Independent Analytics – Free Alternative to Google Analytics

So in light of our mission to rid ourselves from Google, one of the first steps is to use an alternative to Google Analytics.

Independent Analytics is a GDPR-friendly, performance-optimized WordPress analytics plugin. Lets install and configure it on EscapeTheGiant….

Installation of Independent Analytics

Installation is a breeze as with all WordPress plugins in the repository. Simply Go into your WordPress Dashboard > Add New Plugin > Search for ‘Independent Analytics’ > Install > Activate.

Once installed, you’ll be prompted to Opt-in about collection of usage. This is entirely up to you.

And just like that, immediately we are taken into the analytics dashboard! If you’re using any caching plugins, no is a good time to Clear any caching!

To test if everything is working – log out or open a different browser / use incognito mode and browse a few pages on your site. You should see some tracking.

Great – all looks good. Now we will sit and wait to get some meaningful traffic!

Independent Analytics Dashboard

The Dashboard is really simple and intuitive compared to Google, which is great.

Heres an overview of the Dashboard from one of our other starter sites:

1. Independent Analytics does have a pro version which will give you better insights into your traffic. Lifetime and annual plans are available. Link here (not affiliate). Gain Access to:
   • Campaigns
   • Real-Time
   • WooCommerce
   • Email reports
   • Better Support
2. Collapse Sidebar (Pretty self explanitory)
3. Create a new report
4. Blog post report – see performance of your blog posts.
5. Top Landing pages – See what landing pages are visitors lading on from another resource like search engines.
6. Fastest-Growing Pages – See what pages are gaining traction.
7. Today – All visitors today
8. Create new referrer report
9. Search Engine Traffic – See the traffic from search engines
10. Social Media Traffic – See traffic from Social platforms
11. Fastest-Growing Referrers – See what sources of traffic are growing
12. Last 7 Days – See all referral traffic from the last 7 days
13. Add a Geographic report
14. Cities – Break down of traffic by city
15. European Countries – Break Down of traffic from the EU
16. Add a device report
17. Browsers – Look at traffic from different browsers
18. OS – See traffic by Operating System
19. Settings – Settings for the Independent Analytics Plugin
20. Knowledgebase – Check out the KB articles.
21. Leave a review – We encourage you to leave a review if you like a plugin or Theme.
22. Campaigns – Only in the Pro version. (We’ll cover this if we decide to upgrade)
23. Real-time – Only in the Pro version. (We’ll cover this if we decide to upgrade)
24. Changelog – See what new features or bug fixes have been addressed.
25. Change your report period
26. Visitors overview
27. A nice graph 😍
28. Pages / Posts data.

Conclusion

Its early days yet – but loving the look of these Analytics and should do exactly what we need for now. We’ll report back soon on the data…

And if you’re breaking away from google – dont forget to remove the pesky Google Analytics tracking code.

Good Luck!

Do you use any other Analytics other than Google? Let us know below!