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• GDPR Compliance and Personal Data : The Ultimate Guide

  22 septembre 2023, par Erin — GDPR

  According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the world generated 109 zettabytes of data in 2022 alone, and that number is on track to nearly triple to 291 zettabytes in 2027. For scale, that’s one trillion gigs or one followed by 21 zeros in bytes.

  A major portion of that data is generated online, and the conditions for securing that digital data can have major real-world consequences. For example, online identifiers that fall into the wrong hands can be used nefariously for cybercrime, identity theft or unwanted targeting. Users also want control over how their actions are tracked online and transparency into how their information is used.

  Therefore, regional and international regulations are necessary to set the terms for respecting users’ privacy and control over personal information. Perhaps the most widely known of these laws is the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

  What is personal data under GDPR ?

  Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), “personal data” refers to information linked to an identifiable natural person. An “identifiable natural person” is someone directly or indirectly recognisable via individually specific descriptors such as physical, genetic, economic, cultural, employment and social details.

  It’s important to note that under GDPR, the definition of personal data is very broad, and it encompasses both information that is commonly considered personal (e.g., names and addresses) and more technical or specialised data (e.g., IP addresses or device IDs) that can be used to identify individuals indirectly.

  Organisations that handle personal data must adhere to strict rules and principles regarding the processing and protection of this data to ensure individuals’ privacy rights are respected and upheld.

  Personal data can include, but is not limited to, the following :

  1. Basic Identity Information : This includes a person’s name, government-issued ID number, social address, phone number, email address or other similar identifiers.
  2. Biographical Information : Details such as date of birth, place of birth, nationality and gender.
  3. Contact Information : Information that allows communication with the individual, such as phone numbers, email addresses or mailing addresses.
  4. Financial Information : Data related to a person’s finances, including credit card numbers, bank account numbers, income records or financial transactions.
  5. Health and Medical Information : Information about a person’s health, medical history or healthcare treatments.
  6. Location Data : Data that can pinpoint a person’s geographical location, such as GPS coordinates or information derived from mobile devices.
  7. Online Identifiers : Information like IP addresses, cookies or other online tracking mechanisms that can be used to identify or track individuals online.
  8. Biometric Data : Unique physical or behavioural characteristics used for identification, such as fingerprints, facial recognition data or voiceprints.

  Sensitive Data

  Sensitive data is a special category of personal data prohibited from processing unless specific conditions are met, including users giving explicit consent. The data must also be necessary to fulfil one or more of a limited set of allowed purposes, such as reasons related to employment, social protections or legal claims.

  Sensitive information includes details about a person’s racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, political opinions, religion, trade union membership, biometric data or genetic data.

  What are the 7 main principles of GDPR ?

  The 7 principles of GDPR guide companies in how to properly handle personal data gathered from their users.

  

  The seven principles of GDPR are :

  1. Lawfulness, fairness and transparency

  Lawfulness means having legal grounds for data processing, such as consent, legitimate interests, contract and legal obligation. If you can achieve your objective without processing personal data, the basis is no longer lawful.

  Fairness means you’re processing data reasonably and in line with users’ best interests, and they wouldn’t be shocked if they find out what you’re using it for.

  Transparency means being open regarding when you’re processing user data, what you’re using it for and who you’re collecting it from.

  To get started with this, use our guide on creating a GDPR-compliant privacy policy.

  2. Purpose limitation

  You should only process user data for the original purposes you communicated to users when requesting their explicit consent. If you aim to undertake a new purpose, it must be compatible with the original stated purpose. Otherwise, you’ll need to ask for consent again.

  3. Data minimisation

  You should only collect as much data as you need to accomplish compliant objectives and nothing more, especially not other personally identifiable information (PII).

  Matomo provides several features for extensive data minimisation, including the ability to anonymize IP addresses.

  Data minimisation is well-liked by users. Around 70% of people have taken active steps towards protecting their identity online, so they’ll likely appreciate any principles that help them in this effort.

  

  4. Accuracy

  The user data you process should be accurate and up-to-date where necessary. You should have reasonable systems to catch inaccurate data and correct or delete it. If there are mistakes that you need to store, then you need to label them clearly as mistakes to keep them from being processed as accurate.

