Google Analytics vs. Omniture
And the winner is…
This question has been on people’s minds since the massive public buyout of Omniture by Adobe this month. Here is our take on what these two analytics programs have to offer the everyday user.
Reality Check
First, let me say it’s not really fair to compare Google Analytics with Omniture as stand-alone products. I have said several times during my Demystifying Google Analytics Seminar Tour that comparing these two is like comparing a Honda Civic to a Ferrari!
Omniture is built for extreme performance. It has several advanced segmentation and tracking features, plus bells and whistles that do pretty much anything a professional user could ask for. That being said, if all you need to do is use basic analytics with a little advanced segmentation, in order to see how your business is doing, Google Analytics does the trick pretty well.
Now that we have the ground rules in place, here are some points of comparison between the two web analytics programs.
Cost
Google Analytics is FREE. Omniture does not actually have any pricing information on their website – you have to call them to find out (very fancy!) The cost involved with getting Omniture for your website versus getting a free Google Analytics account is one of the top things to consider before you jump in.
Needs
How big is your website, and what is it doing? Are you selling several hundred products, tracking hundreds of conversion goals, have a dedicated employee for visitor segmentation? Omniture is right for you. If you need high-level analytics but don’t have a very large operation (small website, simple transactions), Google Analytics is right for you!
Performance
How fast is your online marketing program moving? How often do you work on optimizing your website shopping cart, test versions of different ads, etc? For someone requiring 100% real-time data, Omniture is the right choice. If you don’t mind a 24-hour delay in your data and optimize things monthly instead of daily, go with Google Analytics.
The Nitty Gritty
Now that we have the basics of Cost, Need and Performance out of the way, let’s examine some of the individual strengths and weaknesses of these two analytics programs.
 |
 |
|
| Price | Free | Expen$ive |
| Speed | 24-hr lapse in data | Real-time tracking |
| Customer Support |
You’re on your own! Forums will be your only source of help. |
24-hr weekday support: crucial when you are managing a large, highly complex website |
| Data Points |
Plenty of metrics for average user, but limited |
Over 100 metrics |
| Goal Tracking |
You can track 4 goals (eg, contact form, “thank you for purchase” page) |
Track 100′s of goals, events and variables |
| Cookies (yum) | 30 days | 15 years! |
| Advanced Data Segmentation |
Available, but limited | A LOT of options |
| Integration | GA only recently opened its API and joined the integration party |
Omniture already interfaces into a lot of existing programs |
| Mobile Analytics |
Google recently added one mobile device (iPhone) to its advanced data segmentation section |
Omniture offers a breakdown by device, screen size, A/B testing for mobile phones |
| Security | Google owns the data | Data belongs to you |
Now that we have gotten those details out of the way, it’s time for my final words on this ever-popular topic.
- First of all, everyone reading this should definitely use some form of analytics on their website. Choosing between Omniture Site Catalyst and Google Analytics depends on the cost, needs and performance factors that I talked about.
- I am sort of an evangelist for GA. Idealism kicks in when I think that only the fat cats can afford to use Omniture. Anything that empowers the common man to analyze and improve his website and business wins my approval. Google has made some great improvements in the GA interface and added lot of advanced options that are now making it look like an ever better deal for a free software.
The important thing is to use analytics. As long as we all continue to use these tools and keep up the demand for high-quality, low-cost products, things should get better for everyone. Here is an original quote for you: “An unexamined website is a terrible waste of (web) space.”
