Community Archives - Analytics Platform - Matomo

Call for Speakers: Share Your Voice at MatomoCamp 2025!

Alex Carmona — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 15:42:04 +0000

MatomoCamp is back for its 2025 edition — and the Call for Speakers is now open until July 31st!

As proud sponsors of this unique, community-driven event, we’re excited to invite experts, enthusiasts, and curious minds to contribute to MatomoCamp 2025, the annual online gathering dedicated to web analytics, open source, digital privacy, and of course — Matomo. MatomoCamp is the premier free online conference for the Matomo Analytics community in Europe, sponsored by Matomo Analytics. Taking place online on Wednesday 26 November 2025 from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM CET, this event brings together professionals passionate about ethical analytics, data privacy, and building a better web.

Whether you’re a long-time user, developer, marketer, researcher, or just someone with a fresh perspective on ethical analytics, your voice belongs at MatomoCamp. Last year, we welcomed over 1,000 attendees from around the world. This year, we’re aiming even higher with an expanded programme designed to serve everyone from analytics beginners to enterprise architects.

What is MatomoCamp?

MatomoCamp is a free, fully online event bringing together the global Matomo community. Across two days of talks, panels, demos, and workshops, participants explore:

Web analytics & measurement
Digital marketing & SEO
Open source projects & collaboration
Privacy-first data strategies
Case studies, experiments, and more

With sessions in English, French, German, and beyond, MatomoCamp aims to make digital analytics more accessible, ethical, and transparent for everyone.

MatomoCamp returns this November 2025 with an exciting new vision. For the first time, we’re expanding beyond purely technical content to welcome speakers from all backgrounds who can contribute insights on analytics, privacy, marketing, and the ethical web. Whether you’re a developer, marketer, analyst, or privacy advocate, we want to hear from you.

Who can apply?

Anyone! We’re looking for people from all backgrounds who want to share:

A practical tip or use case with Matomo
Insights into digital analytics, privacy, or open source
A success (or failure!) story from your own journey
A workshop or hands-on demonstration
A bold opinion on the future of web data
A behind-the-scenes look at your work or research

You don’t have to be a professional speaker. We welcome first-time speakers, underrepresented voices, and community members who want to share something valuable — no matter how niche or broad.

What makes a great talk?

There’s no one right formula. But here’s what works well:

Real-world experience
Specific, actionable insights
A clear structure (15–45 minutes)
Something you care deeply about
A story only you can tell

And remember — this isn’t just about Matomo. Topics that touch on ethical analytics, open source values, or digital sovereignty are more than welcome.

Key info

Where: Online (free & open to all)
When: November 2025 (exact dates to be announced)
Languages: English, French, German (other languages welcome!)
Deadline to apply: July 31, 2025
Submit your talk here

Why does this matter?

At Matomo, we believe that data should empower, not exploit. MatomoCamp is more than just an event — it’s a celebration of what’s possible when communities come together to build a better digital future.

As sponsors, we’re proud to support this independent, open source event. But more importantly, we want to amplify your voice — because every perspective shared brings us closer to a more ethical, transparent, and inclusive analytics ecosystem.

Have a story to share?

Don’t overthink it. If it matters to you, it will matter to someone else. Apply to speak before July 31st and join us at MatomoCamp 2025!

Submit your session here!

Let’s build the future of analytics — together.

Join us at MatomoCamp 2024 world tour edition

Daniel Crough — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 20:09:56 +0000

Join us at MatomoCamp 2024 world tour edition, our online conference dedicated to Matomo Analytics—the leading open-source web analytics platform that prioritises data privacy.

🗓️ Date: 14 November 2024
🌐 Format: 24-hour virtual conference accessible worldwide
💰 Cost: Free and no need to register

Event highlights

Opening ceremony

Begin the day with a welcome from Ronan Chardonneau, co-organiser of MatomoCamp and customer success manager at Matomo.

View session | iCal link

Keynote: “Matomo by its creator”

Attend a special session with Matthieu Aubry, the founder of Matomo Analytics. Learn about the platform’s evolution and future developments.

