Comments on: Crazy Analytics: Comparing Google Analytics to SmarterStats

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:31:42 +0000

I think Tiffany from Smart Tools is wrong and that Google Analytics is the more accurate.
Good article on the topic:
http://www.webrevenue.org/google-analytics-vs-aws…

By: LastEnd

LastEnd — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:27:15 +0000

Only probelm is that smarterstats service will lock up. Many usesers including my self have had this problem. I contacted SmarterTools about this, but even a year later they still having fixed the problem. They have even went to the point of having many of my post on other site deleted to try to hide this information. The Idea behind smarterstats is great if it didnt lock up so much.

By: Frapps

Frapps — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:26:41 +0000

It could be that SmarterStats is recording unsuccessful page views (404s, 30_ and 50_). Can you confirm this? That would account for higher stats than Google Analytics.

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:42:12 +0000

Yes, I think it is possible that SmarterStats is listing some search engine traffic and bots. However, usually that is detailed in another report or listed differently I believe. They know the IPs so they mark that data separately.

I also believe that with JS not enabled it will account for some of the traffic loss. According to this http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp, 5% of people have it turned off.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:36:25 +0000

Is it possible that because SmarterStats does not use JavaScript that it also reports hits from bots and other non-human users? Most bots such as Google’s own GoogleBot are text based only and therefore go ‘unseen’ by GA and other similar programs that are JavaScript based. It is true that there could be a very very small amount of traffic being lost for users that have JavaScript disabled, but in today’s world the average modern website requires users to have JavaScript enabled to view. One other thought is perhaps some of the new Adblocker programs are blocking GA, I know that most Adblockers block the ‘bad’ JavaScript (lick pop ups and such). I believe that this is unlikely, but it is still a possibility. Theses are just some thoughts I had on the topic, but someone with more knowledge on the topic would be needed to confirm my thoughts, or prove me wrong.

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:49:15 +0000

Thanks Tiffany. Yes, we always use two stats programs to track.

GA does a good job of making the charts look pretty for clients, easy to install, and some of the reports are easier to get too with one click. For instance, we have a filter installed to track all search engine queries, the exact page they come from, and the amount of inquiries from that word per day. Nifty.

However, if GA under reports traffic, that hurts our business in reporting better results to our clients. Ultimately, I believe using two programs is the best way to go.

By: aztechwriter

aztechwriter — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:35:56 +0000

Hello Pete! My name is Tiffany and I am in charge of communications for SmarterTools. We came across your blog post this morning and were delighted to see that SmarterStats outperformed Google Analytics–and that you posted relevant data to boot! We agree that there are distinct advantages to choosing an analytics program (like SmarterStats) that doesnâ€™t depend on cookies or JavaScript to track Web site visitors to ensure the most accurate results.