Google Analytics v Urchin

With 3 products to choose from (Urchin 5, Urchin 6, Google Analytics), which one is right for you?

• Firstly Urchin 5 is old - launched in 2003 to be precise. Although good for basic visit tracking and often provided as a small value-added feature by hosting providers, Urchin 5 does not cut the mustard if you wish to dig deeper and understand the performance of your website. Legacy clients can purchase additional Urchin licenses, but the very fact you are reading this content, means you should be upgrading...!

• Urchin 6 is the latest edition of the software. Use this if you wish to collect and manage your raw visitor data in-house. That is, run server-side web analytics on your own servers.

• Choose Google Analytics if you need tight integration with other Google products, such as AdWords, AdSense, Feedburner (plus others in the pipeline!) and want to be free of the burden of managing software, servers and logfiles.

Brian Clifton has also written more detailed articles on Urchin v GA on his blog.