From Woopra to Google Analytics, and everything in between, there’s a lot out there for website traffic analysis. Because of the nature of a new project I’m working on, I was looking for a script I could host myself locally and have some flexibility with. Within a couple seconds of Google searching, I came across Piwik which pretty much solves my needs. Although I’ve only loaded it on my test server, I’ve set it up to track multiple websites to get a better feel.

So far, Piwik seems to be pretty thorough. Not to the point of hosted services, but it’s still in beta (0.5.4) and is really fast. Not only does it work well, it’s carries a minimalistic design which is easy to navigate and allows the user to jump right in. Since it is self hosted, the software suggests a minimum of 128mb RAM allowance to operate for “medium to high traffic websites.” While I have it installed on a dedicated server, I think it could work on most shared hosted environments (if your website can run on a shared host).

The software allows you to configure multiple sites, as I mentioned before. This means that you can use one instance to manage traffic from multiple sources, without having to rely on third party solutions.

Finally, the software is free and open source. Not only is the price right, however because it is open source, there is a lot of potential for the script to grow from out side development.

Oh, and it installed in less then 5 minutes.

Ok, not really for my personal sites, however I do find that checking Google Analytics and server based scripts to be a little difficult to comprehend/believe.  With most statistic tracking systems I’ve used in the past, the majority of them have been “too much” for smaller sites.  This was the case until I stumbled across Woopra, several months ago while it was still an invite-only beta.  I applied for an invite and was accepted within a week, so I was introduced to the desktop application and comprehendible statistics.

Ok, I’m really not a newb.  I have years of experience with Google Analytics, working with sites which generate enough traffic to justify all the information provided by GA, but for my personal sites it just isn’t the case.  If you’re brave enough to look at the other sites shown in Woopra, you’ll notice they are all in development and for the most part barren (except my blog!).

Woopra, to me, is the perfect starting point for tracking any website as it’s in development and getting started.  It provides accurate information instantly to your desktop and even gives you the power to interact with your audience. While some might see this as a novelty, I see it as a great tool to react relatively quickly knowing your audiences habits.  For me, I’ve seen significant traffic coming from my Android related posts specifically “Android Screenshot applications,” which means that it’s an area I’ll want to focus on.  Over the next couple weeks if this articles doing well, I’ll write more on development and design.

While it could be just as beneficial with larger sites, the highlight comes with personal sites where the owner has the ability to pivot quickly.  I’d also imagine that as a site starts gaining a lot of traffic, the immediate information would become overwhelming. However, like any other analytic tool, Woopra provides a plethora of information beyond the immediate resources.  For free users, the history is limited to 3 months, however with the premium service (required for bigger sites) the history can be extended up to 3 years.

Beyond the awesomeness of the immediate information, Woopra really shines with its organization for the individual user. If you aren’t preparing reports for clients and just want to know the facts, everything is there in plain sight and easy to understand.

Unfortunately, all the sites I have in the screenshots are sites in development/preproduction. I’ll try to get some screenshots of soon of more populated sites.