Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Smartlook VS Open Web Analytics

Compare Smartlook VS Open Web Analytics and see what are their differences

Smartlook logo Smartlook

Qualitative analytics for websites and mobile apps Start understanding the 'whys' of your users' behaviors with clear, visual insights. With session recordings and event tracking, you get the complete picture.

Open Web Analytics logo Open Web Analytics

Open Web Analytics - Web Analytics – Open Source Web Analytics Framework
  • Smartlook Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-22

Smartlook is a qualitative analytics solution for web and mobile helping over 250,000 businesses of all sizes and industries answer the “whys” behind users’ actions — why do users churn, or why aren’t they using a feature, or why are they skipping onboarding? Now you can eliminate the guesswork.

With a unique feature set, Smartlook gives you a way to finally understand user behavior at the micro level. Always-on visitor recordings show you what every last visitor does on your website or app, and heatmaps give you mass data about where most people click and scroll. Automatic event tracking lets you know how (and how often) your visitors do specific things, while conversion funnels take those events and show you how much success you're having with conversions.

Started in 2016, Smartlook has grown into a complete solution for qualitative analytics, making guesswork a thing of the past. Stop wondering why, and start getting answers today.

  • Open Web Analytics Homepage
    Homepage //
    2024-08-20

Smartlook features and specs

  • Comprehensive Analytics
    Smartlook provides detailed insights through session recordings, heatmaps, and event tracking, which helps businesses understand user behavior deeply.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The platform is easy to navigate, making it accessible for users who may not be experienced with analytics tools.
  • Real-Time Data
    Smartlook offers real-time data monitoring, which allows businesses to promptly identify and address issues as they occur.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    The tool supports web, iOS, and Android platforms, enabling businesses to track user behavior across different devices seamlessly.
  • Advanced Filtering
    Users can apply advanced filters to their data, which helps in segmenting users and understanding specific behaviors more accurately.
  • Integrations
    Smartlook integrates with various third-party tools like Google Analytics, Slack, and others, providing a more versatile analytical environment.

Possible disadvantages of Smartlook

  • Data Privacy Concerns
    Recording user sessions could potentially raise privacy issues if not managed correctly, requiring strict adherence to data protection regulations.
  • Learning Curve
    Even with a user-friendly interface, new users might still encounter a learning curve when trying to utilize all features effectively.
  • Cost
    While offering a free tier, the costs can add up for premium features or advanced usage, which might be a constraint for smaller businesses.
  • Performance Impact
    The presence of session recording scripts can sometimes slow down website performance, affecting the user experience negatively.
  • Limited Free Plan
    The free plan comes with limitations in terms of data retention and the number of sessions that can be recorded, which might not be sufficient for larger businesses or detailed analysis.

Open Web Analytics features and specs

  • Open Source
    As an open-source platform, Open Web Analytics (OWA) allows users to access and modify the source code according to their needs, providing full control over the functionality and customization.
  • Cost-Effective
    OWA is free to use, which can be very cost-effective compared to paid analytics platforms, making it suitable for small businesses and personal projects.
  • Self-Hosting
    The ability to host OWA on your own server ensures complete data ownership and control, eliminating concerns around data privacy and third-party access.
  • Comprehensive Features
    OWA offers a wide range of features including page view tracking, e-commerce tracking, visitor tracking, and click heatmaps, which can provide in-depth insights into website performance.
  • Integrations
    OWA allows integration with other platforms such as WordPress and MediaWiki, making it versatile for various types of websites.

Possible disadvantages of Open Web Analytics

  • Technical Barrier
    Setting up and maintaining OWA can require a certain level of technical expertise, which might be challenging for users without a technical background.
  • Resource Intensive
    Operating OWA on your own server can consume significant server resources, affecting the performance of the website, especially for high-traffic sites.
  • Complexity
    The extensive features and customization options can make OWA complex to navigate and configure, which can be overwhelming for beginners.
  • Limited Support
    As an open-source project, OWA lacks the comprehensive customer support available with commercial products, meaning users might have to rely on community forums and documentation for troubleshooting.
  • Updates and Security
    The frequency and reliability of updates might be a concern, as well as ensuring that the software remains secure against vulnerabilities, requiring constant monitoring and maintenance.

