The 10 best Shopify Analytics Apps 2021
In this article, we look at the 10 best Shopify Analytics apps that could be an alternative to Google Analytics.
Google Analytics is a fantastic tool, that has tons of data. So why look for alternative tools?The most apparent reasons are: Google analytics is a tool for experts. You need to know how to use it to get the most out of it. It takes training, interest, time and experience to get valuable and actionable findings out of it.
Many business owners prefer to spend as much time improving their business and as little time possible doing data analytics. This is where the alternative comes in. We have found the 10 best alternatives to Google Analytics and evaluated them on five different criterias.
We know that not all factors are equally important to all, so we have made an overview of the five criteria. So you can zoom in on the system that looks like it would be the best choice for you.
Ese of use
You are not a data scientist and will never be one. So you need a tool that is easy to understand for people who are not web analytics expert.
Advanced analytics
You want a system that does as much work for you as possible. So you should look for tools that have advanced analytics. This enables you to get you predictions, recommendation and insight. In this way, you do not need to consult an expert with your findings.
Traffic Analytics
Getting the right traffic to your site will always be important, so you need a tool that can help you focus on getting a sufficient amount of traffic to your site.
Content Analytics
You lose 95% of your potential customers on your site, so it is even more critical to understand how your user behavior on your site, than getting them there in the first place.
Price
Analytics and a data-driven business are essential, but it has to be at a reasonable price. So this is a factor too.
1. Canecto
Content analytics 70%
Traffic 40%
Advanced analytics 60%
Ease of use 80%
Price 70%
64%
Total score
Monthly starting price
9USD
About Canecto
We obviously had to put Canecto first. Canecto automates your web analytics process and sends pdf reports straight to your inbox. It gives you an overview of your improvement opportunities with tangible actions and predicted outcomes
It enables you to convert more users by:
- Understanding why your users convert
- Driving converting traffic to your site
- Optimizing your navigation and engagement
- Improve your user flows
You get insights and recommended improvements with predicted outcomes. So you can do what you do best and that is probably not web analytics.
Pros
1. PDF Report
2. Content and traffic analytics
3. Advanced AI
Cons
1. Simpel traffic data
2. No advanced configurations
3. No SEO features
2. Hitsteps
Hitsteps.com
Content analytics 5%
Traffic 60%
Advanced analytics 10%
Ease of use 60%
Price 90%
45%
Total score
Monthly starting price
5 USD
About Hitsteps
Hitsteps Analytics is an all-in-one platform with a tech focus. The core features include:
- Visitor streams
- Visitor clicks and heatmaps
- Live Chat
Hitsteps Analytics holds more customer information than Google Analytics, and as such, they can provide more detailed information on user behaviour.
It is a useful tool, if you like features over design and appreciates the extra live chat option that is included. It also provides a set of predefined reports (not PDF). Finally, the price of just 5 USD makes them attractive too.
Pros
1. Cheap
2. Supports many e-commerce platforms
3. All-in-one tool
Cons
1. Shows simpel data
2. Requires specialist knowledge
3. The design
3. Lucky Orange
luckyorange.com
Content analytics 60%
Traffic 10%
Advanced analytics 30%
Ease of use 30%
Price 80%
42%
Total score
Monthly starting price
10 USD
About Lucky Orange
Lucky Orange is a visitor optimization tool that can be used for usability analysis. The tool lets you understand visitor behaviour via a set of features:
- Real-Time Analytics
- Visitor Recordings
- Heatmaps
- Polling
- Chat System
- Form Analytics.
As you might have noticed, Lucky Orange and Hotjar have almost identical features. Lucky Orange was fist on the marked, has a lower price.
Pros
1. Many content features
2. The price
3. First on the market
Cons
1. The design
2. Just content
3. Can not stand alone
4. Web-stat
Web-stat.com
Content analytics 5%
Traffic 60%
Advanced analytics 20%
Ease of use 30%
Price 70%
37%
Total score
Monthly starting price
9.5USD
About Web-stat
Web-stat is one of the oldest players on the web analytics market. They have been around since 1997. They provide a solution that tracks your users in real time. Their features include:
- Real-time analytics
- Track all visitors
- Geo-customization
- Event tracking
It is a more technical tool, and the design could do with a brush-up. However it is feature rich, so if you like data and need to tack your traffic in real-time, then it could be a tool for you.
Pros
1. Real-time traffic
2. Feature ritch
3. The price
Cons
1. The design
2. Tech focus
3. No content features
5. Hotjar
Hotjar.com
Content analytics 70%
Traffic 10%
Advanced analytics 50%
Ease of use 90%
Price 30%
50%
Total score
Monthly starting price
89 USD
About Hotjar
Hotjar is a feedback and analytics tool that looks at website visitors. The features include:
- Heatmaps
- Feedback
- Polls
- Surveys
- Video recordings
It is very visual in its user interface which makes it easy to understand how users interact with a website. As a business owner, it is a great tool, but it does require some knowledge on how to actually improve your sites findings (UX changes). You might need help from an agency to do this for you in a proper way.
