7 Best Analytics Solutions for WordPress Users

With it’s launch in 2005, Google Analytics has become the most widely used analytics solution for WordPress sites. Recently one of our users asked us for some alternatives to Google Analytics. In this article, we will show you the 7 best analytics solutions for WordPress users.

Why do you need to add Analytics to your WordPress site?

Learning more about your users is vital to run a successful online business website. You need an analytics solution that helps you gather data and provide insightful reports into user activity on your site.
Analytics platform can tell you where your users are coming from, which pages they are visiting the most, how long do they stay on your website, which links do they click on the most, etc.
Having that said let’s take a look the best analytics software for WordPress users.

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the most popular of all analytics solution available. First of all it is free. Second, it is very easy to install in WordPress.
Pros

• Google Analytics is available for free.
• It is easy to install Google Analytics in WordPress.
• It is fairly easy to use for the basics.
• You can track links, perform A/B testing, get real time insights into your traffic.
• You can manage multiple websites and accounts under one dashboard.

Cons

• Google Analytics is really robust and powerful which is why it does have a learning curve for the more advanced stuff such as conversion reports, etc.
• By using Google Analytics, you are sharing valuable site data with Google.
• It is not easy to take your data with you.

2. Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg shows you where your visitors are clicking on your site. This technology is called heat-mapping, and it allows you to visualize how your users interact with your website.
Pros

• Allows you to see where users are clicking on your website with heatmaps.
• Crazy Egg also offers a scroll map which shows how far users are scrolling on your pages.
• You also get to see the number of clicks on each element in overlay map.
• Their Confetti tool allows you to segment your clicks into referrals, sources, search terms, etc.

Cons

• Its free for 60 day trial but after that you will have to choose a monthly pricing plan.
• It takes a screenshot of the page and then reports your clicks which is more useful for static pages but not so effective for dynamic pages like a blog’s main page.

3. KISSmetrics

KISSmetrics is an analytics and conversion optimization service. While Google Analytics tells you what’s happening on your site, KISSmetrics tells you who is doing it.
Pros

• Drill down to see who is doing what on your website.
• Create funnels and reach out to customers who didn’t convert.
• You can actually follow an individual user on your website and see what they did throughout the time spent on your site.
• Easy integration using KISSmetrics plugin for WordPress.

Cons

• While KISSmetrics is great in identifying people, it lacks in granular data that Google Analytics offers.
• Pricing is based on events and could go slightly higher than your expectations.

KissMetrics is great for eCommerce websites.

4. Mixpanel

Mixpanel is an alternative to KISSmetrics. It offers user level analytics and event tracking in real time. Mixpanel is available for mobile apps as well as the web.
Pros

• User level tracking allows you to dig down and see what your users are doing.
• Helps you build user retention by sending push notifications and emails to your users.
• A beautiful user interface makes it easier for you to get around.
• Use funnels to increase conversions.

Cons

• Price is based on actions people take on your site/app, so this could go higher than your expectation.

5. Piwik

Unlike other solutions in the list, Piwik is a self-hosted analytics solution. It is also an open source software just like WordPress.
Pros

• Piwik is an open source alternative to Google Analytics.
• Piwik integrates well with log file analyzers which gives you great insights into user/bot activity on your site.
• Self hosted means you own your data and stats.
• Integrates well with WordPress and eCommerce plugins.

Cons

• It is self hosted which means you are responsible for installation, managing, updating and securing the software.
• May not have all the features of other proprietary solutions in the list.

6. Woopra

Woopra is another web analytics tool with an extensive set of features. Similar to KISSmetrics and Mixpanel, Woopra allows you to track individual users.
Pros

• See what’s stopping users from taking an action using funnels.
• Track visitors and see how they interact with your website.
• Easy integration with WordPress using the official plugin.

Cons

• Woopra has a limited free plan, but you would want to get Small Business plan which is costly.

7. WordPress.com Stats

WordPress.com stats can be added to any self-hosted WordPress site using JetPack. These provide some basic stats for your visitors.
Pros

• Easy to implement with JetPack plugin for WordPress.
• Simple easy to understand statistics for your blog.
• Powered by WordPress.com and free

Cons

• Provides some basic stats and lacks features you would get using Google Analytics or any other analytics tool.
• You will need a free WordPress.com account and connect your site to WordPress.com servers

We hope this article helped you find the best analytics solution for your WordPress site. While there are some Google Analytics alternatives listed here, in our experience using a combination of Google Analytics and another conversion analytics software like KissMetrics or Crazy Egg tends to give you the best results.

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9 Most Popular Free Responsive WordPress Slider Plugins

Many beginners often get overwhelmed by the amount of slider plugins available for WordPress. Even though we compared the performance of three best WordPress slider plugins, some of our users wanted to know more about other free popular WordPress sliders. In this article, we will show you the 9 most popular free responsive WordPress slider plugins.

1. Soliloquy Lite

In our performance tests, We have never found a responsive WordPress slider plugin that can beat Soliloquy’s speed, responsiveness, and ease of use. Soliloquy Lite is the free version of the popular Soliloquy slider plugin. This lite version is completely functional and super-fast, which is what you need if you want your site to rank higher on search engines. It also allows you to add meta data for each slide which makes it the most SEO friendly WordPress slider plugin on the market.

2. Meta Slider

Meta Slider is a good combination of multiple free slider scripts, transitions, animation and rendering effects. It is quite simple to use. Additional features are available as a separately sold pro version of the plugin.

