Choosing the right website analytics software isn’t just about tracking traffic. It’s about understanding your audience, protecting their privacy and making confident decisions with data you can trust. Choosing the wrong analytics platform can skew your entire marketing strategy.
The challenge?
Most tools either overwhelm you with complexity or fail to give you full control over the data you collect. Some sample your traffic. Others rely on third-party cookies. And many pass your users’ data through systems you don’t fully control.
This isn’t just a technical issue either. According to Econsultancy’s Future of Marketing 2025 report, 61% of marketers now see data privacy as a competitive advantage, not just a legal requirement. But most analytics tools haven’t kept up. They still lean on outdated tracking models that create more compliance risk than clarity.
It’s no surprise that teams are struggling to trust the numbers, never mind explaining them with confidence.
In this article, we’ll explain what website analytics software should do, which features actually matter, and how to choose a tool that fits your site’s unique needs.
What website analytics software actually does (and doesn’t do)
Website analytics software is a set of tools that measure how people interact with your site. Technically speaking, it collects event data through a tracking code and processes that data into dashboards or reports. In plain terms, it shows how visitors arrived, what they did and how often they came back.
There are two main types of analytics:
- Web analytics: traffic sources, pageviews, sessions, bounce rate, conversion goals
- Behavioural analytics: heatmaps, scroll depth, session recordings, rage clicks
Some analytics tools combine both (Matomo, Adobe Analytics) while others specialise (Hotjar focuses mainly on behavioural analytics). Regardless, most analytics tools report on similar metrics:
- Traffic channels
- Bounce rate
- Pages per session
- Time on page
- Conversion funnels
- Ecommerce revenue
- Event tracking
- Cohort analysis
Teams often connect this information with SEO tools, Google Search Console or Looker Studio to better understand site traffic and customer journeys.
It’s important to recognise the limits.
Analytics shows what is happening, not why. It won’t fix slow website performance, weak copy or a flawed offer. The real value comes when teams act on the data through A/B testing, design changes or funnel analysis to improve conversion rates. For example, session replays may reveal that users abandon a checkout form after repeated rage clicks, signalling a design flaw that directly impacts ecommerce revenue.
Different teams use analytics differently. Marketing teams track campaign performance and ad spend, UX and design teams refine user experience and product teams monitor feature adoption through event tracking. Without that human follow-up, even the most advanced marketing analytics platform remains just a reporting tool.
Why hosting matters
Where analytics data is hosted impacts compliance and control over data. Most tools are third-party hosted or cloud-based, while some platforms offer self-hosted or on-premise options for complete ownership.
Self-hosted
- What it means: All data storage and processing activities occur on infrastructure you control.
- Why it matters: Self-hosted options (e.g., Matomo On-Premise) can support stricter privacy and compliance needs, particularly for UK GDPR or organisations that require European-owned infrastructure.
Third-party
- What it means: Third parties store and process analytics data on cloud-based or external servers like Google Cloud.
- Why it matters: Third-party or cloud-based options (e.g., Google Analytics 4, Mixpanel, and HubSpot’s Marketing Hub) can require additional controls and safeguards to meet data privacy standards.
What to look for in a website analytics tool
Below are five features no team should compromise on when evaluating website analytics software, whether for traffic data, conversion funnels or user behaviour.
1. Data accuracy
Accuracy is the foundation of trustworthy analytics. Many platforms, including Google Analytics 4, rely on sampling once datasets grow large. Instead of analysing every interaction, they project results from a slice of site traffic. That shortcut can blur important details in event tracking, ecommerce revenue or conversion funnels.
Take funnels as an example. If you’re testing a checkout sequence, sampling can make it impossible to see whether users are dropping off during account creation or at the payment step. Matomo’s guide on funnel analysis highlights how precise step-by-step data reveals bottlenecks you can actually fix. With incomplete or estimated data, those insights are lost.
Matomo avoids this problem entirely by processing every visit, click and session recording without sampling. When you review traffic data or customer journeys, you see the whole picture.
2. User-level behavior tracking
High-quality analytics software goes beyond pageviews to show how individual users interact with your site. This includes event tracking for actions like button clicks or video plays, funnels that map multi-step journeys such as checkout flows and session recordings that replay real interactions.
Together, these tools help teams see exactly where people drop off or get stuck. Matomo’s event tracking use cases illustrate how capturing these micro-interactions adds context that traffic data alone can’t provide. With clear behaviour insights, marketing, UX and product teams can make targeted fixes that directly improve conversion funnels.
3. Privacy and data ownership
Privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA mean analytics can’t just collect data freely. Most tools rely on third-party cookies, which require banners and often result in lost traffic data when visitors refuse consent. Matomo was designed as an ethical alternative, with cookieless tracking confirmed by France’s CNIL and full data ownership through on-premise or cloud hosting.
