Google Analytics vs. Clicky

Google Analytics may be one of the most well-known web analytics tools out there. In 2013, 63% of Fortune 500 companies used Google Analytics, an increase from 45% in 2011. It’s free, easy to install and provides you with a wealth of insight to help you understand your visitors’ behavior and conversion rates. 

Though it’s often the popular choice, it’s not the only web analytics tool. Another option is Clicky, which is isn’t as well known, but is gaining popularity. According to Datanyze Universe, Clicky ranks #16 among analytics tools, while Google Analytics is ranked #1. In some ways they are comparable by offering similar traditional analytic statistics, while in other ways, have features that set them apart from each other.

But which is better? Let’s learn more about Clicky.  

Overview of Clicky

One of the most important goals of Clicky is to allow its users to see website activity in real time. This is different than Google Analytics, which can take about a day to populate traffic and visitor information. Clicky provides minute-by-minute analytics. The software enables companies to learn more about their potential customers and how they use the website.

Main Features

User-friendly Interface

Clicky offers a clean and uncluttered interface that easy to understand. It contains the most important information you’ll likely want to see first.

Real-time data

Though both Clicky and Google Analytics offer real-time data, Clicky provides more detail. By loading up the “Spy” page, you’ll see information of the user logging onto your site. A screen will pop up on your screen within a matter of seconds. You’ll then see which pages they clicked on.

User detail

Detailed information about every person who visits your site, such as username, IP address, Internet service, language and web browser. You can analyze each visitor individually and see his or her full history of actions on your site, and also attach custom data to visitors, such as usernames, or email addresses. Google Analytics isn’t this detailed. 

Video analytics

For videos embedded onto your site, Clicky can track how much time is spent viewing your videos, as well as the average time they paused or jumped somewhere new. This is helpful if you have a commercial or promotional video—you’ll know if you are losing your visitors’ interest at a particular point.

Referring Webpages

Clicky has a “Links”box that shows you all web pages that have referred visitors to any page on your website, such as Twitter, an e-mail, or another blog.

Twitter tracking

To keep up with what people are saying about you on Twitter, Clicky allows you to enter the keywords you want to track. When people mention those keywords, you’ll receive data on that activity. 

Heat maps

Heat maps can be viewed not only on a per-page basis but also for individual user sessions, all in real time. You can also heat map your split tests, allowing you to see where people are clicking on each version. This feature is normally offered by analytics programs that specialize in heat map information such as Crazy Egg. 

Alerts

Receive alerts to be notified of new visitors, goals, searches, referrers, IP tags and custom data, conversions, campaign visitors, logged in visitors, and more. Alerts appear via a desktop, email message, ClickyTouch mobile app or Twitter.

Mobile-friendly 

Clicky is a mobile-friendly service, offering hardware that shows which mobile platforms are being used by visitors on their tablet or mobile phone. It also doesn’t use any Flash, making it easy to be viewed on a mobile phone.

Easy Set-up

Set-up is similar to other analytics tools. After you create an account, you get an admin key and site key for each site you want to track. You install the code manually or use a plugin, such as for your Wordpress site. Mobile and desktop are also available to track your analytics without being on Clicky’s site.

Pricing

Clicky lets users select between its basic free version for sites with less than 3,000 views. Its ProPlus account, which starts at $9.99 per month, is required to track additional websites and access on-site analytics, heat maps, split testing, and other premium features. Clicky also offers other paid options: Pro Plus, Pro Platinum, and Custom.  

Final Thoughts

Though Clicky does offer more specific information about individual users, such as the heat map or real time data, Google Analytics still has some significant features.

By using GA, you can analyze your visitor’s behavior for free. It may not offer features like heat mapping, but it does provide users with insight on other important information such as whether a visitor shared the content on social media or clicked on an ad. 

Google also records words potential customers use that take them to your website, rank which browsers are used most, devices they are using and where they are being referred. Additionally, GA allows users to measure the engagement across different pages and create traffic funnel goals. It works great for Adsense and Adwords campaign monitoring. It also works well for smaller sites and businesses. Each time a goal is completed, Google logs the conversion into your analytics report.

It can be difficult to decide which web analytics tool to use. With that being said, I don’t think there’s a rule that you can only use one web analytics tool for a website or blog.

Besides Google Analytics and Clicky, there are many other web analytics tools out there such as OpenWeb Analytics, W3counter, Mint, HubSpot Analytics, and many others.  

Additionally, deciding which tool to use may also depend on your budget. Clicky’s features such as heat maps and Twitter tracking require a monthly/yearly payment. And, though Clicky does have a free version of its software, you may be required to pay either for an upgrade if your website traffic goes over 3,000 page views per day.

In my opinion, I think both Google Analytics and Clicky can serve as companions, not competitors. It’s wise to use both and get different aspects of your website visitor’s behavior. Each tool will give administrators insight to data that lead to understanding your audience’s behavior and help your website reach its maximum potential.