Yes! These alternatives are free just like Google Analytics. I will not say they are better but are really good. Some have features that are more “advanced” than what GA (Google Analytics) can offer.

If you are comfortable with GA, then don’t feel forced to change. These are free, so if you don’t get along with them you’re not really lost any cents but just your time checking them out.

By the way, do you know what is a web analytics? You don’t know?..really? Oh well – in a simple term, web analytics are just like your membership card in a supermarket or department store. A good example is the membership card of PriceMart, Inc., a warehouse retailer based in California but operates outside the USA. The card when swipes on the sales counter or POS of the supermarket keeps track of what you buy, your demography, purchasing power and other data that will help these store to sell more.

Web Analytics sample

Web analytics are services to let website owners know more about their visitors.

List of Free Alternatives:

Piwik LogoPiwik Logo

1. PIWIK – an open source web analytics  software which aims to be an alternative to GA. Still on beta version but is already gaining a lot of reviews. It surfaced first as PHPMyVisites from France and almost all attention so far has been from outside USA.

Based on their website at http://piwik.org/.  Piwik is different from the competition because:

1. The features are built inside plugins: you can add new features and remove the ones you don’t need. If you are a developer, you can easily build your own plugins!
2. You own your data. Piwik being installed on your server, the data is stored in your own database and you can get all the statistics using open APIs (publishing the data in many formats: xml, json, php, csv)
3. (NOW AVAILABLE!!!) the user interface is fully customizable, you can drag and drop the widgets you want to display, create the reports you want.

2. myRT – a free web analytics, site statistics and conversion tracking.  It stated on their website that it is the first FREE  & REAL-TIME Web Analytics service.

myRT Logo

• No cost – completely free of charge.
• No Ads – they don’t require that you display sponsor’s ads on your site. The myRT interface itself is also ad free.
• Simple installation – just like any web analytics, installing myRT is a snap. After you signup you’ll receive a welcome email that contains their  javascript tracking code. Copy and paste the code into your webpages (usually the footer) and immediately you’ll start seeing and tracking your users.

I will add more  to this list in the near future because I want to do some test with them first. If you  are using some web analytics, just post your comments and tell us what attracts you in using it.