  5. Storage limitation

  This principle requires you to eliminate data you’re no longer using for the original purposes. You must implement time limits, after which you’ll delete or anonymize any user data on record. Matomo allows you to configure your system such that logs are automatically deleted after some time.

  6. Integrity and confidentiality

  This requires that data processors have security measures in place to protect data from threats such as hackers, loss and damage. As an open-source web analytics solution, Matomo enables you to verify its security first-hand.

  7. Accountability

  Accountability means you’re responsible for what you do with the data you collect. It’s your duty to maintain compliance and document everything for audits. Matomo tracks a lot of the data you’d need for this, including activity, task and application logs.

  Who does GDPR apply to ?

  The GDPR applies to any company that processes the personal data of EU citizens and residents (regardless of the location of the company). 

  If this is the first time you’ve heard about this, don’t worry ! Matomo provides tools that allow you to determine exactly what kinds of data you’re collecting and how they must be handled for full compliance. 

  Best practices for processing personal data under GDPR

  Companies subject to the GDPR need to be aware of several key principles and best practices to ensure they process personal data in a lawful and responsible manner.

  Here are some essential practices to implement :

  1. Lawful basis for processing : Organisations must have a lawful basis for processing personal data. Common lawful bases include the necessity of processing for compliance with a legal obligation, the performance of a contract, the protection of vital interests and tasks carried out in the public interest. Your organisation’s legitimate interests for processing must not override the individual’s legal rights. 
  2. Data minimisation : Collect and process only the personal data that is necessary for the specific purpose for which it was collected. Matomo’s anonymisation capabilities help you avoid collecting excessive or irrelevant data.
  3. Transparency : Provide clear and concise information to individuals about how their data will be processed. Privacy statements should be clear and accessible to users to allow them to easily understand how their data is used.
  4. Consent : If you are relying on consent as a lawful basis, make sure you design your privacy statements and consent forms to be usable. This lets you ensure that consent is freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous. Also, individuals must be able to withdraw their consent at any time.
  5. Data subject rights : You must have mechanisms in place to uphold the data subject’s individual rights, such as the rights to access, erase, rectify errors and restrict processing. Establish internal processes for handling such requests.
  6. Data protection impact assessments (DPIAs) : Conduct DPIAs for high-risk processing activities, especially when introducing new technologies or processing sensitive data.
  7. Security measures : You must implement appropriate technical security measures to maintain the safety of personal data. This can include ‌security tools such as encryption, firewalls and limited access controls, as well as organisational practices like regular security assessments. 
  8. Data breach response : Develop and maintain a data breach response plan. Notify relevant authorities and affected individuals of data breaches within the required timeframe.
  9. International data transfers : If transferring personal data outside the EU, ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place and consider GDPR provisions. These provisions allow data transfers from the EU to non-EU countries in three main ways :
     1. When the destination country has been deemed by the European Commission to have adequate data protection, making it similar to transferring data within the EU.
     2. Through the use of safeguards like binding corporate rules, approved contractual clauses or adherence to codes of conduct.
     3. In specific situations when none of the above apply, such as when an individual explicitly consents to the transfer after being informed of the associated risks.
  10. Data protection officers (DPOs) : Appoint a data protection officer if required by GDPR. DPOs are responsible for overseeing data protection compliance within the organisation.
  11. Privacy by design and default : Integrate data protection into the design of systems and processes. Default settings should prioritise user privacy, as is the case with something like Matomo’s first-party cookies.
  12. Documentation : Maintain records of data processing activities, including data protection policies, procedures and agreements. Matomo logs and backs up web server access, activity and more, providing a solid audit trail.
  13. Employee training : Employees who handle personal data must be properly trained to uphold data protection principles and GDPR compliance best practices. 
  14. Third-party contracts : If sharing data with third parties, have data processing agreements in place that outline the responsibilities and obligations of each party regarding data protection.
  15. Regular audits and assessments : Conduct periodic audits and assessments of data processing activities to ensure ongoing compliance. As mentioned previously, Matomo tracks and saves several key statistics and metrics that you’d need for a successful audit.
  16. Accountability : Demonstrate accountability by documenting and regularly reviewing compliance efforts. Be prepared to provide evidence of compliance to data protection authorities.
  17. Data protection impact on data analytics and marketing : Understand how GDPR impacts data analytics and marketing activities, including obtaining valid consent for marketing communications.

