Do many people use AwStats ?

Is it good compared to Stat Counter, GA etc

[Digmen1]

Hi Guys

At present I am using Statcounter and Google Analytics.

I keep needing to upgrade my log file size (extra cash) and I saw AWStats on their website.

It looks very good.

Do many of you use it ?

Any comments ?

Is it suitable for beginners such as me with small website.

I like the idea that it shows visitors who have bookmarked your site !

Regards

Digby

[tangor]

The only comment I have with AWSTATS is that for a time (perhaps corrected) it was not fully secured. However, the reporting appeared to be very good the last time I looked. I do all my log server stats with hand-rolled code so I am not your best responder.

[Leosghost]

Awstats is fine ..easy and clear ..
but it can over report "bookmarked" because it records each hit to a favicon as "bookmarked" or added to "favourites"..
normally awstats is included ( as are webalizer and analog stats and "last 300 visitors to your site" ) in cpanel ..if your host uses cpanel that is ..

if they do ..you may have to ask them to "switch on" the stat programmes ( awstats, webalizer and analog ).
you cant do this yourself unless you have access to "root" ..out of the box most hosters dont switch them on ( saves a tiny bit on CPU ) ..whereas the last 300 visitors is always switched on from the moment you upload files and your DNS goes live ..IME .

For a beginner awstats is ideal as it will tell you what crawlers have been ..when ..and what they ate ..it can also show you your busy times of the day..and where your visitors are coming from etc at a glance ..each stats prog has it's good points ..

And as Tangor points out when you get more experienced you can roll your own and rip your logs ..

Given that you are probably on managed shared hosting ( hoster looks after security ) then don't worry about reports of stat progs vulnerabilities ..and AFAIK awtstats is safe and used by many of the largest hosters ..who dont have either the time nor the inclination to let known vulnerable apps on their boxes give them headaches and cause customer complaints and downtime or eat up tech hours correcting exploits ..that said no site is immune to exploits however good the server admins are ..so always keep your own upto date backups ..on your own machine at home or office and also on thumbdrives .

edit speeling

[edited by: Leosghost at 11:18 am (utc) on June 2, 2009]