Alex Hardy

I mentioned in a previous post about Mint 2 and Google Analytics (GA) that I had signed up to the beta programme for Reinvigorate. My golden ticket arrived a few days ago so here are my first impressions as promised.

Reinvigorate is a browser-based analytics system. It appears to occupy a middle ground between Mint and GA. It has the following characteristics:

• Like both Mint and GA, it tracks visitor activity via a JavaScript include.
• It is externally hosted (like GA).
• It is free (like GA), as opposed to Mint, which is $30.
• As its Wikipedia page states, Reinvigorate is a one-man project (like Mint).
• Reinvigorate appears to track statistics in real time (like Mint) or at least fairly close. This is unlike GA where there is a significant delay of hours from visitor data being recorded to becoming available. As demand on their systems increases one should expect this to be affected.
• Reinvigorate aims to be visually pleasing, in a similar manner to Mint.

Pros

Reinvigorate is undeniably better looking than the current version of GA. A significantly redesigned Google Analytics is in the process of being rolled out to users, so that lead is being narrowed. Mint remains the slickest of the three.

I like the colour scheme and the summary dashboard is a handy touch, if a bit sparse. The new version of GA pulls more valuable information to the surface.

The 3D pie charts are nice. Mmmm pie

Cons

The interface isn’t without its rough edges, and suffers from information overload in places. Some of the visualisation tools are too complicated and worse still, inadequately explained. A polynomial chart? Wossat?

There are no stats for Flash versions. This is important information that any web designer is going to want. I’m sure this will be added before long, but at the moment is a bit of a howler. The lack of a plugin architecture akin to Mint’s “peppers” isn’t a bad thing per se but it places the burden solely with its developer to stay on top of the needs of the userbase.

Amusingly, it uses Google Maps to display geolocation data.

The most troubling aspect for me is that Reinvigorate existed years ago and closed down, reappearing this year. Since it’s free and its developer surely doesn’t have Google’s financial resources, I wonder how (read: IF) it is going to sustain itself. Should I trust my valuable data to a service that may be here today, gone tomorrow?

I’m going to try all three systems in parallel for the next couple of months. I’ll then make a final decision on which one I’m going to stick with.

[UPDATE] I just logged into Google Analytics and the new interface is live for me. Time to have a look around…

Posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at 8:28 am under Toolbox. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.