Stats program, which one do you use and why?
 

I am planning to write an article for a webmaster portal about statistic programs. I was wondering what webmasters think and which ones are the most popular.

Like what most people use, I always go for Google Analytics. It's been sufficient for my purposes. But I was wondering -- if you could build your dream Stats program, what other program would you use? What functionality? What technology? etc.

Could you please give me your feedback?

I use NiftyStats and I'm happy with it...
It's great time saver...

Way to read and understand the OP. Would you like another try?

google, statscounter and awstats for me.

Same here :thumbsup

statscounter is all I need ;)

Google and AWStats.

I also use Mint on a few of my blogs - http://haveamint.com/

Anything but Google Analytics. From an SEO pint of view, you always try to control and manipulate the data Google has about your sites. handing them raw traffic data like that is not a good idea.

I use both google analytics and awstats. Awstats has good data but interface is pretty terrible, GA has better interface imo and much more detail on stats.

xMarkPro!

I use webalizer, I wouldn't want anything to slow down my site like a bunch of Javacode.

This is what I've been hearing too. *DOH*

This looks nice.

extremetracking free ,
i cant afford non-free version,......

I use Piwik! It's free, open source and nobody can't access your data

Looks interesting. Going to play with this now. :thumbsup

I used to think like this - and I also avoid Google Analytics for that very reason.

However, by coincidence I found out that Google actually knows much more about our traffic, than they should.

A default setting in Firefox makes the browser contact Google in the background for every page we visit.

In Firefox Options -> Security you find these two options:
"Block reported attack sites"
"Block reported web forgeries"

These two useful services query Google servers to protect us from harmful attack sites.

In about:config they are found under "safebrowsing".

If you have a program like TCPView running (or netstat) you will often discover some connections being made to some sub-domains under 1e100.net - That's Google's domain. The scientific notation of a googol.

Then we have all people who use Chrome as their browser. That one doesn't need more explanation.

I am afraid that Google already knows way too much.

Thanks guys, you have other recommendations?

You should distinguish between website stats and affiliate stats. For web stats, usually whatever comes default with the web host is fine. With affiliate stats, Statsremote is the best.

Google Analytics, better for seo

AWStats and MRTG

Google Analytics and Webalizer

Google Analytics and StatCounter.com

What features would you like to have in your “ideal stats program"?

Firefox downloads a LIST of malware and attack sites. It doesn't check with google for every webpage you visit.... it compares the website url against the downloaded list.

I use awstats btw :thumbsup