Clicky: A Worthy Google Analytics Contender?

Google Analytics is a huge contender in website analytics today.  It’s free, it offers your data up in easy-to-understand charts, and it’s very customizable so you can create reports that accurately reflect your data and your needs (Google.com, 2014).  However, many professionals also supplement this program with other software to get the most out of their data, and to supply what GA can’t (fieg, 2011).

One program that claims to do a lot that Google Analytics can’t is Clicky.  According to Clicky.com, it offers “real time web analytics,” and touts many features that it believes trump Google Analytics (Clicky.com, 2014).  Going by its own comparison to GA, it looks like there are some major differences.

Real Time

“Real time web analytics” is one area in which Google sort of falters.  During our class’s initial review of our blog analytics, it was pretty clear that a lot of us were hoping we’d be able to see more of the recent statistics, so this would have been one area where Clicky would have prevailed (Blackboard, 2014).

Clicky also offers a bit of code that you can place in the body of your website in order for (only) you to be able to view how many people are on each page of your website at just a glance.  This is in the form of a tiny counter at the bottom of your page.

Individual Visitor Data/Heatmaps

Clicky says that it is able to track ridiculous amounts of individual visitor data, whether or not they have javascript enabled.  Google tracks by having the user put a bit of JavaScript code into their header that puts a cookie in the visitor’s browser (Google Developers, 2014).  If JS is disabled, then Google may not pick up the visitor.  Some browsers like Firefox have extensions that block ads and Javascript, so it looks like the JavaScript hurdle that Clicky has overcome can provide more accurate insight into the website’s activity.

Google does provide a good bit of individual user data, like Demographics, Behavior, Engagement, etc (Fig. 1).  GA does put your data into charts and graphs, but you can also download the raw data to make sense of it yourself (good luck).  Clicky also makes your data available for download, but its reporting system for individual visitors DOES appear to offer more plain-speech insight [Fig. 2].  Plus, it even tracks if something on my blog is shared, where exactly they are, the user’s browser and OS – you can really get into the mind of the visitor. (That’s me, by the way – I’m not violating a random visitor’s privacy. J)

[Fig. 1] (Google Analytics, 2014).

[Fig. 2] (Clicky Stats, 2014).

One feature that makes me want to sign up for Clicky immediately is Heatmapping.  Clicky claims that this lets you view “heatmaps” for individual visitor sessions, showing you where their mouse went, offering an idea of what they might have been thinking.  I can’t say I have found any evidence that Google Analytics can do this – according to Clicky, it can’t, anyway (Clicky vs Google Analytics, 2014).

[Fig. 3] (Clicky, 2014)

Uptime Monitoring/Alerts

A week or two back, in our IMC 642 Discussion Boards, I cited an article where a blogger didn’t realize her site was down until she was checking in on her Google Analytics reports (Herman, 2013.)  Clicky claims to remedy this problem by alerting you right away if you site is offline by using Uptime Monitoring, and verifying your site’s problem by checking from several locations before telling you.

Clicky also has customizable alerts that you can set when you reach goals, hit rock bottom in visitors, or have a high bounce rate – all customizable.

Price

Google Analytics is free.  Anyone with a website to monitor can use it without worrying about how they are going to be able to access their data on a regular basis, even if the income or revenues aren’t there to pay for it.  Clicky costs $9.99 a month, but only if your website gets more than a million monthly page views (Clicky vs. Google Analytics, 2014).

Mobile App

Google doesn’t offer a mobile app for Analytics.  Clicky does.  Pretty plain and simple, there.  For those who have other things to do than sit on GA all day, this is a great way to access data while Networking, at a meeting, or just because you’re randomly curious and aren’t near your computer.

Overall, Clicky appears to be quite the competitor with Google Analytics.  With more recent data, more detailed information on visitors, and the ability to view reports with a mobile app, this free program could be a great supplement to my current GA reports.  I plan to keep my account open and also add my regular personal brand page to Clicky and set up some custom alerts.  I don’t get a lot of visitors, but being able to get confirmation when I do get a visitor would be gratifying, to say the least!

What Google Analytics competitors have you researched?  Why did you decide to supplement your GA reports with additional tracking software?

Susan

References

Blackboard. (2014). IMC 642 Week 5 Discussion Forum. Reed College of Media. Learn.WVU.edu. Retrieved November 24, 2014, from https://ecampus.wvu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_group=courses&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2FdisplayLearningUnit%3Fcourse_id%3D_20666_1%26content_id%3D_1178123_1%26framesetWrapped%3Dtrue.

Clicky. (2014). Home. Clicky.com. Retrieved November 24, 2014, from http://www.clicky.com.

Clicky. (2014). Clicky vs. Google Analytics. Clicky.com. Retrieved November 24, 2014, from http://clicky.com/compare/google

Clicky Stats. (2014). Clicky Stats for SSullivan642 Blog. Clicky.com/Stats. Retrieved November, 2014, from https://clicky.com/stats/.

 

fieg. (16 Feb 2011) Forum Discussion Response. Google Analytics and real-time analytics comparison: Chartbeat vs Clicky vs Mixpanel. Stackoverflow.com. Retrieved November 24, 2014, from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4599207/google-analytics-and-real-time-analytics-comparison-chartbeat-vs-clicky-vs-mixp.

Google. (2014). Why Google Analytics. Google.com. Retrieved November 24, 2014, from http://www.google.com/analytics/why/.

Google Analytics. (2014). SSullivan642 Blog: New vs. Returning. Google.com/Analytics. Retrieved November 24, 2014, from https://www.google.com/analytics/web/?hl=en#report/visitors-type/a56698205w90209007p93801607/.

Google Developers. (15 Jul 2014). Tracking Site Activity. Developers.Google.com. Retrieved November 24, 2014, from https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/asyncTracking.

Herman, J. (13 Dec 2013). How often do you check your analytics? JennsTrends.com. Retrieved November 13, 2014, from http://jennstrends.com/check-your-analytics/.