Google Analytics vs Statcounter.
 
Previously I have only used Stacounter but with my current site I decided to use Google analtics. After 3 days of Google analytics I decided I really liked its features but I have installed Statcounter as well.
 
These our my findings:
 
Analytics is aimed at marketers, which is of obvious importance to someone with an online shop.
 
Statcounter is real time, while Analytics only updates once a day meaning I have to wait until tomorrow before I can see todays stats.
 
Statcounter is simple, Analytics is much more powerful in terms of the tracking information and analysis that it offers.
 
With Statcounter I can see what town/country the visitor is from & I can see what pages they went to in chronological order whereas Google analytics offers only the analysis of this (unless I am missing something with Analytics).
 
Analytics only measures JavaScript enabled visitors, StatCounter measures both.
 
Statcounter (free version) maintains a log of the last 500 log entries and for these, offers nearly all the possible information that can be gleaned without infringing privacy.
 
My conclusion to this is use both in tandem as they have obvious merit.
 
I would be interested to see if you guys use any additional (to Google Analytics) tracking software & why.

Initially I installed the Statcounter code into the footer (in global settings) so it would load on every page, however I changed this because of a conflict with my SSL pages.
 
The SSL lock (using firefox browser) showed that an erroneous script was running.
 
After removing the script from the footer I then created a custom block to house the Statcounter code & then added this to every page with the exception of the secure pages.
 
Ok I cannot have a complete trail of my visitors through my site but I can still get real time analysis if I need it.

I am using Traffic Facts available at http://www.foxtrotdomains.com and this gives me a an incredible amount information all the way down to how long they visited, the region etc. Check it out.

I see jojo that Statcounter offers a paid version for only $9 month that overcomes the ssl security issue