AWStats in flying colors -- Google Analytics only makes things more pretty for you -- I highly recommend real-time stats software though -- Access log files can't be wrong though when it comes to AWStats =o)
Use Google Analytics when you are managing several websites and use Awstats when you just want to focus on monitoring one website. It is easier to use Google Analytics in an event you have too many websites to think of.
i see some people have a confusion here. AWSTATS or similar server stats are absolutely the best their is to count the accurate number of visitors, page visits, hits, bandwidth... and that's what they're good for. On the other GA is a very useful tool to help you understand a bit more about the user it self. If set up properly you can see the path a user takes on your site. What he does, how long he stays on a certain page. And for the guys spending bucks on marketing (PPC or similar) you can see how far your advertising money goes. Are these people buying, determine your ROI and other cool stuff that a webserver log does not provide.
I think the constant upgrades and quality of Analytics makes it a winner for me. The sheer development capacity of Google makes most of their products really awesome.
Does anyone know how to track Website Vistors all the way to an Affiliate Sale? im trying to find out were my sales are coming from. i have like multiple sources of traffic. i wanted to know which source made me the sale Thanks
I would sure go with Awstats anytime !!! Google analytics is just an another approach of looking at your stats thats all..
Where in Awstats can I block/filter out the logging of my own visits and hits? Is there a cookie I can use? I have a dynamic IP.
two different beasts. As a few have already stated, awstats is more accurate due to log files ( not just apache logs btw). It all depends how you want to use the programs. If you want to analyze the visitors I would go for ga. In my opinion ga is more reliable due to the fact that misbehaving bots and scrapers can really screw up your awstats numbers.
Thank you fabriciogr. That is one of the most intelligent answers I have read in thie entire forum for any thread. Wow! I think I'll write a program myself to read my Apache logs and interpret it, then graph it out. Why not? I just need a very good, up-to-date list of bots and ip-country list. Very cool! Thanks for the idea.
Can you provide more detailed information? What other logs? How would bots and scrapers out-smart AWStats?
Why? Because they are a HUGE corporation have more chance of miscommunication while developing their product? Or is it because they want you not to know the ways they are gathering data from your site and using it to make themselves even more money without paying you a dime for it? Tell me what makes them more reliable?