digital Analytics is a discontinued analytics product. IBM acquired Coremetrics in 2010, and re-branded the platform to the IBM Digital Marketing Optimization Solution. Product support was ultimately provided by Acoustic, but the product is not a part of the company's plans going forward.N/A
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
Pricing
Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)Google Analytics
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Google Analytics 360
150,000
per year
Google Analytics
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)Google Analytics
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)Google Analytics
Considered Both Products
Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
I feel that Google Analytics give you what you really need, without the hefty price tag. Along with giving you what you need, it is extremely more user friendly than IBM DA and can be easily learned by a multitude of people while still giving very significant information that …
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
Google Analytics is great low cost alternative to IBM Digital Analytics for smaller, low traffic sites but does not offer the in depth product performance reports we require for our retail clients. IBM can add notes on Google's user interface but Google should really add …
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
Much of the work we did in IBM Digital Analytics could have been answered through Google Analytics, a much simpler, agile and FREE solution set. Not mention, given the vast number of Google Analytics USERS, free and actionable support is simply a click away ... this compared to …
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
IBM Analytics is a great tool for measuring and analyzing web traffic along with consumer behavior to a degree. When compared to other solutions and tools available in the market today, I'd suggest checking out Kissmetrics or even Google Analytics over this tool. Ultimately, it …
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
In comparison to Adobe, I believe IBM Digital Analytics and Adobe Analytics are fairly similar in terms of features. When it comes to the marketing attribution approach, IBM is what sets it apart. Additionally, pre-integrated technologies with great ROI, like LIVEmail or IBM …
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
IBM Digital Analytics was already in place when our team was brought on. None of us are fans. IBM does not seem to care from a customer service level whether or not we are satisfied or getting what we need out of their offering.
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
I think that Google Analytics does everything just a little bit better than IBM. I was brought in with IBM being so deeply integrated with existing systems that changing to another tool isn't viable at this time.
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
IBM Digital Analytics is typically a choice driven by CMS and pricing decisions. In terms of stand alone considerations:

Adobe Analytics typically wins on flexibility (aka ability to customize the system to your particular business)
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
IBM Analytics typically goes up against Adobe Analytics in the enterprise web analytics product selection process. When we determine a client isn't after the big guns, we'll usually refer them to Google Analytics, but when individual user conversion tracking is a must, we will …
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
We have used Adobe Analytics and Google Analytics in similar instances. IBM Digital Analytics is between the 2 products, slightly better than Google Analytics but far behind the flexibility offered in Adobe.
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
The customer support, advanced analysis and no data sampling are the primarily reasons why I would choose IBM over GA.
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
Google Analytics - Compared to IBM, not as strong on the product reporting (product views, abandoned carts etc.). The end results can be achieved through custom variables, but that does require custom coding. While Google does at least have a reporting API, it is not nearly as …
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
As a consulting company, we tailor the analytics solution to our clients. Usually they start with a free solution like Google Analytics, but they rapidly end up with a paying solution because it offers a deeper analysis and less restrictions on the data.

For instance Google …
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
Have extensive use of Omniture and Google Analytics, but I find Digital Analytics the best for retailers. It's is an easy to use solution that highlights the merchandising and marketing issues related to your website.
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
I mentioned Adobe and Google and made some comparisons in prior questions. I believe that any of these packages can be made quite powerful with a good implementation, which includes a good tagging strategy. I like Coremetrics best because I believe it is easier to get a solid …
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
Omniture and Webtrends were also considered. When business needs are met by both Coremetrics and Omniture, the latter tends to be more expensive. Webtrends is often a good choice when server logs are also used with page tags. Server logs is an older technology which tends to …
Chose Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)
Webtrends and Omniture were on the shortlist. Webtrends tagging implementation seemed a little less flexible than Omniture and Coremetrics. When it finally came down to pricing and desired features, Omniture and Coremetrics were not significantly different, so we based the …
Google Analytics
Chose Google Analytics
Coremetrics offered better support to the admins, but the data was unclear and often misleading. Site catalyst is difficult to use and has a high barrier to entry. Google analytics is a better data platform, with a better user interface, but they are lacking in the support like …
Chose Google Analytics
If it was my choice I would have used IBM Digital Analytics (DA) for everything. DA has it quirks but it really gives some deep analysis on the data and with a bit of development work you can really get all the data you could possibly want. If every website and newsletter was …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)Google Analytics
Small Businesses
StatCounter
StatCounter
Score 9.0 out of 10
StatCounter
StatCounter
Score 9.0 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
Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)Google Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(24 ratings)
9.0
(183 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
5.8
(18 ratings)
9.0
(51 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.9
(8 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(4 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
2.3
(4 ratings)
7.0
(42 ratings)
Online Training
7.1
(2 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.9
(2 ratings)
9.0
(7 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(1 ratings)
6.0
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued)Google Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
Discontinued Products
IBM analytics has continued to improve upon the days of being the original core metrics. After using the updated version for quite some time, it has been great at providing the needed analytics to measure ROI and goal performance for our quarterly KPI's. It has resulted in a great increase in web engagements although we are a midsize company, smaller outfits may not need such an expensive option.
