Apart from these sites I don’t own but I write for with pleasure, I have a few sites of my own that I update only once in a while, so I couldn’t care less about Google Analytics. In fact, I don’t even use that – WordPress Stats is more than enough for my needs. On the other hand, I would be a fool to deny the fact that a lot of people need some serious Web analytics solutions, so I am sure one that’s also free AND open source would come in really handy. Ladies and gents, here’s Open Web Analytics! 😉
Shortly known as OWA, Open Web Analytics is a not-so-little (current release, 1.4.1, comes in a 5.9 MB archive) piece of code that can be easily used to track and analyze how people use your websites and online applications, offering two vital features: built-in installer for both WordPress and MediaWiki sites! The rest of it is nothing but background noise, but let me give you a few directions…
… if you go to the official site I mentioned above you will find all the things you need to know about Open Web Analytics, but if you really want to be quick in deciding if OWA is worth the effort or not, you should start with the comparison between OWA, Google Analytics and Piwik 1.0. If you’re planning to use it with a WordPress site (or more), you could jump straight to the installation page – believe me, even my mother could make OWA work with a WordPress site!
Anyway, since this article’s intention is far from reviewing OWA, I think it’s enough to take the info above and use it as you see fit. To me, Open Web Analytics looks awesome and all I can hope is that you find it useful for your needs. That’s all, folks!