3. Meteor Slides

Meteor Slides is a simple WordPress slider plugin. It is responsive and mobile friendly. When creating a slideshow, you will have to add each slide one by one and choose a slideshow for each slide as you add it. This plugin is too simple for users looking for more features.

4. Cyclone Slider 2

Another simple to use WordPress slider plugin. Cyclone Slider 2 allows you to easily add slider to your WordPress site. It comes with multiple styles and transitions which can be configure while creating your slideshow.

5. Posts Slider

As the name suggests, Posts Slider allows you to display your posts in a slider. Upon activation the plugin has all colors set to black, so you may just see a black box when you insert the slider shortcode. You will have to change the colors and play around with the slider settings to get it right.

6. Smooth Slider

Smooth Slider is a multi-purpose slider plugin. You can use it to create content slides by choosing which content to display in slides. You can also create your own slides by uploading images.

7. Smart Slider 2

Smart Slider comes with its own customizer which allows you to quickly create a slideshow. It is packed with powerful features, animations, and transitions. However, lots of features are locked behind a paywall. It is still useful if you want to quickly add a slider to your WordPress site.

8. Easing Slider Lite

Easing Slider Lite is a bloat-free, lightweight and simple WordPress slider plugin. It is easy to use and integrates well with the WordPress media uploader. It does not have too many features, as you would expect, those features are available with premium version.

9. Nemus Slider

Nemus is a simple yet feature rich WordPress slider plugin. It allows you to create slides from videos, HTML, posts, and of course images. Comes with multiple effects and transitions and it is fairly easy to use.
We hope this list helped you find the best free responsive WordPress slider plugin for your website. Which plugin did you end up choosing?

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7 Best Live Chat Support Software for Your WordPress Site

Did you know that nearly 67% users on eCommerce websites abandon their shopping carts without ever making to the checkout page? People like to get answers for their questions, and they want them instantly. This is where live chat comes in. It offers users the ability to ask questions at any time. For WordPress site owners, there are several live chat plugins and services which are easy to install and setup. In this article, we will show 7 best live chat support software for your WordPress site.

1. Olark

Olark is one of the most popular live chat solution for online businesses. It is easy to use and extremely simple to set up. They have different plans for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Their starter plan called Bronze starts with $17 per month. All their plans have free trials, and you get a 10% discount if you pay for the whole year.
Adding Olark to a WordPress site is simple. All you need to do is copy and paste a code snippet into your WordPress widget or in your child theme. If that doesn’t work for you, then there is also a free Olark for WP plugin which makes integration easier.
Olark offers integration with other services such as Salesforce, Zendesk, Highrise, etc. You can also integrate it with your Google Analytics to get more insights into how users interact with live chat on your website.
There are third party mobile apps which allow you to connect to Olark chat from almost any iOS or Android device.

2. Zopim

Zopim is another leading live chat service provider. With their Zopim Live Chat plugin, integrating it into any WordPress site is much easier. They have a free plan which allows only one active chat at a time and limited features. Their basic plan starts at $14 per month per agent. There is a 20% off for paying annually.
Apart from adding the live chat to your site, Zopim also provides user analytics, chat logs, email transcripts, and easy customization of the chat widget to match your website’s theme.
Zopim also come with native apps for iOS and Android devices. These apps allow you to easily connect to Zopim dashboard from your mobile devices and chat from anywhere.

3. Comm100 Live Chat

Comm100’s Live Chat solution is a simpler and faster live chat service for small businesses. Their plans start from $21 per agent per month. They also offer a 15 day free trial period with no credit card required. There is also a 50% discount for non-profit organizations.
They have a Comm100 Live Chat WordPress plugin which allows you to easily integrate live chat on your WordPress site.

4. LiveChat

LiveChat is a slightly more expensive live chat solution. Their prices start from $39 per month per agent. However, the good thing is unlike other services, their team plan has all the features that you would need. LiveChat offers all the usual features like custom triggers, team management tools, basic analytics, chat ratings, etc.
An added feature is the built-in ticketing system which converts chats into tickets. It also allows after hour messages to be added as unresolved tickets. Team members can assign tickets to each other, and you can contact customers even after they have left your website.
Integration in WordPress is made easier by LiveChat plugin for WordPress.

5. SnapEngage

SnapEngage offers live chat service to medium and large businesses. They offer a great set of tools to some of the most recognizable brands. They also have plans for small businesses starting from $60 for 4 agents. Integrations with multiple CRMs, call back request, proactive chats, and customized chat widgets to match your site.

6. Chat Room

Unlike services mentioned above, Chat Room is a free WordPress plugin. As the name suggests, it allows you to add a chat room to your WordPress site. The only problem is that the users will need to create an account on your WordPress site to join the chatroom. The chat rooms are public and any registered user with the chatroom URL can access the room.
Despite these limitations, we feel that this plugin can be used to provide some basic live chat support to existing users and customers. See our guide on how to create chat rooms using WordPress.

7. Quick Chat

Quick Chat is another self-hosted free chat plugin for WordPress. Unlike Chat Room, it supports private rooms, user avatars, smilies, and users can chat without creating an account. It comes with a comprehensive options panel where you can control the plugin settings.
You can create create a custom user role and assign users with that role to be the moderators on your site. Admin users can download any chat transcripts any time they want. Moderators can ban people from chatrooms. You can even have your own list of banned words. The only limitation is how much load your WordPress hosting can handle.
We hope this article helped you find the best live chat plugin for your WordPress powered site. Customer support is really important, and we would recommend you to consider your options thoroughly before making a decision.

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