Best Options for Real Time Analytics
Published in Marketing, ToolsEvery business, large or small, has a need to know what is going on with its website and how users are interacting with it. There are a number of different options when it comes to website analytics, and this post will feature the leading options that provide visitor data in real time.
Real time analytics can prove to be invaluable when working with social media or viral campaigns that tend to send traffic quickly and in short bursts. In these situations you’ll need to be able to react quickly, and real-time website analytics allow you to do so. Here is a look at some of the best options.
Google Analytics
In recent weeks Google Analytics rolled out a new feature for real-time reporting. You can see how many visitors are on your site at the moment, what specific pages they are viewing, what sites referred them, where they are located geographically, and more. You’ll need to be using the new version of Analytics in order to view the real time data (read more about that in this post on the Analytics blog).
Clicky
Clicky’s focus is on provide real-time analytics. When you login by default you will see your current data from today. Historical data is also available. Detailed Twitter analytics is also included to help you gauge the impact of social media to your website. The ClickyTouch app is available for the iPhone and iPad.
Woopra
Woopra lets you watch visitors live to see how the are interacting with your site, and you can even chat with those visitors through the Woopra Chat Widget. Woopra also includes an advanced notification feature that allows you to set up several different types of notifications (email, audible, popup) based on different actions and situations.
Chartbeat
Chartbeat provides real-time analytics for news publishers and other types of websites (specialized analytics for e-commerce sites is on the way). Chartbeat’s unique engagement metrics help you to see how visitors are interacting with your site and identify areas for improvement.
GoSquared
GoSquared provides all the standard types of metrics, plus it allows you to view data specific to individual visitors. GoSquared integrates with Olark so you can even chat with those visitors. You can set up an alert to notify you of traffic spikes or sudden decreases of traffic.
Mixpanel
Mixpanel allows you to watch your visitors engage with the site, observe trends, and compare metrics from previous points in time. Extensive segmentation and funnel analysis features are also included.
Reinvigorate
Reinvigorate provides real-time analytics as well as heatmaps that help to visualize where visitors are clicking and to identify dead spots. You can even view nametags for your registered users to track their usage of the site.
Piwik
Piwik is an open-source option for real-time analytics. Piwik can be downloaded and installed on your own server in a five-minute process.
ShinyStat
ShinyStat offers four different products including a very limited free analytics product for personal and non-profit websites. The business account includes search engine ranking detection to help track and improve your rankings.
SeeVolution
SeeVolution is currently in beta. It features heatmaps and real-time analytics overlaid on your website. Live heatmaps are even available. SeeVolution’s visual tool sets provide a unique way to view analytics data without leaving your site.
FoxMetrics
FoxMetrics provides real-time analytics based around the core concepts of events and attributes. You can set up your custom events to be just about anything you want. Based on the data gathered from the events and attributes, FoxMetrics provides actionable reports that will help you to improve your site.
StatCounter
StatCounter is a free real-time analytics program that can be installed with just a few lines of code. It includes all the typical analytics data, plus you can set up automated email reports to be sent daily, weekly, or monthly.
Performancing Metrics
Performancing Metrics provides real-time blog statistics as well as other features like Twitter analytics.
Whos.Amung.Us
Whos.Amung.Us is different from most of the other solutions listed here. To use Whos.Amung.Us you can embed a widget on your site or blog to provide real-time stats. Bothe free and paid accounts are available.
W3Counter provides real-time data and over 30 different reports. You can track Twitter mentions, view details of your most recent visitors, view a click overlay, and more. A limited free account is available as well as a paid account.
TraceWatch
TraceWatch is a free real-time analytics program that can be installed on your own server. You’ll all the typical stats and reports, plus you can view details of your most recent visitors and track their exact path through your pages.
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21 Responses
Very nice! I have recently started learning about SEO and this is great information. Thanks, Eric!
Just started using Google Real Time, has everything I will need, so far.
I have been using StatCounter for years, but have been using Google Analytics more recently because of it’s new real-time stats. I also have found StatCounter to not be as accurate a few times over the past few months, and I’m not sure why.
Great list of real-time analytics providers.
nice list of apps, but google analytics always rocks!!
Nice list and effort but i would say Google analytics is the best one
It’s Piwik not Piwick, you should fix it
Giang,
Thanks for pointing that out. I fixed it.
I think that Piwik is the best option when it comes to hosting your own analytics data. I find the interface a lot easier to comprehend and it is more flexible than Google Analytics’.
Piwik also has a lot of unique features, like allowing your users to opt-out of being tracked.
I dont think Google Analytics real time is completely available yet, correct me if im wrong but I believe it is still in testing?
You can definitely get stats within the past 2-3 hours though.
Great list; I’ve used 3 of them but hadn’t heard of the others.
Another real-time tool that may belong here is HitTail.com (disclosure: I’m the owner). It’s real-time search keyword analytics and keyword suggestions based on your traffic. It has a lot in common with the list here, but it’s tightly focused on organic search keywords for people looking for new topics to write about.
Real-time is where things are headed, as evidenced by Google’s move into the space.
Nice list. Not to be egocentric, but I think my site is quite useful in this regard
http://www.luckyorange.com
Might it make your list? *wink*
Hi Paul,
I’ve used the Google Analytics real time stats to see how many visitors are on a site at any given moment in time. They are only available if you are using the most recent version of GA, but as far as I know they are available to anyone using that version.
I think Performancing is the same as Clicky under the hood.
useful resource but i’m using google analytic at this moment, now will try some above for user experience. thanks for sharing
Thanks Tad, it may be, I have never used Performancing myself.
Nice to see Google analytics in list.
Nice collection.I think google analytics is the best.Thank you.
I am happy I can see real time analytics for my web!
Thank you for sharing these sites. I’ll try each and one of them. Thanks!
I’ve been using whos.amung,us for many years. Now switched to Google Analytics Real Time and I love it.
Thanks for featuring GoSquared!