: Site too large to officially use Google Analytics? We just got this email from the Google Analytics team: We love that you love our product and use it as much as you do. We have observed

@Chiappetta492

The limit documented in the Google Analytics Terms of Service has been raised to 10 million pageviews per month, with no "active Adwords account" exemption.



FEES AND SERVICES . Subject to Section 15 herein, the Service is provided without charge to You for up to 10 million pageviews per
month per account.



It's not clear how actively this will be enforced.

For sites looking to exceed this cap, Google Analytics is now offering Google Analytics Premium, an enterprise-focused paid version of Google Analytics.

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@Cooney921

Google Analytics supports sampling data collection as standard now.

With this kind of volumes, a real WA solution should be considered. The Urchin7 license (really, don't go to Urchin6, I speak from experience) may be k, but it's a one time fee. With many products

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@Kevin317

What about Open Web Analytics? It's free and looks googlish. Might be worth a try. It says here that it does have mouse tracking and heatclick maps. However you have to host it but it has no Data/Logging Limits.

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@Gail5422790

I've heard good things about StatsCounter, even when specifically compared to Google Analytics. Peter-Paul Koch from Quirksmode.org likes it because it's supposedly got very good browser detection accuracy

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@Lengel546

Suggestion:

Only use analytics for conversion-related pages and metrics. For example, tracking signup conversion %, actual users referred from adwords hits, non-members, and referrals:from:other:sites. (the last can help PageRank, I have no clue why...)

Perhaps:

What you are really looking at is a two-part solution. Rather than entirely replacing google analytics, you reduce the volume by the method above and also either use another 3rd-party analytics tool or create a server-sided one.

It really is a matter of what analytic data is important to you, and do you really need Google to help you with that?

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@Cofer257

Google Analytics is actually based on Urchin, which you can install and host yourself on your server (cross-platform). The interface looks similar to GA but it may not be as polished. It's also very expensive - nearly ,000 for a license!

If Google is still allowing you to track every hit then there is probably no reason to switch - do you really need to check data up to the minute?

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@XinRu657

We run Piwik for a client with about 3 million page views per month. The mailing list has faster response times then Google customer support! With a bit of hacking it should be possible to run piwik on multiple machines.

The other solution is to only run Google Analytics as a sampling tool. For example you only log 1 out of every 10 visitors to the site. This is what some large sites do with some of the paid for Analytical tools to save on license fee's.

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@Annie201

That's fascinating stuff. My website has 10 million page views a month and I have never heard from Google. However, I've noticed a few months ago when I go to Google Analytics in the morning the numbers from the previous day will sometimes be a lot less then they should be. If I go back later in the day, then the data will be updated and I can stop freaking out at my loss of 10K visitors.

I've have recently started tracking events with Google Analytics on a much larger scale (about 60K events a day) and I wonder if all that data processing effects the speed with which my site stats are updated.

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@Cugini213

I have always heard good things about Mint: www.haveamint.com/
It not a hosted service so you can throw it on your own servers.

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@Speyer207

I think that for being free, getting data updated once a day is just fine. I don't even know why with such large numbers you need more then that. Did you really lose anything?

If you really want alternatives, I suggest you try piwik.org/. I have no idea if it can take the load, but since it is up to you to install and configure, I guess all is possible (only questions is, how much work?)

Other hosted option is chartbeat.com/ which since you actually pay for the service, I don't think they will have a problem accepting your money.

Update: based on comments, www.getclicky.com/ is not an option.

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@Deb1703797

If you aren't using AdWords, it may be worth contacting a Google representative to see if they're willing to make a special arrangement for you. If they're not, I'd be shocked.

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@RJPawlick198

Or just check results once a day. Is your site/service dependent on reports multiple times a day?

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@Angela700

Stackoverflow.com does blow well past that limit doesn't it! Fortunately, per paragraph 2 of the terms of service...


FEES AND SERVICES . Subject to Section 15 herein, the Service is provided without charge to You for up to 5 million pageviews per month per account, and if You have an active Adwords campaign in good standing, the Service is provided without charge to You without a pageview limitation.


... as long as you have an "active Adwords campaign in good standing", then the service is provided "without charge to You without a pageview limitation".

EDIT:

As of October 2011, the terms of service have been updated such that the page view limit was raised from 5 million to 10 million page views per month HOWEVER the AdWords exemption has been removed:


FEES AND SERVICES . Subject to Section 15 herein, the Service is provided without charge to You for up to 10 million pageviews per
month per account.


Consistent with this answer here it is not exactly clear what the intent is for sites that exceed the limit and if/how the limit is really enforced.

For reference, the current full terms of service are documented here:
www.google.com/analytics/tos.html

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