View session | iCal link

Explore MatomoCamp 2024’s diverse tracks and topics

MatomoCamp 2024 offers a wide range of topics across several tracks, including using Matomo, integration, digital analytics, privacy, plugin development, system administration, business, other free analytics, use cases, and workshops and panel talks.

Featured sessions

1. Using AI to fetch raw data with Python

Speaker: Ralph Conti
Time: 14 November, 12:00 PM UTC

Discover how to combine AI and Matomo’s API to create unique reporting solutions. Leverage Python for advanced data analysis and unlock new possibilities in your analytics workflow.

View session | iCal link

2. Supercharge Matomo event tracking with custom reports

Speaker: Thomas Steur
Time: 14 November, 2:00 PM UTC

Learn how to enhance event tracking and simplify data analysis using Matomo’s custom reports feature. This session will help you unlock the full potential of your event data.

View session | iCal link

3. GDPR with AI and AI Act

Speaker: Stefanie Bauer
Time: 14 November, 4:00 PM UTC

Navigate the complexities of data protection requirements for AI systems under GDPR. Explore the implications of the new AI Act and receive practical tips for compliance.

View session | iCal link

4. A new data mesh era!

Speaker: Jorge Powers
Time: 14 November, 4:00 PM UTC

Explore how Matomo supports the data mesh approach, enabling decentralised data ownership and privacy-focused analytics. Learn how to empower teams to manage and analyse data without third-party reliance.

View session | iCal link

5. Why Matomo has to create a MTM server side: The future of data privacy and user tracking

Panel discussion
Time: 14 November, 6:00 PM UTC

Join experts in a discussion on the necessity of server-side tag management for enhanced privacy and compliance. Delve into the future of data privacy and user tracking.

View session | iCal link

6. Visualisation of Matomo data using external tools

Speaker: Leticia Rodríguez Morado
Time: 14 November, 8:00 PM UTC

Learn how to create compelling dashboards using Grafana and Matomo data. Enhance your data visualisation skills and gain better insights.

View session | iCal link

7. Keep it simple: Tracking what matters with Matomo

Speaker: Scott Fillman
Time: 14 November, 9:00 PM UTC

Discover how to focus on essential metrics and simplify your analytics setup for more effective insights. Learn tactics for a powerful, streamlined Matomo configuration.

View session | iCal link

Stay connected

Stay updated with the latest news and announcements:

Twitter: @MatomoCamp
YouTube: @MatomoCamp
Official website: matomocamp.org

Don’t miss out

MatomoCamp 2024 world tour edition is more than a conference; it’s a global gathering shaping the future of ethical analytics. Whether you aim to enhance your skills, stay informed about industry trends, or network with professionals worldwide, this event offers valuable opportunities.

Introducing the Matomo Connector for Looker Studio (Formerly Google Data Studio)

Matomo Core Team — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 02:42:33 +0000

Explore Matomo data like never before with the official Matomo Connector for Looker Studio. Matomo users can now securely display accurate web analytics data in Looker Studio for free.

Connect Matomo to Looker Studio (formerly known as Google Data Studio) in a few clicks and start building dashboards instantly. Get access to a range of data visualisation capabilities and chart types in Looker Studio’s easy-to-use interface.

Leave behind manual, error-prone spreadsheet entries and disparate data. With the Matomo Connector for Looker Studio, you get unified, automated reporting and interactive dashboards for faster insights and smoother collaboration.

What sets the official Matomo Connector for Looker Studio apart?

Our open-source connector puts security first by providing a reliable connection without relying on third-party intermediaries. It’s free, with no hidden charges, and no limits on the number of users or Matomo instances. Connect as many instances as you need.

Plus, our Support team is here anytime you need help.

Who is this connector made for?

The Matomo Connector for Looker Studio is a good fit for institutions and corporations using Looker Studio, NGOs handling multiple entities, marketing agencies with various clients, and small to medium-sized businesses with advanced data practices.

When is this connector not the best fit?