  Organisations should be on the lookout for GDPR updates, as the regulations may evolve over time. When in doubt, consult legal and privacy professionals to ensure compliance, as non-compliance could potentially result in significant fines, damage to reputation and legal consequences.

  What constitutes a GDPR breach ?

  Security incidents that compromise the confidentiality, integrity and/or availability of personal data are considered a breach under GDPR. This means a breach is not limited to leaks ; if you accidentally lose or delete personal data, its availability is compromised, which is technically considered a breach.

  What are the penalty fines for GDPR non-compliance ?

  The penalty fines for GDPR non-compliance are up to €20 million or up to 4% of the company’s revenue from the previous fiscal year, whichever is higher. This makes it so that small companies can also get fined, no matter how low-profile the breach is.

  In 2022, for instance, a company found to have mishandled user data was fined €2,000, and the webmaster responsible was personally fined €150.

  Is Matomo GDPR compliant ?

  Matomo is fully GDPR compliant and can ensure you achieve compliance, too. Here’s how :

  • Data anonymization and IP anonymization
  • GDPR Manager that helps you identify gaps in your compliance and address them effectively
  • Users can opt-out of all tracking
  • First-party cookies by default
  • Users can view the data collected
  • Capabilities to delete visitor data when requested
  • You own your data and it is not used for any other purposes (like advertising)
  • Visitor logs and profiles can be disabled
  • Data is stored in the EU (Matomo Cloud) or in any country of your choice (Matomo On-Premise)

  Is there a GDPR in the US ?

  There is no GDPR-equivalent law that covers the US as a whole. That said, US-based companies processing data from persons in the EU still need to adhere to GDPR principles.

  While there isn’t a federal data protection law, several states have enacted their own. One notable example is the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which Matomo is fully compliant with.

  Ready for GDPR-compliant analytics ?

  The GDPR lays out a set of regulations and penalties that govern the collection and processing of personal data from EU citizens and residents. A breach under GDPR attracts a fine of either up to €20 million or 4% of the company’s revenue, and the penalty applies to companies of all sizes.

  Matomo is fully GDPR compliant and provides several features and advanced privacy settings to ensure you ‌are as well, without sacrificing the resources you need for effective analytics. If you’re ready to get started, sign up for a 21-day free trial of Matomo — no credit card required.

  Disclaimer
  We are not lawyers and don’t claim to be. The information provided here is to help give an introduction to GDPR. We encourage every business and website to take data privacy seriously and discuss these issues with your lawyer if you have any concerns.

• A Guide to GDPR Sensitive Personal Data

  13 mai 2024, par Erin

  The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is one of the world’s most stringent data protection laws. It provides a legal framework for collection and processing of the personal data of EU individuals.

  The GDPR distinguishes between “special categories of personal data” (also referred to as “sensitive”) and other personal data and imposes stricter requirements on collection and processing of sensitive data. Understanding these differences will help your company comply with the requirements and avoid heavy penalties.

  In this article, we’ll explain what personal data is considered “sensitive” according to the GDPR. We’ll also examine how a web analytics solution like Matomo can help you maintain compliance.

  What is sensitive personal data ?

  The following categories of data are treated as sensitive :

  1. 1. Personal data revealing :
        • Racial or ethnic origin ;
        • Political opinions ;
        • Religious or philosophical beliefs ;
        • Trade union membership ;
     2. Genetic and biometric data ;
     3. Data concerning a person’s :
        • Health ; or
        • Sex life or sexual orientation.

  

  Sensitive vs. non-sensitive personal data : What’s the difference ?

  While both categories include information about an individual, sensitive data is seen as more private, or requiring a greater protection. 

  Sensitive data often carries a higher degree of risk and harm to the data subject, if the data is exposed. For example, a data breach exposing health records could lead to discrimination for the individuals involved. An insurance company could use the information to increase premiums or deny coverage. 

