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Running a website without analytics is impossible.
In order to grow your site, you have to see what pages are most successful and where your visitors are coming from.
The good news is that there are more WordPress analytics plugins available now than ever before.
Using the plugins below, you’ll get charts and data tables showing your site’s traffic and top referrers.
Keep reading to find our top picks.
The best WordPress analytics plugins
The majority of the plugins listed here are built for integrating Google Analytics with WordPress. However, there are a couple of Google Analytics alternatives if you’d prefer to use another analytics program.
Here are my top picks for the best free WordPress analytics plugin.
1. Independent Analytics
Plugin Description
Independent Analytics is a new WordPress plugin and Google Analytics alternative. It starts tracking visits the moment you install it without any configuration or copying & pasting tracking codes. Right away, you’ll see new views showing up in your analytics dashboard.
One major advantage of using this plugin is that it is deeply integrated with WordPress. For example, you can filter your views by page type, so you can see your posts separately from your pages and categories. You can even see your most popular search queries and top traffic sources in the Referrers report.
Another benefit of this analytics plugin is that it’s 100% GDPR compatible. It’s able to achieve compliance because it doesn’t use cookies and all of the data is recorded and stored on your server. And since the tracking script is tiny and loaded from your site, it’s much faster than an external request to the Google Analytics servers.
If you want a simpler, faster solution for tracking your WordPress site’s visits, try out Independent Analytics today.
2. Site Kit by Google
Plugin Description
If you want to use Google Analytics and integrate it with your WordPress dashboard, this is likely the best plugin for you. It lets you authenticate and connect your Google account so that your stats are pulled into the WP admin dashboard.
In addition to Google Analytics, it also includes data from PageSpeed Insights, Search Console, and AdSense. You might find it very convenient if you use all of these Google products to be able to see your traffic analytics, advertisement earnings, and website performance stats all in one place.
While this plugin works well for most users, there are quite a few that have had trouble logging in and connecting their Google accounts. If you aren’t using a new Google Analytics 4 property, it may be easier to pick another plugin that lets you copy and paste the UA code to output the tracking code.
3. MonsterInsights
Plugin Description
MonsterInsights is a popular plugin for installing Google Analytics. One of the main benefits is that you can add the tracking script by logging into Google instead of having to copy & paste the tracking code.
This free WordPress analytics plugin also embeds simple reports from Google Analytics inside your dashboard, so you can view your traffic stats without having to log in elsewhere. If you find the full dashboard intimidating or confusing, this is a nice way to get a small slice of the data in a simpler interface.
MonsterInsights also has a variety of premium plugins available for extending its functionality. You can purchase add-ons to add GDPR compliance, eCommerce tracking, custom dimensions, and more.
4. GA Google Analytics
Plugin Description
This plugin is a dependable choice for outputting the Google Analytics tracking script on your site. One of the best parts is that it supports all of the different versions of Google Analytics, so you’re not forced into using GA 4. It works with Universal Analytics, tag manager, and legacy analytics.
The functionality of this plugin is quite simple, but that’s also its greatest strength. It’s extremely easy to add your tracking code and have it output on every page of your site. You can also choose to output the tracking script in your site’s header or footer, disable tracking for admins, and add custom edits to the tracking code.
There’s also a pro version. It includes a cookie opt-out popup, lets you output custom code in the header & footer, and you can disable tracking for logged-in users. Overall, it’s a solid WordPress site analytics plugin, whether you want to purchase the upgrade or stick with the free version.
5. Slimstat Analytics
Plugin Description
If you’d prefer not to use Google Analytics, then you might like the Slimstat Analytics WordPress plugin to track visitors. It records your pageviews and referring domains, adding reports directly into your WP admin dashboard.
While the interface isn’t very modern, it does include a wealth of information. Browsing through the reports, you can quickly find your most popular pages, top search terms, and the number of pageviews VS unique IPs.
One benefit of using this plugin instead of Google Analytics is that it’s GDPR compliant. You don’t have to worry about adding a cookie optin to collect your site’s statistics, and you don’t have to create a Google account or worry about implementing the tracking code yourself.
Which analytics plugin is best?
The biggest choice you have to make is whether or not you want to use Google Analytics.
Independent Analytics is the best alternative to Google Analytics for WordPress users, but with that said, you can also run it at the same time as GA because it has no performance impact.
On the other hand, you should go with the official Site Kit by Google plugin if you plan on using Google Analytics for your site.
I hope these recommendations for the best WordPress analytics plugin helped you out today. If it did, please consider sharing it with someone else before you go.
Thanks for reading!