Smartlook videos

Smartlook - Get an insider look

More videos:

  • Review - Join the TurboTax SmartLook Team
  • Review - With TurboTax SmartLook, You're Never Alone

Open Web Analytics videos

Open Web Analytics | You Need to Watch This Video

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Open Web Analytics - How to Install OWA WordPress Plugin

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Smartlook and Open Web Analytics)
Web Analytics
67 67%
33% 33
Analytics
59 59%
41% 41
Heatmaps
75 75%
25% 25
User Experience
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Smartlook and Open Web Analytics

Smartlook Reviews

10 Best Mixpanel Alternatives for Product Analytics in 2024
Smartlook is an advanced analytics tool that provides real-time insights into user behaviors and experiences. Understand how users engage with your products, and identify areas for improvement in your customer experience.
Source: clickup.com
11 Hotjar alternatives and competitors in 2024
Another key consideration is that Smartlook provides most of its features on the Pro plan, whereas Hotjar limits features by plan. For example, trend analysis is only available in the Scale plan—which starts at $171 per month. When using Smartlook, this functionality is available in all plans.
Source: maze.co
12 Hotjar alternatives for website and mobile app analytics
is the product manager at Smartlook. Martin is enthusiastic about delivering the best possible customer experience. Prior to joining Smartlook as a product manager, he used to work as a consultant for Oracle NetSuite. Martin has a deep professional interest in biometric signing and work digitalization. He is also an NFL enthusiast and likes to enjoy good food (ideally while...
10 Best Hotjar Alternatives & Competitors in 2023
The second Hotjar alternative on our list is Smartlook. As a marketing analytics tool, Smartlook seems to provide its users with session recordings of visitors and allows them to create heatmaps and add events to funnels.
Top 10 CRO Tools to Boost Conversions for Free in 2023
Smartlook is one of the conversion optimization tools that claim to increase traffic rate, and, eventually, your web conversions. It offers key features like event tracking, session replays, heatmaps, and funnels.
Source: aigrow.me

Open Web Analytics Reviews

Top 5 Self-Hosted, Open Source Alternatives to Google Analytics
Open Web Analytics offers a comprehensive set of features, rivaling commercial analytics tools, with the flexibility of open source.
Source: zeabur.com
Top 5 open source alternatives to Google Analytics
In addition to the usual raft of analytics and reporting functions, Open Web Analytics tracks where on a page, and on what elements, visitors click; provides heat maps that show where on a page visitors interact the most; and even does e-commerce tracking.
Source: opensource.com
Best Google Analytics Alternatives
Open Web Analytics ranks over Google due its self hosting property and additional features like Heatmap, DOM clicks tracking and mouse movement (recording and playback) tracking.
Source: mofluid.com
The 11 Best Alternatives to Google Analytics
Open Web Analytics is feature-rich, especially considering that it’s free to use. It can track goals along several steps of a conversion funnel, it offers separate stats filtered by pretty much any factor you can think of and it even offers heatmaps and mouse-tracking. However, be warned: with those last two options active, OWA will gobble up server resources like nobody’s...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Smartlook seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 2 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Smartlook mentions (2)

Open Web Analytics mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Open Web Analytics yet. Tracking of Open Web Analytics recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Smartlook and Open Web Analytics, you can also consider the following products

Hotjar - The #1 Leader in Heatmaps, Recordings, Surveys & More. Sign up for a 15-day free trial and start learning from real user behavior today!

Google Analytics - Improve your website to increase conversions, improve the user experience, and make more money using Google Analytics. Measure, understand and quantify engagement on your site with customized and in-depth reports.

Matomo - Matomo is an open-source web analytics platform

FullStory - Meet FullStory, the app that captures all your customer experience data in one powerful platform.

Plausible.io - Plausible Analytics is a simple, open-source, lightweight (< 1 KB) and privacy-friendly web analytics alternative to Google Analytics. Made and hosted in the EU, powered by European-owned cloud infrastructure 🇪🇺

Mixpanel - Mixpanel is the most advanced analytics platform in the world for mobile & web.