  In contrast, personal data like name or gender is considered less sensitive because it doesn’t carry the same degree of harm as sensitive data. 

  Unauthorised access to someone’s name alone is less likely to harm them or infringe on their fundamental rights and freedoms than an unauthorised access to their health records or biometric data. Note that financial information (e.g. credit card details) does not fall into the special categories of data.

  

  Legality of processing

  Under the GDPR, both sensitive and nonsensitive personal data are protected. However, the rules and conditions for processing sensitive data are more stringent.

  Article 6 deals with processing of non-sensitive data and it states that processing is lawful if one of the six lawful bases for processing applies. 

  In contrast, Art. 9 of the GDPR states that processing of sensitive data is prohibited as a rule, but provides ten exceptions. 

  It is important to note that the lawful bases in Art. 6 are not the same as exceptions in Art. 9. For example, while performance of a contract or legitimate interest of the controller are a lawful basis for processing non-sensitive personal data, they are not included as an exception in Art. 9. What follows is that controllers are not permitted to process sensitive data on the basis of contract or legitimate interest. 

  The exceptions where processing of sensitive personal data is permitted (subject to additional requirements) are : 

  • Explicit consent : The individual has given explicit consent to processing their sensitive personal data for specified purpose(s), except where an EU member state prohibits such consent. See below for more information about explicit consent. 
  • Employment, social security or social protection : Processing sensitive data is necessary to perform tasks under employment, social security or social protection law.
  • Vital interests : Processing sensitive data is necessary to protect the interests of a data subject or if the individual is physically or legally incapable of consenting. 
  • Non-for-profit bodies : Foundations, associations or nonprofits with a political, philosophical, religious or trade union aim may process the sensitive data of their members or those they are in regular contact with, in connection with their purposes (and no disclosure of the data is permitted outside the organisation, without the data subject’s consent).
  • Made public : In some cases, it may be permissible to process the sensitive data of a data subject if the individual has already made it public and accessible. 
  • Legal claims : Processing sensitive data is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, including legal or in court proceedings.
  • Public interest : Processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, like preventing unlawful acts or protecting the public.
  • Health or social care : Processing special category data is necessary for : preventative or occupational medicine, providing health and social care, medical diagnosis or managing healthcare systems.
  • Public health : It is permissible to process sensitive data for public health reasons, like protecting against cross-border threats to health or ensuring the safety of medicinal products or medical devices. 
  • Archiving, research and statistics : You may process sensitive data if it’s done for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes.

  In addition, you must adhere to all data handling requirements set by the GDPR.

  Important : Note that for any data sent that you are processing, you always need to identify a lawful basis under Art. 6. In addition, if the data sent contains sensitive data, you must comply with Art. 9.

  Explicit consent

  While consent is a valid lawful basis for processing non-sensitive personal data, controllers are permitted to process sensitive data only with an “explicit consent” of the data subject.

  The GDPR does not define “explicit” consent, but it is accepted that it must meet all Art. 7 conditions for consent, at a higher threshold. To be “explicit” a consent requires a clear statement (oral or written) of the data subject. Consent inferred from the data subject’s actions does not meet the threshold. 

  The controller must retain records of the explicit consent and provide appropriate consent withdrawal method to allow the data subject to exercise their rights.

  Examples of compliant and non-compliant sensitive data processing

  Here are examples of when you can and can’t process sensitive data :

  • When you can process sensitive data : A doctor logs sensitive data about a patient, including their name, symptoms and medicine prescribed. The hospital can process this data to provide appropriate medical care to their patients. An IoT device and software manufacturer processes their customers’ health data based on explicit consent of each customer. 
  • When you can’t process sensitive data : One example is when you don’t have explicit consent from a data subject. Another is when there’s no lawful basis for processing it or you are collecting personal data you simply do not need. For example, you don’t need your customer’s ethnic origin to fulfil an online order.

  Other implications of processing sensitive data

  If you process sensitive data, especially on a large scale, GDPR imposes additional requirements, such as having Data Privacy Impact Assessments, appointing Data Protection Officers and EU Representatives, if you are a controller based outside the EU.