Pros
1. The design
2. User focus
3. Visual approach
Cons
1. The price
2. Specialist tool
3. No traffic data
6. Yandex
Content analytics 20%
Traffic 30%
Advanced analytics 10%
Ease of use 40%
Price 80%
36%
Total score
Monthly starting price
Free
About Yandex Metrica
Yandex Metrica is a free tool for evaluating site traffic and analyzing user behavior Created by the Russian company Yandex. The core features are:
- Descriptive reports
- Record the actions of individual users
- Find out what people are searching for on your site
- Collect statistics
- Keep track of conversion rates.
It is feature rich – maybe too rich. You can easily let lost in the many menus on the site, however, once you get to know it. It has got what you need.
It’s free – or you could say that the charge in the same way as Google Analytics does. You pay with your customer data.
Pros
1. It’s free
2. Data rich
3. All-in-one tool
Cons
1. You pay with your user data
2. Specialist tool
3. The design
7. Compass
Content analytics 5%
Traffic 60%
Advanced analytics 10%
Ease of use 40%
Price 60%
35%
Total score
Monthly starting price
16 USD / Month
About Compass
The idea of Compass is to benchmark your performance to how other e-commerce sites are doing. This makes it possible for you to know where you should improve and where you are performing better.
The core features are:
- Track more than 30 e-commerce metrics
- Benchmark Report
- Insights Report
- Acquisition Report
- Revenue Report
- Executive Report
Many people will find the output of the Compass reports interesting and that it complements conventional analytics tools.
However, it is still a descriptive analytics tool that gives you data. It is up to you to interpret the finding to decide what actions you would take from them.
Pros
1. Gives perspecitive
2. Peer benchmarks
3. More than 30 metrixs
Cons
1. Cannot stand alone as an analytics tool
2. Descriptive
3. No recomendations or actions points
8. Conversific
Content analytics 5%
Traffic 25%
Advanced analytics 40%
Ease of use 40%
Price 40%
30%
Total score
Monthly starting price
29 USD / Month
About Conversific
Conversific is comes in both a free and payed version.
The core features are:
- Benchmark against your peers – Access industry benchmarks to see how your site compares to competitors
- Marketing & Conversion Insights – You get a direct look at the marketing channels working best for you.
- Predictive analytics: They predict the most important metrics based on historical data.
Conversific is traffic and product focused, meaning it lets you evaluate your campaines and monitor the effectiveness of your products.
The price is in the high end for a Shopify Analytics tool. Also it has no content focus, so it can not stand alone as your only analytics tool.
Pros
1. Predictive Analytics
2. Peer benchmarks
3. Conversion insights
Cons
1. No content
2. The price
3. Based on Google Analtytics
9. Heatmap Analytics
Content analytics 50%
Traffic 5%
Advanced analytics 10%
Ease of use 40%
Price 70%
35%
Total score
Monthly starting price
19.99 USD/ Month
About Heatmap Analytics
Heatmap analytics works the same ways as similar services such as Hotjar. You get a heatmap wiew of where the users has moved and clicked with the mouse. This give you an indication of how they have read the page.
The features include:
Heatmap
Scrollmap
User recording
Funnels
The price is a strong selling point compared to Hotjar. Heatmap cost 19.99 USD vs Hojars 89 USD. You should notice that the product can not stand allone as your only analytics tool, since all traffic data is missing. So you would either have to use Google Analytics or one of the other payed apps.
Pros
1. Content Analytics
2. The price
3. Complements conventional analytics
Cons
1. Cannot stand alone
2. Specialist tool
3. The design
10. All‑In‑One Dashboard
Content analytics 20%
Traffic 30%
Advanced analytics 10%
Ease of use 40%
Price 70%
34%
Total score
Monthly starting price
11.50 USD/ Month
About All‑In‑One Dashboard
The aim of this app is to integrate all your data sources and give you an overview of their combined performance. It integrates with:
• Google Analytics,
• Google Ads,
• MailChimp,
• Facebook,
• Twitter,
• eBay
There is a free and paid version. However the amount of free features is limited, so you need the paid version to get value from the app. The design is more old school than the average analytics app. On the plus side, there is a mobile app available too.
Pros
1. Ingegrate multiple sources
2. Data rich
3. All-in-one tool
Cons
1. Lack of features in the free version
2. Specialist tool
3. The design
Congratulations. You have gone through the complete list of the 10 best Shopify App Google Analytics alternatives for business owners 2019. If you need more information on web analytics, then our a-to-z web analytics guide could be of interest to you.
