Comments on: Google Analytics is very very very nice (now)

By: Ben Whitehouse

Ben Whitehouse — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 23:51:00 +0000

I have to say I find Google Analitics to be absolutely impossible to understand. Sure it has maps and charts, but what I want to know is who is linking to my site. Everything else is overkill. Mint giives me what I’m looking for, Google doesn’t.

By: Achim Schlemmer

Achim Schlemmer — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 23:38:07 +0000

I’m loving to use Mint, accompagnied by Google Sitemaps (yes!) for daily usage. Bi-weekly or so, I check the GA data and monthly I do a classic logfile analysis with Websuxess. And after all that, I know nearly everything

By: Mariam Ayyash

Mariam Ayyash — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 09:08:09 +0000

Ah, well then if Mint keeps getting better, the fear is that Google will try to acquire it

By: Bergman

Bergman — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 06:09:31 +0000

Why is Google interested in providing free web stats any way? Google´s core business is search and direct access to how your sites perform, will aid Google in determining your PageRank.

You´ll have to decide for yourself, is this any information you will want to trust Google with?

By: Rob S

Rob S — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 06:07:34 +0000

There is even a GA widget for OSX users.

http://dashalytics.rovingrob.com

Unfortunately the next version is too mint like (read based on a pepper), so until i change the way it looks i shouldn’t really release it…

By: Sam Brown

Sam Brown — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 13:44:04 +0000

After using both on a heavy hitting site the obvious benefits of Mint are undeniable. The ability to log in and view who is on your site that instant, what pages they are viewing and all in real time far outweighs a lagging stats package such as GA.

Mints versatility in allowing developers to expand it also allows for many great Pepper that wouldn’t be possible from a hosted stats package service.

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 12:56:52 +0000

Analytics, while solving all of the business reasons, (simple to install, hosted, free, chock full of features) is still a horrible, horrible piece of software to use and understand.

I prefer Mint, but then I have issues with that too. In my opinion there is still space for people to develop a killer product there, as no one has done that so far…

Oh and your tab order on this form sucks.

By: Stuart Frisby

Stuart Frisby — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 01:57:49 +0000

Just echoing other commenters, for me mint will always be a better choice for the majority of my sites. It being on my own server is the first major consideration, but perhaps more importantly, given mint is under the care of one person, it is an agile and evolving tool, which can react to changes in the sort of stats we demand far quicker than any GYM product ever could.

The expandability of mint through its API and peppers, and it’s community of users and developers also make mint a friendlier product for you to side with.

I’m not saying google analytics is a lesser product, but for the particular demands of individual sites, it fails to offer the same tailor-made solution that mint does.

By: Ian Fenn

Ian Fenn — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 22:35:04 +0000

In terms of giving top-line stats, Mint is far superior than Google in many ways. It’s certainly less frightening and easier to understand to small business clients. Well worth the modest fee.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 22:00:49 +0000

I just started using Mint on my site yesterday and have been using Google Analytics for some time. I saw Shaun’s link to this post as well as his comments on Signal vs. Noise.

I’m not sure I get the comparison…and I’d hope that those savvy enough to admire Mint would see the difference as well. Google Analytics provides me much different information, and it’s compiled on yesterday’s stats. Mint provides realtime stats on what’s going on NOW.

I’ll keep using both.