  Penalties for GDPR non-compliance

  Mishandling sensitive data (or processing it when you’re not allowed to) can result in huge penalties. There are two tiers of GDPR fines :

  • €10 million or 2% of a company’s annual revenue for less severe infringements
  • €20 million or 4% of a company’s annual revenue for more severe infringements

  In the first half of 2023 alone, fines imposed in the EU due to GDPR violations exceeded €1.6 billion, up from €73 million in 2019.

  Examples of high-profile violations in the last few years include :

  • Amazon : The Luxembourg National Commission fined the retail giant with a massive $887 million fine in 2021 for not processing personal data per the GDPR. 
  • Google : The National Data Protection Commission (CNIL) fined Google €50 million for not getting proper consent to display personalised ads.
  • H&M : The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information hit the multinational clothing company with a €35.3 million fine in 2020 for unlawfully gathering and storing employees’ data in its service centre.

  One of the criteria that affects the severity of a fine is “data category” — the type of personal data being processed. Companies need to take extra precautions with sensitive data, or they risk receiving more severe penalties.

  What’s more, GDPR violations can negatively affect your brand’s reputation and cause you to lose business opportunities from consumers concerned about your data practices. 76% of consumers indicated they wouldn’t buy from companies they don’t trust with their personal data.

  Organisations should lay out their data practices in simple terms and make this information easily accessible so customers know how their data is being handled.

  Get started with GDPR-compliant web analytics

  The GDPR offers a framework for securing and protecting personal data. But it also distinguishes between sensitive and non-sensitive data. Understanding these differences and applying the lawful basis for processing this data type will help ensure compliance.

  Looking for a GDPR-compliant web analytics solution ?

  At Matomo, we take data privacy seriously. 

  Our platform ensures 100% data ownership, putting you in complete control of your data. Unlike other web analytics solutions, your data remains solely yours and isn’t sold or auctioned off to advertisers. 

  Additionally, with Matomo, you can be confident in the accuracy of the insights you receive, as we provide reliable, unsampled data.

  Matomo also fully complies with GDPR and other data privacy laws like CCPA, LGPD and more.

  Start your 21-day free trial today ; no credit card required. 

  Disclaimer

  We are not lawyers and don’t claim to be. The information provided here is to help give an introduction to GDPR. We encourage every business and website to take data privacy seriously and discuss these issues with your lawyer if you have any concerns.

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• 8 Best Tools to Analyse Website Traffic

  12 septembre 2023, par Erin — Analytics Tips, Marketing

  Do you want to analyse your website traffic ?

  Maybe you want to know how well you’re converting your traffic. Or maybe you’re looking to track the performance and ROI of your marketing campaigns. Regardless, you won’t get far without relying on a dependable web traffic analysis platform.

  In this article, we’ve compiled a list of the top web analytics tools available (including the pricing for each one).

  Let’s dive in.

  What is website traffic analysis ?

  Curious about what it means to analyse website traffic ?

  

  Simply put, it involves collecting and examining data about your website visitors and the actions they take. Marketers, analysts and website owners can then take this data and use it to optimise their strategy to improve site traffic, conversion rates and ROI.

  A website analytics tool is software that tracks and measures various visitor activities and behaviours on your website. Common metrics include pageviews, traffic source, bounce rate and average time on page. Using a web analytics solution can give you insights into what’s working (and what’s not working) so you can optimise your website, campaigns or marketing strategy.

  Advantages of using a website traffic analysis tool

  1. Performance measurement and optimisation

  Tracking the success of your marketing efforts is a challenging task. The primary benefit of using a web analytics tool is implementing effective performance measurement. If you don’t know how to measure your efforts, you won’t know what’s working and what’s not with your campaigns and content. 

  A web analysis tool can give you the insights you need to understand whether your marketing initiatives have been successful or if they need to be improved.

  For instance, your new web design facelift may seem beautiful, but if visitors aren’t staying on your site as long and it is resulting in lower conversions, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

  2. Audience insights to improve the user experience

  Web traffic analysis platforms don’t just show you what your visitors are doing. It shows you who your audience is. A powerful website analytics tool will give you in-depth audience data, including demographics like geographical location (e.g., city, state or country), to help you better understand your audience.