If you prioritise privacy and compliance, this might not be the right fit. The Looker Studio app operates on Google servers, and while we don’t log or store any data, privacy considerations should be carefully evaluated. Transferring data, especially visitor data, to external platforms can have privacy implications.

Getting started

Check out our documentation for an easy setup.

To help, we’ve also created a template report so you can visualise your Matomo data instantly.

Here’s how to get started:

Visit the demo template report in Looker Studio
Click the more options button then Make a copy

Click Create data source within the New Data Source dropdown.

Connect your Matomo (Full Connection Guide)
Select the API > Main Metrics report
Click Connect and then Add to Report
Click Copy Report to finalise

For additional support, visit our Matomo Looker Studio forum or reach out to our Looker Studio support team via email at support-lookerstudio@matomo.org

Discovering our premium on-premise features

Matomo Core Team — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 03:34:16 +0000

In our latest release (Matomo 4.16), we’ve enhanced visibility to the premium On-Premise features within Matomo. Now, it’s easier to maximise the potential of your Matomo On-Premise setup while also supporting our open-source project.

By default, Matomo On-Premise instances will now display available premium features in the left-menu navigation bar. If you prefer, we’ve made it easy to hide or disable the menu items (steps provided below). Note that no features were removed and you still have full access to the same features as before.

We would encourage you to check out our premium features, as thousands of users already find them powerful additions to their analytics.

How to hide or disable menu items

We understand that not everyone will need these premium features listed in their left-menu navigation. That’s why we’ve made it very easy to remove them.

If you prefer not to see these features listed, each user can hide them by clicking the link “hide this section”. This option is available in each of the new feature pages.
Alternatively, for administrators wanting to disable these features at an organisational level and for all users at once, you simply need to follow these steps:
- Login as Super User (to your On-Premise Matomo instance)
- Go to Administration > System > Plugins
- Scroll down to the “ProfessionalServices” plugin, and click “Deactivate”

The revenue from premium features helps us innovate and improve Matomo, fueling our strong commitment to the open-source ethos that’s at the heart of everything we do.

Explore the complete range of Matomo On-Premise premium features, developed by Matomo and our passionate community, available in our marketplace. Start a 30-day free trial today and unlock a new level of analytics excellence.

Introducing Crash Analytics for Matomo

Matomo Core Team — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 06:10:16 +0000

Bugs and development go hand in hand. As code matures, it contends with new browser iterations, clashes with ad blockers and other software quirks, resulting in the inevitable emergence of bugs. In fact, a staggering 13% of all pageviews come with lurking JavaScript errors.

Monitoring for crashes becomes an unrelenting task. Amidst this never-ending effort to remove bugs, a SurveyMonkey study unveils a shared reality: a resounding 66% of individuals have encountered bug-ridden websites.

These bugs lead to problems like malfunctioning shopping carts, glitchy checkout procedures and contact forms that just won’t cooperate. But they’re not just minor annoyances – they pose a real danger to your conversion rates and revenue.

According to a study, 58% of visitors are inclined to abandon purchases as a result of bugs, while an astonishing 75% are driven to completely abandon websites due to these frustrating experiences.

Imagine a website earning approximately 25,000 EUR per month. Now, factor in errors occurring in 13% of all pageviews. The result? A potential monthly loss of 1,885 EUR.

Meet Crash Analytics

Driven by our vision to create an empowering analytics product, we’re excited to introduce Crash Analytics, an innovative plugin for Matomo On-Premise that automatically tracks bugs on your website.

By offering insights into the precise bug location and the user’s interactions that triggered it, along with details about their device type, browser and more, Crash Analytics empowers you to swiftly address crashes, leading to an improved user experience, higher conversion rates and revenue growth.

Soon, Crash Analytics will become available to Matomo Cloud users as well, so stay tuned for further updates and announcements.

Say goodbye to lost revenue – never miss a bug again

Even if you put your website through the toughest tests, it’s hard to predict every little hiccup that can pop up across different browsers, setups and situations. Factors such as ad blockers, varying internet speeds for visitors and browser updates can add an extra layer of complexity.

