Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Purchasing a product through one of these links generates a commission for us at no additional expense to you.
Looking for a MonsterInsights alternative?
There are simpler analytics plugins for WordPress that will track your visitors and give you a detailed dashboard, and they don’t require you to create third-party accounts elsewhere online.
In the collection below, you’ll find alternate plugins for adding Google Analytics to WordPress as well as plugins that don’t use Google Analytics at all.
Keep reading to find our top picks.
Best MonsterInsights alternatives
Before picking a plugin, it’s important to understand that not all of them use Google Analytics. That might be what you’re used to using on your sites, but you may want to ask yourself if you really need that complex of an analytics tool, or if something simpler might work better.
With that said, here are my top picks for the best Monster Insights alternatives for WordPress.
1. Independent Analytics
Plugin Description
Independent Analytics is a free plugin that immediately starts tracking your site’s views and visitors upon installation. As a Google Analytics alternative, you don’t need to copy the tracking code yourself or create an account on another site. It also loads much faster and is fully GDPR compliant without configuration.
Once installed, you’ll see a responsive dashboard with quick stats, a graph, and a full data table detailing your site’s performance.
As an analytics solution built for WordPress, it has tons of practical integrations. For example, you can filter your pages by type (post, page, category, etc.), you can find 404 error pages and local search terms, and you can even display post authors and publication dates. This is handy for finding your most successful authors or outdated posts you should republish.
If you want a simple and free MonsterInsights Alternative for your site, try out Independent Analytics today.
2. GA Google Analytics
Plugin Description
GA Google Analytics is a simple plugin for adding Google Analytics to your website. This plugin avoids the often buggy account connection techniques and simply asks you to paste in your tracking code. This is easy to get from the Google Analytics dashboard, and the plugin will output the tracking script where needed.
There aren’t a ton of options included, but it has a few neat settings. For one, it lets you disable admin tracking, so the analytics script won’t even be output if you’re logged in and viewing your site. Another cool option is the ability to output the tracking script in your admin dashboard, so you can see internal page views in Google Analytics.
In the end, it’s a simple plugin for integrating Google Analytics with WordPress and could make your life a bit easier.
3. Slimstat Analytics
Plugin Description
Slimstat Analytics has been around for a while and is a WordPress-only solution for analytics and visitor tracking. It includes a comprehensive set of reporting tools, including location data, top pages, and top referrers.
Since it uses its own tracking script, it means your data is never sent to another server for processing, which helps it stay GDPR compliant. Additionally, it means you have a full visit log stored in your database. You can access the log directly using a tool like phpMyAdmin, or use the export option to download an Excel spreadsheet with your visits.
Overall, if you’re looking for a MonsterInsights alternative that doesn’t use Google Analytics, Slimstat is definitely worth your consideration.
4. Analytics Insights for Google Analytics 4
Plugin Description
Analytics Insights for Google Analytics 4 is another interesting and free plugin for adding analytics to WordPress. While it’s fairly straightforward to use, it has a couple of unique features.
As you may be aware, Google Analytics 4 is on the way, and in July 2023, Google is forcing all users onto the new platform. However, many users are not ready for the transition as the new interface and tracking mechanism are quite different. This plugin has a dual tracking feature that lets you record visits for both Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics at the same time. Dual tracking could make your transition much easier as you don’t have to “jump ship” and switch all at once.
This plugin also adds simplified reports to your dashboard, so you don’t have to log in to Google Analytics to see your top pages or how many visits your site’s received recently.
5. WP Statistics
Plugin Description
This last plugin, WP Statistics, is a lot like the Slimstat Analytics plugin reviewed earlier. It is an alternative to Google Analytics and outputs its tracking code on your site without requiring you to edit any code yourself.
WP Statistics is also GDPR compliant because it hashes the user’s IP address. The IPs are needed to get data like the visitor’s geo location and device, but the IP is then encrypted and stored as a random string. While it’s still unclear if IP addresses are personal data, it is okay to store them in an encrypted state if it is reasonably challenging to restore them to their initial state and tie them to personal accounts.
There are loads of reports included, so you can see things like your visits and visitors over time, what sites are sending you visitors, the browsers your visitors use, and your most popular pages.
Which alternative to MonsterInsights is best?
Not sure which one to pick?
Independent Analytics is my first recommendation. It gives you a gorgeous interface with filterable and sortable data, and it’s GDPR compliant and loads lightning-fast. It’s a good choice for the majority of WordPress users.
If you’re certain you need Google Analytics, then the GA Google Analytics plugin is probably the best choice for your site. It gives you an extremely easy way to add Google Analytics to your site and includes a few handy options as well.
Thanks for browsing this collection of the best MonsterInsights alternatives, and please consider sharing it with someone else before you go.
