Matomo vs Google Analytics: Exploring and Comparing the Two Platforms
It's not our intention to tell you which service is better between the two since the best is subjective in this scenario. Different businesses have different needs as well, so even though Google Analytics might be more attractive to a particular company but Matomo's capabilities could be a perfect fit for another.
Instead, we'll examine the differences between these two services so that you can make an informed choice.
In this post, we'll explore Matomo and Google Analytics, comparing them in several key areas to assist you in deciding which one is the best Analytics platform to meet your needs.
What is Matomo?
Matomo is a platform for web analytics that was formerly called Piwik Analytics. Piwik was founded in 2007 and was later rebranded to Matomo in 2018.
The reason Matomo is so popular is its open-source analytics platform. That means it's constantly updated and maintained by the community of users. It ensures Matomo remains in the forefront of technology.
Matomo also makes it easier to enhance the experience for customers and measure the impact of your website's content.
The benefits of Matomo
Matomo can be described as a service offering several impressive advantages. That's why it has been gaining a lot of attention since rebranding just a few days ago.
The system is private and gives full control over the data of the users. Matomo offers a cost-free installation option on premises and a premium cloud subscription that you can choose among. Furthermore, due to the open-source nature of Matomo, you can customize it to create the system of your dreams.
If your site is small, Matomo has some unique advantages. Every blog with less than 10,000 monthly visitors only requires the smallest amount of server usage. Server costs can be cheaper because of the unrestricted storage space you can get from your Matomo plan.
Matomo Standout Features
Matomo shows the languages spoken by users to provide an insight into how users are using your information.
If you are looking at how users use your site, Matomo excels with some memorable aspects. It provides data on each page that an person has visited. This will help you figure out where most of your visitors are coming from and what websites are not attracting the people who are your target.
You may also monitor the resolution of your screen website visitors, along with any hyperlinks they click and the files that they downloaded.
Heatmaps are yet another feature of Matomo, which are available with a premium subscription. The maps highlight the areas where people click the most on your page. It can help you view the effectiveness of your layout as well as identify any instances of aggressive clicking which might show you that the website is running too slow, or that a feature is malfunctioning.
What Is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a free web analytics service provided by Google. It is a classic Google brand name that is trusted by users of all kinds.
It is a more widely adopted service that Matomo and has more than 50 million websites around the world using it for detailed analytic study. That makes Google Analytics the most popular tools for analytics in the world.
Google Analytics can be used Google Analytics to receive segmented and aggregated data on your site's users. It also provides detailed reports on user behavior and behavior, which is useful in planning marketing campaigns.
The benefits from Google Analytics
You don't become the world's number one analytics service without a few key benefits. Google Analytics has many useful features that have pleased users for years.
One of the key positives of this product is that it is so extensively used. Due to that, there's a lot of information available, such as tutorials and tips that will aid you to get the most from your experience.
Google Analytics Special Features
One of the greatest benefits of Google Analytics is its real-time reporting. This lets you gain patterns in the behaviour of Google Analytics users hour by hour.
The site also offers bounce rate analysis, giving you an understanding of how many visitors are leaving your website right away. Through this analysis it will help you identify any confusing or off-putting aspects of your website that might be repelling potential customers.
Your Google Analytics views can be personalized with filters, which make up its customizable dashboards. The goal setting feature in Google Analytics is useful when setting up new campaigns to drive website traffic. You'll be able measure the information you get from Google Analytics against these benchmarks to judge whether or not you've succeeded or failed.
It is also possible to use Google Analytics for custom metric tracking. This makes the Google Analytics platform completely yours in a unique manner.
Comparisons and Differences between Matomo vs Google Analytics
In deciding between products like Matomo and Google Analytics, it helps to examine how these products are alike and how they're different. It could be that a major attribute that is offered by Google Analytics fits your needs, but Matomo does not have a comparable feature.
That's why we're going to examine these options in depth to determine how they're comparable as well as different.
Similarities between Matomo as well Google Analytics
Matomo as well as Google Analytics have a lot of common features. Both offer customizable dashboards allowing you to personalize the information you see.
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Google Analytics and Motomo are available on mobile devices thanks to apps for both iOS as well as Android. It is also possible to use APIs along with these platforms to link to other software tools you employ for the remainder of your business.