  Additionally, you can learn more about your audience by seeing how they interact with different content on your site. You’ll start to see that certain content performs better than others, giving you a greater understanding of your audience’s needs and wants. This means you’ll be able to tailor your website content and marketing efforts to your audience to improve the overall user experience.

  3. Improve SEO

  In the first two advantages, we touched on how insights can help you craft better content for the visitors already coming to your site to improve the user experience and improve conversions. But did you know that using a website analytics tool can also help improve how much traffic you’re getting to your site ?

  Since a web analytics tool can help you craft better content, one side effect is an increase in traffic from organic search through SEO. Additionally, your platform will likely show you other traffic sources that your visitors are coming from (i.e., another website is referring traffic to you) so you can tap into those high-performing sources and optimise your incoming traffic over time.

  Top 8 Tools to Analyse Website Traffic

  Here’s a breakdown of the top eight web analytics platforms to help you analyse each tool’s unique features, price, advantages and disadvantages so you can make the best decision.

  1. Matomo

  Matomo is an open-source website analytics tool that’s focused on protecting user privacy and data while offering robust insights into your web traffic. It’s one of the most powerful tools to track the entire customer journey on your site.

  

  Why Matomo : As the leader in open-source, privacy-friendly and ethical web analytics, Matomo is trusted by more than 1 million websites, including NASA, the United Nations and the European Commission.

  Matomo plays well with Google Analytics to track your websites by filling in the gaps where Google Analytics has limitations (i.e., cookie consent banner requirement). Matomo combines traditional and behavioural web analytics for deeper insights while ensuring compliance with the strictest privacy regulations like GDPR, LGPD and HIPAA.

  Matomo Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include comprehensive visitor tracking, multi-attribution, goal tracking, event tracking, custom dimensions, custom reports, automated email reports, session recordings, tag manager, roll-up reporting to pull data from multiple sites, Google Analytics importer, heatmaps and more.

  Integrations include WordPress, Google Ads, Wix, Drupal, Joomla, Cloudflare, Magento, Vue, SharePoint, WooCommerce and more.

  Pricing starts free for Matomo On-Premise (but requires technical skills and servers to set up) and $23/month for Matomo Cloud, which includes a 21-day free trial (no credit card required).

  Pros

  • Best for respecting visitor privacy
  • You own your data — ensuring that it’s not shared with third parties for purposes like advertising
  • Compliant with the strictest privacy laws
  • Greater flexibility with open-source advantages, as well as the option to either self-host or cloud host
  • Can run cookieless — providing 100% accurate data and a better user experience without the need for an annoying cookie consent banner 
  • Exceptional customisability — from white labeling, alerts and custom dimensions to dashboards and reports, tailor your insights for faster decisions, deeper insights and superior outcomes

  Cons

  • On-Premise is free, but there are additional costs for advanced features
  • On-Premise requires servers and technical expertise to manage

  2. Google Analytics

  Google Analytics is the most well-known and used web analytics platform in the world, with nearly 30 million active websites.

  

  Why Google Analytics : It’s one of the leading web traffic analysis tools backed by the Alphabet group of companies. For anyone getting started, it’s a great free option to understand your web traffic and your audience.

  Google Analytics Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include in-depth visitor tracking, event tracking with Google Analytics 4 (GA4), easy integration with Google marketing tools (i.e., Google Search Console and Google Ads), custom reports and easy data importing from third-party sources.

  Integrations include Google Ads, Google Webmaster Tools, AdSense, WordPress, Wix, Shopify, Zendesk, Facebook, Marketo, WordPress, Hotjar, SEMrush, Salesforce, Hootsuite and more.

  Pricing is free.

  Pros

  • Detailed audience insights
  • Customisable reports
  • Seamless integration with other Google products
  • Easy to set up

  Cons

  • Not privacy-friendly — you don’t own your data (data is shared with third parties for advertising purposes)
  • Complex interface
  • Requires cookie consent banner for GDPR compliance, which negatively impacts data accuracy and user experience

  3. Fathom Analytics

  Founded in 2018, Fathom Analytics is a privacy-friendly and lightweight web analytics tool. The platform offers a simple, minimalistic dashboard.

