Which Web Log Analysis Tool Is The Best

In plain words web log analysis tools are the analytics software that purses a log file from a web server, FTP server or the mail severs to trace the activity of the visitors of those sites. In other words we use these tools to trace the visitors of all sorts for our websites through various servers. Gone are the days when the site owners simply wait for the direct activity of the visitors on the sites or simply rely on what the search engine optimizers or the developers are saying about the activities and success of the websites! Now even a common man can use the one of the many web log analysis tools in his or her site. For example, simply putting a short code in the html coding of any webpage, a site owner can use the Google analytics to fetch the most comprehensive log details from the web server about the visitor activities!

However we are not supposed to discuss about Google analytics (if it is not the best web log analysis tools)! Then now the question is very simple which tool is the best? And the answer to this question is not that simple! There are many web log analysis tools available on the internet and each one is packed with several great features! Some come totally free and some are paid services! But it is fact that all of those are not equally popular to the users. When working as a freelance graphic designer, open source developer and SEO consultant, I come across this particular question – which tool should be used to analyze the log data? I simply tell them that it depends on what type of services you are looking from the web log analysis tools or how would you like to use them? Do you have deep knowledge to handle the configuration data? Do you want a very easy to use and install tool for your site? Depending on the basis of the answers, I try to tell them the following things about few popular web log analysis tools:

• Google analytics: This is one of most used web log analysis tools as it is free, comes with comprehensive analysis and the trust of the giant search engine – GOOGLE. It helps to get traffic report with an eye on the marketing effectiveness of the visitor activities. It comes with the customization (drag and drop of the several analysis boxes) facility for the report to get the subsets of the traffic analysis, multi-dimensional analysis. It is best for anyone who wants simple interface to install and use.
• Web Log Analyzer: If you are trying to get one of the best web log analysis tools that can perfectly map visitor locations with the tracking of IP addresses, this tool is the best for you. This feature is the best one with all other features it has.
• Deep Log Analyzer: The best part of this tool that separates it from other web log analysis tools is its ability to log the files without any code or bugs in the sites. It can also analyze log from all the popular web servers. You can write your own queries or download the log files from the FTP servers.
• AWstats: If you are looking for web log analysis tools that can graphically analyze FTP or mail server statistics this tool is one you are looking for. More on that is its ability to export the analysis report in XML, text or PDF file formats. It even can generate the 404 page reference reports also.

• Piwik: Are you in search of open source web log analysis tools? The facility of open source – add, edit or removal of any feature- is available with this tool. If you have some developing knowledge or can hire website designer or the developer to customize it in look and functionality (plug-ins), this tool is the one you should use to analyze log data completely in your way!
• Analog: Among all the web log analysis tools, this one is the easiest to install and run on any operating system and can generate reports in 32 international languages! Particularly for these two features site owners and the developers love this tool most.
• Web Analyzer: Sometimes we find that many web log analysis tools are not functioning well in all the browsers! Those have a bunch of features but due to incompatibility with several browsers we feel sorry to use those! But the solution is here with Web Analyzer that can generate all the reports in HTML format and we till get all the bunch of comprehensive log reports!
• W3 Pearl and My Blog Log: These two small web log analysis tools are popular but not that much comprehensive ones. Yet with W3 pearl we can track the web log analysis data with the use of a page bug. On the other hand, via ‘My Blog Log’ we can get the information about a visitor activity (when he or she is to which page, how long is staying on a page or even page to page navigation). This helps to improve the page depending on the report. But these two tools are not complete to use singly for getting log data. These can be supplementary to other web log analysis tools.

Anyways, this is my reference on the use of tools for web log analysis. As I told at the beginning that it is always impossible to say which tool is the best, you may use any of the tools according to your requirements and expertise. There are lots of paid services also. Some of the above web log analysis tools even have paid versions. You can easily go for those to get more facility on analysis report. But it never means that free versions are useless. Whatever tool you select that will definitely work for you if you can make complete use of it. So choose one and get the proper analysis of your visitor and web or ftp server activities.