Matomo Software: A Comprehensive Guide to Web Analytics

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Matomo Software is a powerful tool for tracking website analytics. It was first released in 2008 and has since become one of the leading open-source web analytics platforms.

Matomo provides detailed insights into website traffic, including page views, unique visitors, and bounce rates. This information can be used to inform business decisions and improve website performance.

Matomo's data collection methods are designed to be non-intrusive and respect user privacy, making it a popular choice for organizations that prioritize data protection.

What Is

Matomo is a comprehensive analytics platform that provides valuable insights into your website traffic. It's like having a superpower to understand your website's visitors.

Matomo is open-source, which means the code is freely available and can be modified to suit specific needs. This is a big deal because it gives you complete control over your analytics.

You can self-host Matomo, allowing for enhanced privacy and complete data ownership. This means you're not relying on someone else's servers to store your data.

Matomo's architecture is designed with flexibility in mind, enabling you to customize your analytics while keeping your visitors' privacy at the forefront.

History and Evolution

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Matomo started life as Piwik, a replacement for phpMyVisites in late 2007. It brought full API support, a cleaner UI, modern graphs, better architecture, and better performance.

Piwik gained popularity quickly, being selected SourceForge's Project of the Month for July 2009. It was also named among the best of open source enterprise in InfoWorld's 2009 Bossie Awards.

In 2018, Piwik was officially renamed to Matomo, marking a new chapter in its evolution.

History

Piwik was released in late 2007 as a replacement for phpMyVisites, with full API support, a cleaner UI, modern graphs, better architecture and better performance.

In November 2008, SourceForge announced the availability of Piwik as a hosted application for developers.

Piwik was selected SourceForge's Project of the Month for July 2009.

It's impressive to see Piwik's rapid growth and recognition in such a short time.

In August 2009, Piwik was named among the best of open source enterprise in InfoWorld's 2009 Bossie Awards.

Laptop displaying Google Analytics in a modern workspace, highlighting digital analytics and technology.
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Piwik started crowdfunding for requested new features in December 2012.

Clearcode bought out Matthieu Aubry in June 2016 to become the sole owner of Piwik PRO.

Piwik was officially renamed as Matomo in January 2018.

In late 2019, Matomo released a WordPress Plugin called Matomo Analytics, which allowed WordPress users to host the open source analytics platform directly in their WordPress Installation.

MatomoCamp 2021 marked the first Matomo conference, showcasing the platform's growth and community engagement.

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Mission Statement

The mission statement of this digital analytics platform is a guiding force behind its creation. It's all about giving users full control of their data.

From the very beginning, the community-driven approach was key to achieving this goal. The platform's founders envisioned a space where users could collaborate and contribute to the platform's development.

This mission statement has remained a constant throughout the platform's history and evolution. It's a promise to users that their data will always be in their hands.

The platform's founders were committed to creating a space that was open source and community-driven. This approach allowed for the involvement of users from all over the world.

Take a look at this: Software Enables Users

Features and Capabilities

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Matomo Analytics empowers businesses to track user engagement and customize their analytics to suit unique needs.

Its features cater to various aspects of digital marketing and web analysis, maintaining user privacy while providing comprehensive data.

Matomo provides efficient event-tracking capabilities, enabling the observation of specific interactions within a website.

Businesses can easily access metrics such as page views, bounce rates, and visitor duration, facilitating an overall understanding of user engagement.

Matomo's features include detailed reports on website traffic, marketing campaign tracking, and complete data ownership due to its ability to be self-hosted on the user's own server.

For your interest: Affiliate Tracking Software

Features and Capabilities

Matomo Analytics offers a range of features to empower businesses to track user engagement and customize their analytics to suit unique needs.

One of the standout features is the ability to create pre-defined flows with a set of short goals, such as a process from clicking on a promotional ad to completing a purchase. This is known as funnels.

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Matomo also provides detailed reports on website traffic, which can be accessed through various tabs, including the "Understand your users" tab, where you can see the evolution of your website's peak in the selected period.

The tool also offers event-tracking capabilities, enabling the observation of specific interactions within a website, such as page views, bounce rates, and visitor duration.

Heatmaps allow for a visual representation of where visitors click, touch, and scroll, offering insights into user behavior that plain numbers can't capture.

A/B Testing tools are also provided to make data-driven decisions on website optimizations, helping to identify which version of a page had the best effects within a conversion funnel.

Matomo's commitment to open-source software ensures transparency and customizability, allowing businesses to fully control their data while ensuring user privacy.

The tool's ability to be self-hosted on the user's own server also means that businesses can maintain complete data ownership.

Form

Form analytics can be a game-changer for understanding how users interact with forms on your website.

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Being able to track user progress through a form is crucial, and Matomo's form analytics can do just that, showing who bounced from the site during the completion process.

The percent of users who completed the form is also a key metric, and Matomo can provide that information.

You can even see the time spent completing the form, which can be a valuable insight into user behavior.

Matomo's form analytics can also keep a record of waits and hesitations made by users prior to submitting, giving you a more detailed understanding of the user experience.

Data can be viewed granularly at an individual level, or users can be broken into groups like starters, submitters, or converters.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Matomo free or paid?

Matomo is free to use, with no cost to download and run the core software. However, its "free" status refers to freedom, not price, so consider the costs of customization and support.

What are the disadvantages of Matomo?

Matomo has a self-hosted version with additional costs for unlocking features and a cloud version with limited features, while also being relatively expensive. Its user interface can also be complex for some users.

Is Matomo any good?

Matomo is a reliable and feature-rich analytics platform that's perfect for those seeking a self-hosted, open-source alternative to traditional tracking tools

Judith Lang

Senior Assigning Editor

Judith Lang is a seasoned Assigning Editor with a passion for curating engaging content for readers. With a keen eye for detail, she has successfully managed a wide range of article categories, from technology and software to education and career development. Judith's expertise lies in assigning and editing articles that cater to the needs of modern professionals, providing them with valuable insights and knowledge to stay ahead in their fields.

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