Comparing stats from different programs

Comparing stats

[Peg_C]

I need to aggregate website stats from several websites which are maintained by other people and which may use different stat programs. In looking for a common 'traffic' stat, I ran both Analog and Webalizer on my Jan logfile. Analog reported 2762 avg req/day, 640 req for pages/day, 253 redirected req, 973 distince files req. Webalizer reported daily avgs of 2969 hits, 2147 files, 777 pages, and 264 visits. These stats seem to be pretty different. Why is that? What statistic could I ask for from other websites that is comparable across stat programs?

[flashfan]

I experienced similar problem. I use WebTrends and AWStats to analyze same web logs; they are producing different reports all the time. :-( The results are different; but their trends are similar. We care the trends more than numbers, don't we?

[cgrantski]

I don't know the default settings for these 2 programs, but here are some possibilities: They may define "file" in different ways. One of them may exclude pdfs or css files for example. Also, they may treat POST logfile lines differently, ignoring them or otherwise. They also may be working with different time periods ... one may calculate according to GMT midnight, and the other local midnight. You can learn a lot by comparing page view numbers for specific individual pages.