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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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Pros
Discontinued Products
  • IBM CXA comprises an acquisition called Tealeaf. This tool has deep heritage and this is evident in its present-day capabilities.
  • The Universal Behaviour Exchange or UBX puts the concept of personalisation at the forefront. The ability to combine physical (analog) and digital transactions to create the complete picture of a customer journey, is a stand out benefit.
  • The solution does not have to involve the purchase of software. IBM CXA can be sold as a service bundled with analytics as a service. This not only lowers the cost of ownership, it gets around one of the principal issues. Strong staff with design and analytical capability to drive the solution and deliver tangible benefits.
  • The seamless integration of Watson AI services to help with the heavy lifiting. Watson reinforces the analytical focus this solution has and can learn to recognise situations specific to a company.
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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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Cons
Discontinued Products
  • The user interface is in Flash, which can be very frustrating and slow at times. Apparently, this is to be transitioned in a future release.
  • Can only segment the last 93 days of data. Any historical segmentation beyond the 93 days must be run in Explore (which is credit based, and has its own limitations with the number of credits per month, based on the initial contract with IBM).
  • Reports can only display 93 days of data at a given time for custom date ranges. There are pre-programmed date ranges setup with IBM during implementation (last week, last month, last quarter etc.), but are not flexible enough to answer more specific questions.
  • Certain reports cannot have segments applied, making answering some simple questions a bit more tricky. For example, I can create a segment around mobile devices and apply it to the marketing channels report, but I can't create a marketing channel segment and apply it to the mobile reports.
  • Built in API calls allows for nice report design and automation.
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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.
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Likelihood to Renew
Discontinued Products
IBM Digital Analytics is a great solution for our clients and I believe they offer the best solution for the retail space. We have access to IBM support via email or live chat and they can answer many of the reporting questions that come up. IBM is receptive to our feedback of the product so I am confident they will continue making improvements
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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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Usability
Discontinued Products
Very easy to implement and use.
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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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Reliability and Availability
Discontinued Products
Never had any issues
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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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Performance
Discontinued Products
As reports are templated, the system is pretty quick. Sometimes you have to wait a bit for a report to render. Or you might have to re-load the page. But there is no real issue here and the system is on par with other similar systems.
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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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Support Rating
Discontinued Products
Overall, the level of support is very good and I would say it is a strong asset of the solution. However, you can sometimes feel that there is a difference of level among the support team.
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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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Online Training
Discontinued Products
Online training is really great. One of the best assets that they have. Lots of great videos, pop quizzes at the end of each module. Fantastic. Other tools have similar features, but not as good.
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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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Implementation Rating
Discontinued Products
See previous comment: reading and understanding the encyclopedic implementation guide is a must.
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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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Alternatives Considered
Discontinued Products
Much of the work we did in IBM Digital Analytics could have been answered through Google Analytics, a much simpler, agile and FREE solution set. Not mention, given the vast number of Google Analytics USERS, free and actionable support is simply a click away ... this compared to IBM Digital Analytics fractured and often absent support service.
Read full review
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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Scalability
Discontinued Products
This solution can support large amount of data and transaction. The way that user management features are built, it shows it is meant for large organizations.
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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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Return on Investment
Discontinued Products
  • We spend too much time trying to work around bugs on the new UI.
  • We spend too much time trying to figure out how to make certain segments work because support and the knowledge center are lackluster.
  • Our sales rep is very unresponsive and leaves us searching for a lot of answers on our own, including what other products we may benefit from that IBM offers.
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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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