  

  Why Fathom Analytics : Fathom Analytics is a minimalistic tool to help website owners gain insights into customer behaviour without compromising on privacy. It’s an easy-to-use tool that offers a simplified breakdown of the most popular data points. For newcomers to web analytics seeking essential metrics like visitor counts and traffic sources, Fathom Analytics provides a straightforward, cost-effective solution.

  Fathom Analytics Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include easy, automated GA4 importing with lifetime data retention, a single-page dashboard for a quick overview of metrics, traffic summaries for chosen timeframes, visually striking graphs for better data digestion and privacy protection covering major compliance regulations.

  Integrations include Google Analytics, Squarespace, Drupal, WordPress, Discourse, Bloggi, ConvertKit, Webflow, Transistor, Remix, Gatsby and Carrd.

  Pricing starts at $14/month for up to 100k pageviews (with a 30-day free trial).

  Pros

  • Doesn’t use cookies
  • Out-of-the-box GDPR, ePrivacy, PECR and CCPA compliance
  • Great for visual data insights
  • Lightweight tracking script for fast loading

  Cons

  • Can’t easily see traffic trends on specific pages
  • Metrics may be too simple for those wanting advanced analytics

  4. Mixpanel

  Mixpanel is a web analytics platform that helps you track visitors as well as improve customer retention. The software has 8,000 customers worldwide, including Netflix, Yelp, BuzzFeed and CNN.

  

  Why Mixpanel : Mixpanel is great for websites with e-commerce functionality. The tool helps you understand both your site visitors and your customers so you can optimise your customer experience and improve conversions.

  Mixpanel Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include deep insights into how your products are being used, including your most popular features, user cohorts that let you segment users based on specific actions, and visual analysis showing where users drop off.

  Integrations include Google Cloud, Figma, Mailchimp, Zoho CRM, Databox, Marketo, Hotjar, Slack, Zapier, Amazon Web Services, Google Ads and HubSpot.

  Pricing starts free for up to 20 million events per month and $20/month for Growth.

  Pros

  • Interface is easy for beginners
  • Exhaustive reporting options
  • Custom event tracking options
  • Predict user actions based on data science models
  • Send targeted messages to specific users to encourage action

  Cons

  • User-based pricing isn’t the most ideal for everyone
  • Alert management can be confusing

  5. Kissmetrics

  Kissmetrics is a marketing and product analytics tool that helps e-commerce and SaaS companies grow through qualitative data insights. The web analytics tool is trusted by 10,000 users, including Microsoft, Unbounce, AWeber, Dropbox DocSend and SendGrid.

  

  Why Kissmetrics : As an e-commerce-driven analytics platform, the platform is best suited for Enterprise businesses, but it also offers flexible pricing plans that make it easy for someone to get their feet wet with website analytics. 

  Kissmetrics Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include a customisable dashboard to see key metrics at a glance, comprehensive visitor tracking, cohort analysis including power user tracking to understand your most active visitors and customers and insights into customer lifetime value and churn rate.

  Integrations include Chargify, HubSpot, Slack, Live Chat, Marketo, Optimizely, Mailchimp, Recurly, Wufoo Forms, Facebook Ads, WordPress, Shopify and WooCommerce.

  Pricing starts at $0.0025/event for the Pay As You Go Plan, $25.99/month for Build Your Plan and $199/month for Small Teams, which includes a 7-day free trial.

  Pros

  • Flexible pricing options
  • Easy to install
  • Several analytics viewing options
  • Visual checkout funnel insights
  • Track sessions by desktop or mobile

  Cons

  • Despite more pricing options, it’s still quite expensive overall
  • Difficult to use for beginners

  6. Adobe Analytics

  Adobe Analytics is a web and marketing analytics platform within the Adobe Experience Platform. Used by over 170,000 businesses, it’s one of the most popular analytics solutions available.

  

  Why Adobe Analytics : Adobe Analytics was created for large organisations. It’s essentially the enterprise version of Google Analytics. The tool does a great job of offering a customised analytics solution that’s capable of delivering personalised user experiences at scale.

