Reliability of Self Hosted vs Google Analytics

[ivorobey]

Hello,
Im in the process of selling one of the website, and buyer has ordered a due diligence report from a company associated with the website that brokers the deal.

When the due diligence company contacted me to verify the website traffic, I provided access to Smarterstats, which we use to analyze raw log files on the server. Few days later a due diligence report came in at almost fail because "Analytics software used is self-hosted, and therefore can't be reliably used for verification, and can be manipulated". Then reports goes in to strongly recommending Google Analytics.

So I was wondering if due diligence company has some kind of agenda to push Google Analytics, or there is some truth to their statement, and Self hosted programs data is much easier to manipulate than Google Analytics?

[jay5r]

I see their point. It would be pretty easy to manipulate log-file based stats. At the same time even Google Analytics can be manipulated - but you need access to a botnet to do it...

That's been the case for years now. At the end of the day the buyer just has to take the leap of faith and believe something is true.

But on the other hand, GA is pretty standard stuff. I can't imagine not having it installed. Just give them a few days of what they want so they trust the log files.

[edited by: mademetop at 7:55 am (utc) on Oct 30, 2013]
[edit reason] No specifics or URLs please [/edit]

[ivorobey]

thanks, they want 2 weeks of GA, and I was hoping not to waste this much time, but I guess it has to be done.

[topr8]

>>But on the other hand, GA is pretty standard stuff. I can't imagine not having it installed.

completely disagree, i can't imagine having it installed!
although i'm not looking to sell a site, i also can't imagine giving someone 2 weeks of such sensitive data either ...