In its FAQ on consent, Matomo explains how organisations can track responsibly while staying compliant. That balance of privacy protection and accurate data gives teams confidence to measure conversion rates without sacrificing user trust.
4. Custom dashboards and reporting
Standard reports rarely fit every organisation’s goals. A strong analytics platform lets teams create dashboards tailored to the metrics that matter most, whether that’s conversion funnels for marketing, user retention for product or content analytics for editorial teams.
Matomo dashboard with custom widgets
Matomo’s reporting tools allow you to mix and match widgets, schedule recurring reports and share results with stakeholders in clear formats. Instead of digging through one-size-fits-all charts, you see exactly the data that drives your decisions. Flexible reporting saves time, reduces confusion and ensures everyone from executives to designers is working from the same trusted numbers.
5. Integration options
Analytics software should fit into your existing systems rather than sit apart. A WordPress plugin allows site owners to track ecommerce revenue directly, while integrations with CRMs and tag managers connect user behaviour data to customer profiles and campaigns.
Matomo’s integration library lists connections across CMSs, eCommerce platforms, advertising networks and cloud services. These ready-made options save teams from building custom tracking and reduce errors that come with manual imports. With integrations in place, you can follow the customer journey across tools and see how traffic sources and on-site actions link to actual outcomes.
Popular analytics tools
Choosing the right analytics tool often involves understanding its trade-offs. Below, we break down the strengths and limitations of the most widely used platforms so you can see how each one fits different business needs.
Google Analytics (GA4 and 360)
Google Analytics remains the default choice for many businesses. GA4, the free version, replaced Universal Analytics in 2023, while Analytics 360 offers premium features for large enterprises. Both track traffic sources, events and conversions, and they connect tightly with Google Ads and Search Console, making them appealing for marketing teams already invested in the Google ecosystem.
GA4 acquisitions dashboard
Strengths: Free entry point, near-universal adoption, strong integration with Google Ads and a wide range of standard web metrics.
Limitations: Data sampling makes reports unreliable on high-traffic sites. The interface and reporting model differ significantly from the older Universal Analytics, leading to a steep learning curve. Privacy concerns are ongoing since GA depends on third-party cookies, which trigger consent banners in most regions.
→ Check out our Matomo vs Google Analytics comparison for more details on these trade-offs.
Matomo
Matomo is an open-source analytics platform created as a privacy-first alternative to Google Analytics. It is trusted by +1 million websites, with case studies showing adoption by universities, government agencies and businesses that need reliable data without compromising compliance.
Matomo dashboard overview with visits over time, channel types and visitor map
Strengths: Matomo delivers 100% accuracy with no data sampling, so every visit, event, and funnel step is counted. It supports GDPR and other privacy laws through first-party cookies, consent-friendly features, IP anonymisation and EU hosting options.
No analytics tool is automatically compliant, but Matomo provides configuration guides to help organisations set retention periods, choose a lawful basis and manage transfers responsibly.
Businesses can self-host for full control or use Matomo Cloud, knowing no third-party has access to their data. Behavioural tools like heatmaps and session recordings are included.
Limitations: On-premise requires technical setup, and some advanced features cost extra.
Mixpanel
Mixpanel is a product analytics platform designed to help teams understand how users interact with apps and digital products. Unlike traditional web analytics tools, it emphasises event tracking, funnels and retention analysis to show where users drop off and how often they return.
Mixpanel product metrics dashboard
Strengths: Mixpanel is strong at mapping customer journeys inside apps. Its funnel analysis highlights points of friction in multi-step flows, while cohort reports make it easier to study user retention over time. SaaS and mobile-first businesses often rely on these features to refine onboarding and track feature adoption.
Limitations: Mixpanel is not built for classic website analytics like bounce rate or traffic sources. Pricing scales with event volume, which can get expensive quickly. It also requires more setup, and non-technical teams may find the interface harder to use compared to simpler tools.
Hotjar
Hotjar is a behaviour analytics tool focused on visualising how users interact with your site. Instead of offering broad traffic metrics, it provides heatmaps, session replays and surveys that help teams see and understand user behaviour in real time.
Hotjar site overview with top clicked buttons and traffic channels
Strengths: Hotjar is simple to install and start using, making it popular for teams that want quick insights without technical setup. Its heatmaps show where users click or scroll, while session replays reveal friction points like abandoned forms. It’s particularly useful for UX research, form optimisation and gathering direct feedback through on-page polls.
Limitations: Hotjar does not track traffic sources or provide deeper reporting on overall website performance. Its strength lies in visual insights, so it works best when paired with a full web analytics platform rather than used alone.
HubSpot
HubSpot’s Marketing Hub combines an analytics tool, CRM, email marketing, forms, landing pages and campaign automation into one platform. This makes it appealing to teams that want all their customer data in one place.