  Adobe Analytics Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include attribution, AI-driven predictive analytics, robust customer segmentation and automation based on customer behaviour.

  Integrations include all Adobe products, Salesforce, Hootsuite, Contentsquare, Sisense, Mouseflow, Google Ads, Google Search Console, HubSpot and Microsoft Teams.

  Pricing is custom and available upon request, but users can expect to pay at least $2,000 per month, and there is no free trial.

  Pros

  • Built for enterprise businesses
  • Seamless workflow integration for Adobe Experience Cloud users
  • Incredible customisation options
  • Integration process is flexible
  • Capable of accurately tracking large volumes of traffic

  Cons

  • Very expensive
  • Not suitable for small businesses
  • The setup is challenging for beginners

  7. SimilarWeb

  SimilarWeb is a robust analytics platform used to track your website data and compare it to other websites. Backed by a team of experienced data scientists and mathematicians for in-depth website traffic and search engine analysis. Founded in 2007, the platform is trusted by major brands like Adidas, DHL, PepsiCo and Walmart.

  

  Why SimilarWeb : The tool relies on multiple scientific methodologies and approaches to data analysis to help provide a better understanding of visitors and customers. The platform is great for crafting prediction models for customer acquisitions by using machine learning to offer SEO insights and competitive analysis.

  SimilarWeb Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include competition traffic and engagement analysis, in-depth visitor tracking, keyword analysis to optimise your SEO and search ads, affiliate traffic analysis, search traffic analysis and funnel insights.

  Integrations include Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Shift, AT Internet, Adverity, SimilarTech, Biscience and more. 

  Pricing starts at $125/month for the Starter plan, which includes a 7-day free trial.

  Pros

  • Has a user-friendly dashboard for simple insights
  • Highly customisable platform to meet your specific needs
  • Easy competition analysis
  • Funnel insights to improve your conversion rates
  • Great customer support

  Cons

  • Expensive pricing
  • Doesn’t include a code snippet to pull data directly from websites
  • Doesn’t show sub-domains of your site

  8. Hotjar

  Hotjar is a behavioural website analytics tool with a focus on providing insights into individual user sessions with features like heatmaps and session recordings. Founded in 2014, Hotjar is used by 900,000 sites around the world.

  

  Why Hotjar : Unlike traditional web analytics tools like Google Analytics, Hotjar is a behavioural analytics tool that provides in-depth behaviour insights session by session. The tool offers a variety of features that give you a sneak peek into your users’ behaviours by watching how they interact with your site action by action.

  Hotjar Standout Features and Integrations :

  Standout features include comprehensive heat mapping, visitor session recordings to see what visitors did moment by moment, feedback polls to gain insights from site visitors and conversion funnels to help you analyse leaks in your funnel at each conversion stage.

  Integrations include HubSpot, Slack, Jira, WordPress, Shopify, Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Microsoft Teams, Zapier and ClickFunnels.

  Pricing starts at free for the Basic plan and $80/month for Business, which includes a 15-day free trial.

  Pros

  • You can see exactly where visitors click, move and scroll
  • Watch session replays to see what visitors did step-by-step
  • See what percentage of visitors take certain actions
  • Data segmentation features to help you understand KPIs in-depth
  • There are no user limits with the platform, making it easy to scale

  Cons

  • While it offers behavioural analytics, Hotjar doesn’t provide insights into traditional web analytics like Matomo does, including traffic sources and bounce rate
  • History data monitoring is complex

  Elevate your website performance today

  Understanding your visitors’ behaviour and needs is essential when you’re looking to improve your website performance.

  By leveraging a website analytics platform, you’ll be able to gain new insights into your visitors and use insights from your content and campaign performance to improve your user experience.

  If you’re looking to start using a web traffic analysis tool today, then Matomo is an excellent choice.

  Matomo is a powerful, privacy-friendly and compliant tool that gives in-depth insights into your audience, your content and your marketing efforts to help you improve your site’s performance.

  The platform also includes a variety of robust behavioural analytics features like heatmaps, session recording and more, which are included in your Cloud subscription. 

  Start your 21-day free trial of Matomo today (no credit card required).