This week I’ve mentioned the move by SiteMeter to send other organisations’ tracking cookies out with their counters, and I’ve taken the site meter off this blog. Perhaps it is called SM for a reason.

I thought it would be useful for some readers to suggest a couple of alternatives. I have used several different services over the last few years on a number of websites.

(Non-techie explanation: A tracking cookie is a text file left on your computer which allows a third party to gain information about your web-browsing habits. It is not itself a program, but creates an audit trail of your activity.)

Note: You can see the stats for this blog for each service by clicking on the icons in this post, or the links in the sidebar.

Firstly, there are two services which I have used and found satisfactory. Then there is a service new to me - Go Stats.

Extreme Tracker

I used Extreme tracker has for several years on a number of websites, and found the service straightforward. It is particularly easy to set up and navigate the statistics. Free Trackers must display the icon on the web page.

The free service does not report paths taken through your site by visitors.

Statcounter

Statcounter

provides a wider range of statistics than Extreme Tracker, including paths taken through your site by recent visitors. You can hide a Statcounter if you wish.

There is a review of Statcounter on Suburban Hen’s website here .

Statcounter has a couple of features that I think especially useful:

• The origin of visitors can be displayed on a Google map.
• You can set the initial counts for the service.

Go-Stats

I have also been recommended to look at a service called Go-Stats.

I found the service considerably slower than the others, and it took some time to install a counter. However I will report back in a few days.

103 Bees

I have not used 103 Bees before, but I hear good reports.

Installing the counter was straightforward, but I have not been able to open the stats for public view. I’ll post an update here in a couple of days.

Study my Stats

For a trial period only I have implemented all three on the Wardman Wire blog, and opened the statistics to public view. If you click on the icons at the bottom of the sidebar on the right, or in the post, you can visit the information on each service. Warning: they are not spectacular - the blog has only been going for 3 weeks.

Over to You

Do you know of any other free counter services? How do you use them and what limitations have you found?

Join the debate below.

Tags: site meter, statcounter, extreme tracker, go stats, tracking cookie, alternatives to site meter, suburban hen, do not be evil, public stats, sitemeter

[tags]sitemeter[/tags][tags]site meter, statcounter, extreme tracker, go stats, tracking cookie, alternatives to site meter, suburban hen, do not be evil, public stats[/tags]