A proprietary system for collecting website attendance data allows addressing tasks of a different nature, which are not immediately obvious when using services like Yandex Metrica and Google Analytics.

After spending a few hours searching for a ready-made solution, it became clear that the choice of available systems is quite limited. We focused primarily on free solutions that could be installed and used immediately.

The only system for obtaining website statistics that has an up-to-date version and is compatible with PHP 8.x turned out to be Matomo. Since the goal was to obtain a system in source code form and use it on our own hosting as a replacement for the aforementioned services, the offered SAAS version was not considered, as it requires payment.

The installation process was standard: unpacking the archive and creating a database, similar to most CMSs, was quick and error-free. The interface allows adding multiple websites for tracking. The tracker code looks and is installed similarly to those of search engine services.

Note that if your website operates on both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols, Matomo must also support both protocols; otherwise, IPv6 traffic statistics will not be captured if support is absent.

1. Overview of Matomo

1.1 Real-Time Visits

As shown in the screenshot, the main dashboard displays real-time visit statistics, providing key information about each user.

We particularly liked the display of user activity in the form of multiple folders, which, when hovered over, show the page the user navigated to.

1.2 Data Breakdown by Devices and Software

1.3 Traffic Sources

Not all social networks are included in the database; they need to be manually added to the social media group in the configuration file.

1.4 Regular Reports

In the settings, you can specify the frequency of report delivery to your email and customize the report’s content. It’s very convenient to start the workweek by reviewing the previous week’s report.

1.5 Conclusion

We compared data over a short time period, and Yandex Metrica’s data aligned with Matomo’s. The only drawback is the lack of keyword tracking, as this functionality is not included in the base version and requires a paid plugin.

2. Usability and Visualization of Matomo

Compared to Yandex and Google, Matomo offers a convenient view of user behavior. This type of data presentation was highly appreciated, as it allows you to see user actions and activity on a single page.

From this view, it’s clear that a visitor switched the language from Spanish to English, likely due to a poor machine translation of the article. This insight is valuable and indicates the need to update the translation using AI, as the Spanish translation was done long ago using a standard online translator.

2.1 Real-Time Visitor Map

2.2 Mobile Application

The availability of a mobile app is a plus, though it lags in visual appeal compared to Yandex Metrica. The developers clearly drew inspiration from Google Analytics.

2.3 Basic Reports

Matomo also provides a range of basic reports, including breakdowns by country, city, device, visit time, and other standard metrics.

To view the search keywords used by visitors, you’ll need to install the additional SearchEngineKeywordsPerformance plugin, which is paid and requires a subscription. However, a 30-day trial period is available.

3. Conclusion

Since we consider Yandex Metrica to be a more visual and user-friendly tool compared to Google Analytics, we compared Matomo primarily with Yandex Metrica.

Matomo certainly deserves attention. If you have both Yandex and Google trackers installed, replacing Google Analytics with an open-source system like Matomo to gain more insights into user behavior is a good decision.

It is possible to completely replace both Yandex and Google Analytics with Matomo, but for full functionality, you would need to pay for the SearchEngineKeywordsPerformance module. At the time of writing this article, the cost for one year is 154 euros, with functionality for 4 users and an unlimited number of websites.

In summary: Replacing one of the analytics systems with your own makes sense, but replacing both (Yandex and Google) with a completely free open-source solution is not feasible at this stage.

Additionally, it would be great to see other licensing models for purchasing modules with a one-time payment for minor updates within the current version. With such a licensing approach and reasonable pricing, fully transitioning to Matomo would be accessible and justified, especially for owners of one or two websites.

Overall, we liked the Matomo system for its usability and variety of report views.