Understanding the differences between Google Analytics and Easysite's hit tracker.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics and HitTracker collect and report on different data differently - whilst there are discrepancies this is not due to any inaccuracy of either service.
Google Analytics is a client side script that relies on being placed in the Style of the page, until it is added it will not accumulate statistics, whilst HitTracker runs from the first day of installation including our own visits from EIBS during the implementation.
Google Analytics will not count redirects, crawlers or incomplete page loads (such as the visitor clicking on a link and going to the next page before the initial page has fully loaded, which is required for the GA JavaScript code to function).
Google Analytics and SmartStats offer behavioural analytics and are most useful for identifying trends and for related reports and charts - great for Web Sites.
Stats
Stats is a server side application, which therefore counts all of the requests listed above - both approaches are correct in the respective client / server context - so HitTracker will always show "more" requests.
Generally speaking Stats is not an Analytics service, you would use this for accurate volumetrics, and for identifying individuals by name rather than by IP, if they are logged in - including document downloads - great for Intranets.
