Google Analytics vs WebTrends

Mike Baloney

November 24, 2009 at 2:24 pm

The real issue is the ownership of data. Google says implicitly that they own all of the data they collect on your companies behalf. Webtrends does not. Webtrends gives the partner/client all rights to their data. In many business enviroments, this is money well spent on Webtrends.

Jamie

November 24, 2009 at 4:10 pm

Thanks for this article! Interesting info here.

James Mosburgh

November 24, 2009 at 9:21 pm

If you are talking about basic tracking of content, then you are on the right path. You miss the core differentiators between Webtrends and other mass market solutions like Google and Site Catalyst–no scale and no ability to connect with and track individual people and therefore manage the customer engagement lifecycle. If you want to track clicks, Google is a sweet tool and has some neat graphics. If you want to seriously manage your customer engagement and drive ROI, there is no place like Webtrends!

Chris Haddad

November 25, 2009 at 6:58 am

People don’t take me seriously when I tell them “try GA and see if you can report your metrics”, but its somehow become the de facto standard for analytics.

This really just echoes Avinash’s founding thoughts on web analytics – its 90% people and 10% tool.

If you don’t have the resources to have one FTE reviewing the analytics data and making actionable suggestions (and then measuring the impact), then why are you spending money on the tool?

Once over that hump, the next biggest opportunity that I usually see is actually tailoring the reporting package to your business’ metrics – but that’s another blog post

Eric

November 27, 2009 at 9:31 am

Webtrends and Google Analytics do overlap and comparisons are worthwhile, but each will appeal to different audiences. We see many clients who are well suited for GA. If their needs are fully served by GA it’s the logical choice since it’s free. But the technological approach by both is different which means they will often serve different clients. While they both offer java scripted solutions, Webtrends also allows for the collection process to occur locally. Even though Urchin is also owned by Google, GA does not create a local log file which can be re-processed. Controlling the data locally does offer options which can often be important.
And if you have more demanding requirements or want to fully integrate your web analytics data with other marketing silos, Webtrends offers a richer environment. Here’s my list of positive aspects about Webtrends:

1. With Webtrends you own the data and you can pull it out at anytime. This applies equally to hosted or software.
2. Webtrends allows for a java scripted solution in which the collection server is local within your firewall. This is important for firms which do not wish to have corporate data stored outside the organization and particularly not if you don’t want your data in the US and accessible by the US Patriot Act.
3. Webtrends can re-process old log files to reanalyze if you decide you need to make reporting changes
4. Webtrends allows you to store a full backup of your raw log files in java scripted logs or standard log format
5. Webtrends allows you to use log based analytics in addition to JavaScript tagging as separate profiles to track activity. With this you can see search engine spider activity
6. Webtrends provides a Visitor History export function which can allow you to normalize all of your visitor data in a database. This enables you to understand how individuals navigate and interact with your site. This can be tied to email marketing or CRM tools for 1:1 marketing insight
7. Webtrends provides standard ODBC and REST access that allows you to get critical data and analysis outside of the Webtrends reporting engine and into other applications. This enables you to tie Webtrends results to offline data using Excel or your favorite Business Intelligence tool
8. Webtrends provides more detailed custom configuration and reporting
9. Webtrends can tell you what percentage of users are not accepting cookies
10. Webtrends provides content group analysis
11. Webtrends provides IP reports
12. Webtrends provides email and phone support

Chris Grant

November 27, 2009 at 12:46 pm

I’ve been messing with GA, YA, and WebTrends accounts which are all available right now to Web Analytics Association members who registered for the analytics contest. (FAIL to OMTR for not joining in!) The point of the contest is “insight” which means looking at more than the basics. It’s been a little depressing because I expected far more from the two free tools, especially from the highly touted features like making segments and custom tables. Since I’ve been trying to get the same kind of info out of all three tools, I’ve been able to see differences (among tools) that I just wouldn’t see doing an on-paper comparison like the ones above. I strongly recommend hands-on for anybody trying to choose tools, using data from a site they understand, with somebody who asks good questions participating. Basic data – the free tools are fine. Insights – you’ll get what you pay for.

p.s. The WAA access also includes the new WebTrends Insights interface along with the regular WT interface. It’s very nice as far as it goes, but it goes hardly anywhere! To be worth any expenditure at all, it’s going to have to be expanded big-time. Which I assume they are working on … But GA and YA are hard at work also. Should be interesting.

Douglas Karr

November 28, 2009 at 4:52 pm

I’m surprised that you picked ‘animated graphs’ over the interactivity and overlay options in Webtrends 9. For a data visualization junkie, it seems the opportunity to overlay syndicated data on top of your Analytics data would be much more valuable.

As well, I think TW has much better ‘interactivity’ with their charts. The ability to slide and mouseover, releasing additional data, is what quenches my ‘animation’ thirst.

Jax

December 28, 2009 at 7:19 am

Hi,

This is a comprehensive comparison and helps the users to make the choice between vendors. Webtrends new feature WebTrends insight can also be a great differentiator between Google and Webtrends
Here are some quick features of Web Trends Insight.. http://webtrendsinsight.blogspot.com

Vinita Thakkar

March 9, 2010 at 2:19 pm

Do these comparisons take WebTrends SSDC into consideration? Or are the reported comparisons and trend data between Google Analytics and WebTrends, where WebTrends uses log files?

Frank Pipolo

March 18, 2010 at 1:49 pm

Funny I found this post as I am doing the same evaluation for a company but GA vs Omniture. It has been said here already but the best way to sum it up is that if you want basic reporting with no more than 4 goals to measure then GA is the way to go. If you are a power user then go with a paid service.

Robin Majumdar

August 23, 2010 at 8:02 pm

One glaring error in the analysis (as mentioned by Mike Baloney) is that GA is *not* free. A website owner who embeds the GA code in her website is essentially licensing all intellectual property regarding *her* client visits to GOOG to monetize and other wise use as they see fit.

This is a serious issue to any website run by an organization that has any sort of privacy compliance promise or legislation towards their site visitors – examples include most government agencies and any private sector company subject to compliance rules (healthcare, financial, etc)…

It’s an issue often overlooked by those blindly and breathlessly enthralled with the superficial appearance that Google is providing a “free” service. It’s not free… it’s not even freemium; you consent to relinquish highly granular information about your visitors’ behavior on your site – or you chose another analytics tool which allows you more control.

Just my $0.02.

Jim Tierney

November 2, 2010 at 1:31 am

So what was your take on Woopra? Looks interesting, but… anyone with any experience with it?

Ulrik

April 23, 2011 at 4:29 pm

Ill take you up on that chat.

There is a huge amount of things you cannot do with google, that you can do with Webtrends. Reanalysis of data is a huge one, customization level of reports is anothervhuge one. Feel free to email me