Differences between Matomo as well Google Analytics
The main distinction between Matomo as well as Google Analytics is that Matomo provides its users with video analytics, but Google Analytics does not. Matomo provides heatmaps that show how users interact with various pages through colored streaks. This is another feature which you can't access with Google Analytics.
In the case of Matomo it's possible to enjoy greater privacy protections. Many of these upgraded features that are enjoyed by Matomo users boil down to a single key distinction between these two apps.
Google is 100% cost-free, whereas Matomo costs a fee.
Matomo vs Google Analytics: Head-to-Head Comparison
We'll now examine these two options head-to-head, examining their installation processes and ease of use data tracking abilities, and cost-effectiveness.
Installation
In this post We'll keep our install review focused to WordPress websites. We'll start with Matomo.
Matomo Installation
There are two distinct variants of Matomo available to customers. You have Matomo Cloud, which is hosted on the cloud at a price of a premium subscription. Then you have Matomo On-Premise, which is hosted on its own, is open source, and available for free.
Matomo On-Premise requires to be installed. This means that you'll need hosting Matomo applications on your servers. Also, you'll require an experts in the field to install the software. After the installation is completed, you'll be given the tracking code that you can insert inside your WordPress header.
Google Analytics Installation
When installing Google Analytics, you'll first have to create a account for a free Google Analytics account. You must also possess a Google account (which is free).
Usability
In comparing Matomo against Google Analytics it is evident that Google is much simpler to use. Matomo On-Premise requires expert-level coding to complete the long installation as well as Matomo Cloud is less difficult to install, it comes at a price. Google Analytics is always free.
If you sign into the services, Google has a very user-friendly static login page, however Matomo needs you to input your Matomo subdomain each time you sign into your account every time.
Google Analytics is a user-friendly platform that separates your data into five categories. The five areas are:
- Real-time
- Audience
- Acquisition
- Behavior
- Conversions
Tracking
However, Matomo Cloud limits your tracking as per the features included in your plan. The Cloud plans include 30 team members, 150 objectives, 100 segments and 30 action custom dimensions. A lot of them are unlimitable with the On-Premise plan.
Matomo can also be used to automate form tracking, while Google Analytics requires event tracking to be set up in a separate manner.
Cost-Effectiveness
Google Analytics is a completely free service. That obviously means you don't have to pay to use the service. When you consider that this service has an unlimited number of users, goals, dimensions and segments, you'll realize it's extremely cost-effective. The service offers a lot in exchange for nothing.
While the fight for cost-effectiveness is a solid win for the free Google Analytics, we also have to dissect Matomo's premium plans.
A number of features are available with Matomo Cloud that can be used on Matomo On Premise for an additional fee. These include, but are not restricted to:
- Activity logs ($29 per year)
- Woocommerce Analytics ($39 annually)
- Funnels ($199 each year)
- Sessions and heatmaps ($229 for the year)
- Plus numerous and many
Matomo Cloud is a premium paid service that varies in costs based on monthly number of visits. Its lowest price is offered to sites with as little as 50,000 hits per month. The tier goes towards 100 million visits.
Let's break each of these pricing options down in a single step.
- 100,000 Hits - $29/month
- 100,000 Hits for $39/month
- 300,000 hits - $79 per month
- 600,000 Hits for $129/month
- 1 Million Hits for $189/month
- 2 Million Hits for $369/month
- 5 Million Hits, $929/month
- 10 Million Hits - $1,790/month
- 25 million hits - $4,390/month
- 50 Million Hits , 8,590/month
- 100 Million Hits - $16,900/month
Do Matomo as well as Google Analytics Be Used Together?
Analytics services like Matomo and Google Analytics can be used in conjunction. You can gain insights on both platforms, and also examine the differences and similarities between them. Given that Google Analytics being a free service, you might want to dive headfirst into this idea, but we suggest taking some time to contemplate what this means.
In order to increase your website's user experience the speed of your website is one of the most important elements to consider. It is estimated that 47% of users will abandon the site if it takes more than two minutes to open.
So while it's possible to use Matomo as well as Google Analytics within your site in tandem however, this isn't recommended.
Summary
But as to whether Google Analytics or Matomo is the better option is all down to the needs of you as the owner of a business. It's worthwhile if you can afford Matomo and think that services like heat mapping are important to your ongoing success.
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