Analytics tools feature comparison

Since the time I started working as web analyst, I found that there is one basic question every analyst has to face some day or the other. That question is "Which analytics tool is the best?"

I am sharing a little feature comparison of omniture, webtrends and google analytics some while ago, that will help you all to choose the tool of your choice.

Sr.No
Features
Description
WebTrends
Omniture
Google Analytics
1
Profile recompilation
Recompilation of profile with settings

Yes
No
No
2
Goal analysis
Creating conversion goal(s) for analysis
e.g. we have contact sales goal, customer contact form goal, newsletter subscription goal etc

Yes
Depends on number of events allocated, every conversion event has corresponding one goal
Limited
(4 goals per profile)
We have 10-12 forms on xxx.com and we need one goal for each form. Google Analytics have limitation of 4 goals per profile
3
Real-time analysis- especially used while testing
Real-time analysis means we can see results as soon as the hit is generated on the website. Typically useful while testing the pages for tracking codes

Yes

Yes

We have to wait for 5-8 hours to see results in Google Analytics
4
Historic data after Goal setting
Extracting historic data for goals e.g. contact sales , customer contact etc

Yes

Yes
Can not get historic data , only gives the data from the day goals are set
5
Path analysis
Path analysis is representation of the path followed by visitors while traversing our site

Yes

Yes
Google Analytics provides immediate previous and neNot page in percentage traffic clicks, we can not get full forward or backward path
6
Custom dimensions and measures
Creating new dimensions and measures that are not pre-defined

Yes
not applicable on historic data; whenever new dimension or measure is added the data is reflected from day of implementation
No
7
Custom reports
Reports built on available dimensions and custom made dimensions are known as custom reports

Yes

Yes
Can not create custom dimensions. For eNoample creating a report for internal search phrases for bloggers - Can not create a seprate report
8
Basic campaign reporting
Basic details of any campaign

Yes
Campaign is not automatically captured, it shows data only for those campaigns whose campaign IDs are uploaded in omniture

Yes
9
Campaign drilldown
Custom drilldown report for campaigns

Yes

Yes
No
10
Video drilldown
Custom drilldown report for videos

Yes

Yes
No
11
Backup and restore the profiles
Facility to take a backup of profiles and restore them at anytime

Yes
No
No
12
Report storage - duration
Number of months a report is stored in any analytics tool
Unlimited
Unlimited
Limited
(25 months)
13
First party and third party cookie support
First party cookies are cookies of the website and third party cookies are cookies set by vendors

WebTrends can use both first party and third party cookies
Omniture  uses first party cookie

Google uses only first party cookie
14
Report custom filters
These filters are applied while creating a custom report at backend so that it shows only filtered data

Yes
Depends on available correlation
No
15
Data hosting and access
Flexibility to host the log files and access data for website

Yes
No
No access to data, hosted by Google
16
Dashboards for different users
Create new dashboards e.g. Individual dashboards for business owners, SEO team, marketing team, sales team where we can add the desired reports for each of them

Yes

Yes
No
17
Number of templates
Template is the graphical user interface (GUI). This is the layout which user sees when he logs in the analytics tool and opens a profile. The number indicates the number of different GUI's that are possible
Multiple
One
One
18
Page views
Total number of page views tracked in analytics tool
As per the purchase
As per the purchase
Limited
(5 million page views per month)
19
Content groups/site sections
Single report for top level groups of a website e.g. products, corporate, solutions, services etc

Yes

Yes
We do not have report for site sections
20
Dashboard summaries
Displays basic summary dashboards

Yes

Yes

Yes
21
Comparative reporting
Compare one period of data with another period

Yes

Yes

Yes
22
Ad-words integration
Integrating ad-words account with analytics tools
No
No

Yes
23
Browser overlay (static pages only)
Browser overlay is heat map for websites which shows number of clicks on each link

Yes

Yes

Yes
24
Report bookmarks
Bookmark a particular report and add it to bookmark section for quick reference. Next time when user logs in, user can find the report in bookmark section

Yes

Yes
No
25
Quick query
Short query for data filtering purpose

Yes

Yes

Yes
26
Search engine reports
Basic search engine reporting

Yes

Yes

Yes
27
Basic e- commerce reporting
Commerce reports are usually used in websites where we have payment gateway

Yes

Yes

Yes
28
Geographic segmentation
Reports for region, country, state, and cities

Yes

Yes

Yes
29
Pay per click (PPC) tracking
Advertiser pays publisher a commission every time a visitor clicks on the campaign. Commission is only due when the campaign is clicked
We can track all paid traffic by adding
this simple parameter: WT.srch=1
PPC Campaign is not automatically captured, it shows data only for those campaigns whose campaign IDs are uploaded in omniture
We need to generate code for every campaign through URL generator tool, where we set the medium of campaign as PPC. This process is time consuming
30
Number of websites/profiles
Total number of website profiles that can be created. Single profile contains data for one website, GEO, site section or microsite
Unlimited
(according to the available server space)
Unlimited
Limited (50)
31
Number of user logins
Total number of user logins that can be created for any analytics tool
Unlimited
150
Limited (25)
32
Technical support

Yes

Yes
No available online support
(Request is sent via e-mail with response time of around one week)
33
Implementation services

Yes

Yes
No