WebTrends Analytics On Premises - A Workhorse, Not a Ferrari
April 19, 2018

WebTrends Analytics On Premises - A Workhorse, Not a Ferrari

Mary Kay Scott | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

On Premise

Overall Satisfaction with Webtrends Analytics

My company uses WebTrends on premises, and has ever since I started work here. During my tenure we have added Google Analytics to our website, but we continue to use WebTrends as well.
  • Custom Reports
  • Reanalysis of old data
  • Can analyze raw log files
  • Complexity
  • Cost of ownership
  • Adding new report parameters requires full reanalysis
  • WebTrends on-premise has a heavy initial investment for licensing, maintenance, and hardware. But once it is running, it just keeps going. Annual maintenance renewals have been our only cost for several years now.
  • Up until the last year, WebTrends gave us a good return for our costs -- it allowed us to create the reports that our users requested, and allowed us to reanalyze old data for new information.
  • WebTrends suffers in comparison to Google Analytics simply because it is not "free". But I But the experience I have in WebTrends allows it to produce many more benefits for our company.

Compared to WebTrends, Google Analytics has a slicker interface, provides live site usage data, and is easier to jump into with basic usage. These days users expect to be able to create their own reports as needed, rather than have an "expert" do it for them. They are used to instant gratification, and WebTrends does not lend itself to that outlook.

So far, our need to analyze raw log files disqualifies Google Analytics completely. When that need disappears (which it will in the next year or so, after the legacy sites are retired), our company decision-makers will probably choose to drop WebTrends in favor of Google Analytics.

I am more familiar with WebTrends than with Google Analytics, and I prefer its custom report creation capabilities. We still need to analyze raw log files occasionally, and having WebTrends on premises allows us to do that. With WebTrends, we own our data, and keep it onsite, unlike with Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is capable of showing live site visits, which our end users love. It is also easier for the users to do basic tasks in -- they find the WebTrends interface too confusing. User management is easier in Google Analytics than it is in WebTrends.