HubSpot traffic analytics custom view
Strengths: Because HubSpot centralises data, marketers can see how a contact moves from filling out a form to opening emails and eventually becoming a customer. Its reporting dashboards tie activity from different channels together, which helps teams measure the effectiveness of campaigns without exporting data into other systems.
Limitations: The trade-off is cost. Pricing increases quickly as contact lists and features expand, which can put it out of reach for smaller organisations. It also takes more time to set up than stand-alone analytics tools, and for teams that just want traffic and conversion tracking, it may be too complex.
Use cases: Match the tool to your job
The right choice depends on who’s using it and the job they need it to do.
Marketing teams → Track conversions from ads
Use case: Sales funnel and marketing attribution tools to see whether ad clicks lead to purchases or sign-ups
Best fit: Platforms like GA4 connect tightly with Google Ads, while Matomo offers funnel analysis to pinpoint where people drop out of multi-step journeys.
Product and UX teams → Audit forms and drop-offs
Use case: Understanding why people abandon checkout or sign-up flows, you’ll need behavioural analytics.
Best fit: Hotjar and FullStory provide heatmaps and replays, while Matomo includes session recordings that let you watch where users hesitate, rage-click or quit a form.
Legal and compliance teams → Stay compliant with privacy laws
Use case: Meeting compliance standards without forcing users through distracting consent popups.
Best fit: Matomo can be configured for consent-free tracking under certain jurisdictions, as outlined in its guide on consent exemptions. At the same time, its cookieless tracking FAQ explains that most EU countries still view cookieless methods as a tracking technology that requires consent.
A final compliance takeaway: the tool helps, but your configuration and local rules play a big role.
By framing your needs as jobs to be done, such as ad attribution, privacy compliance or UX optimisation, you can more easily match tools best suited for your use case.
Matomo’s position in the analytics ecosystem
Most analytics platforms specialise or compromise. Google Analytics is free but samples data and depends on third-party cookies. Hotjar is great for visual behaviour insights but doesn’t cover broader site performance. Mixpanel excels at product analytics but lacks traditional website metrics. HubSpot combines CRM and marketing but comes with high costs and complexity.
Matomo takes a different position by combining breadth with user control:
- Privacy and compliance: Unlike Google Analytics, which requires consent banners in most regions, you can configure Matomo to meet GDPR and CCPA requirements with features like IP anonymisation, cookieless tracking and first-party cookies. Its feature list even outlines options for organisations that need lawful, consent-friendly analytics.
- Data accuracy and ownership: Where other tools use sampling or share data with third parties, Matomo processes every interaction and keeps all data under your control. That reliability matters when teams are analysing funnels or running A/B tests where small percentage changes drive big decisions.
- Flexible deployment: Hotjar, Mixpanel and HubSpot only offer cloud services. Matomo gives you the choice: a managed cloud service or an on-premise version installed on your own infrastructure. Both options connect with behavioural tools like heatmaps and session recordings, and integrate with CMSs and eCommerce platforms.
With more than a million websites using Matomo and thousands of reviews praising its trustworthiness, it has become the leading ethical alternative in web analytics.
Start your free Matomo trial to see how it fits your organisation.
What to consider before choosing an analytics platform
Before committing to an analytics tool, it helps to step back and ask yourself a few questions:
- What data do we actually need?
- If you only want to know traffic sources and bounce rate, a lightweight tool may be enough. ‘
- If you need funnels, event tracking and session recordings, look for a full platform like Matomo’s feature set.
- Do we need to meet legal privacy standards?
- Regulations like GDPR and CCPA set strict rules on cookies and consent.
- Matomo explains when consent banners are required and how cookieless tracking fits into European law.
- Who will use the data and how?
- Marketers, designers and product teams all need different views.
- Make sure dashboards and reporting are accessible to the people who’ll act on them.
- How will this fit with our existing tools?
- Check CMS, CRM and ad platform integrations to avoid manual work later.
Asking these questions helps keep the focus on the jobs to be done, rather than getting lost in a maze of feature checklists.
Accurate, secure data always beats more data
Website analytics shouldn’t be about chasing every possible metric. It should be about collecting the right data, using it responsibly and turning it into actions that improve your site and serve your users.
That starts with choosing software that gives you full visibility into what’s happening and the confidence that your reports are accurate, privacy-aware and aligned with your compliance obligations. Matomo supports GDPR and CCPA requirements through features like first-party cookies, IP anonymisation and cookieless tracking, but it still needs to be configured correctly for your organisation’s lawful basis and data retention policies.
Whether you’re optimising forms, improving page experience or reporting to stakeholders, you need tools that support clear decision-making rather than dashboards for their own sake.
Try Matomo for free and see how privacy-first analytics can put you back in control.
