Comments on: Why is Google Analytics free?

By: Brian Clifton

Brian Clifton — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 08:13:48 +0000

Chris: You are correct that an AdWords account is required for 5m+ pv/month – but that can be as simple as $1/day account. Wilson’s comment is interesting, though I think his timeline is way too long

One thing I would say, is that the free solutions from Google have no tie in with operating systems or anything else for that matter. My view is that Google keeps its customers by providing great products – not by restricting the use of others. Its open-source attitude to development with the use of APIs is more reminiscent of linux than the Redmond variety…

By: Chris Burns

Chris Burns — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 22:34:14 +0000

Google Analytics is not free in all cases. Please refer to http://www.google.com/analytics/tos.html
It is free for up to 5 million page views per month. You NEED to have a Google AdWords account to get Google Analytics for free if your site generates over 5 million page views per month.
I agree with Wilson Kanaday’s comment “There is important functionality that Google Analytics simply misses that these high products provide. This makes GA the training wheels for the industry.” today but I doubt it is Google’s goal to remain the training wheels in any field it puts resources in and I doubt this statement will still hold true in a couple of years. If it looks like bundling, sounds like bundling, feels like bundling… very reminiscent of a FREE browser when you install a certain OS…

By: Marianina Chaplin

Marianina Chaplin — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:16:42 +0000

Hi Brian, as a web analyst for a london agency I run GA on over 50 sites for large clients such as Saab and smaller clients such as Royal Liver (an IFA portal). However I also run paid for analytics solutions on the larger sites where we need to segment/run different scenarios (which you can’t do with GA). I agree with you when you say alot of people try to dumb GA down – there is alot of stuff you can do with GA once you work out how to use the advanced filters though (even getting your internal search keywords which lots of people don’t know about) (or adding a page name convention by adding the hosthame to the uri and logical page names with the urchin tracker tag on webpage code). B2b companies or sites for online branding/informational purposes usually doesn’t see the need to invest in a costly analytics solution (even if they are a big company – here in england anyway) – there also some pretty good not too expensive ones like indextools, clicktrack pro and netinsight.
Cheers
Marianina – http://www.marianina.com

By: Lars

Lars — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 09:52:07 +0000

It doesn’t stifle competition. If anything it makes competitors try harder. It accelerates competition.

By: Wilson Kanaday

Wilson Kanaday — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 03:27:15 +0000

A) Having a free solution is great for users – that’s obvious. I use it daily and it truly helps drive business decisions.

B) Google Analytics is also great for the other high end analytics vendors – Omniture, Visual Sciences, Coremetrics and Web Trends. There is important functionality that Google Analytics simply misses that these high products provide. This makes GA the training wheels for the industry. I am sure the aggressive Omniture sales team has no trouble upselling large GA clients to their paid solution.