When these crashes happen, you want to know immediately. However, according to a study, only 29% of surveyed respondents would report the existence of the site bug to the website operator. These bugs that go unnoticed can really hurt your bottom line and conversion rates, causing you to lose out on revenue and leaving your users frustrated and disappointed.

Crash Analytics is here to bridge this gap. Armed with scheduled reporting (via email or texts) and automated alert functionalities, you gain the power to instantly detect bugs as they occur on your site. This proactive approach ensures that even the subtlest of issues are brought to your attention promptly.

With automated reports and alerts, you can also opt to receive notifications when crashes increase or ignore specific crashes that you deem insignificant. This keeps you in the loop with only the issues that truly matter, helping you cut out the noise and take immediate action.

Easily forward crash data to developers and synchronise the efforts of technical teams and marketing experts. Track emerging, disappearing and recurring errors, ensuring that crash data is efficiently relayed to developers to prioritise fixes that matter.

Plus, your finger is always on the pulse with real-time reports that offer a live view of crashes happening at the moment, an especially helpful feature after deploying changes. Use annotations to mark deploys and correlate them with crash data, enabling you to quickly identify if a new bug is linked to recent updates or modifications.

And with our mobile app, you can effortlessly stay connected to your website’s performance, conveniently accessing crash information anytime and anywhere. This ensures you’re in complete control of your site’s health, even when you’re on the move.

Streamline bug resolution with combined web and crash analytics

Crash Analytics for Matomo doesn’t just stop at pinpointing bug locations; it goes a step further by providing you with a holistic perspective of user interactions. Seamlessly combining Matomo’s traditional and behavioural web analytics features—like segments, session recordings and visitor logs—with crash data, this integrated approach unveils a wealth of insights so you can quickly resolve bugs.

For instance, let’s say a user encounters a bug while attempting to complete a purchase on your e-commerce website. Crash Analytics reveals the exact point of failure, but to truly grasp the situation, you delve into the session recordings. These recordings offer a front-row seat to the user’s journey—every click and interaction that led to the bug. Session recordings are especially helpful when you are struggling to reproduce an issue.

Additionally, the combination of visitor logs with crash data offers a comprehensive timeline of a user’s engagement. This helps you understand their activity leading up to the bug, such as pages visited, actions taken and devices used. Armed with these multifaceted insights, you can confidently pinpoint the root causes and address the crash immediately.

With segments, you have the ability to dissect the data and compare experiences among distinct user groups. For example, you can compare mobile visitors to desktop visitors to determine if the issue is isolated or widespread and what impact the issue is having on the user experience of different user groups.

The combination of crash data with Matomo’s comprehensive web analytics equips you with the tools needed to elevate user experiences and ultimately drive revenue growth.

Start in seconds, shape as needed: Your path to a 100% reliable website

Crash Analytics makes the path to a reliable website simple. You don’t have to deal with intricate setups—crash detection starts without any configuration.

Plus, Crash Analytics excels in cross-stack proficiency, seamlessly extending its capabilities beyond automatically tracking JavaScript errors to covering server-side crashes as well, whether they occur in PHP, Android, iOS, Java or other frameworks. This versatile approach ensures that Crash Analytics comprehensively supports your website’s health and performance across various technological landscapes.

Elevate your website with Crash Analytics

Experience the seamless convergence of bug tracking and web analytics, allowing you to delve into user interactions, session recordings and visitor logs. With the flexibility of customising real-time alerts and scheduled reports, alongside cross-stack proficiency, Crash Analytics becomes your trusted ally in enhancing your website’s reliability and user satisfaction to increase conversions and drive revenue growth. Equip yourself to swiftly address issues and create a website where user experiences take precedence.

Start your 30-day free trial of our Crash Analytics plugin today, and stay tuned for its availability on Matomo Cloud.

Matomo Celebrates 15 Years of Building an Open-Source & Transparent Web Analytics Solution

Matthieu Aubry — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 04:10:36 +0000

Fifteen years ago, I realised that people (myself included) were increasingly integrating the internet into their everyday lives, and it was clear that it would only expand in the future. It was an exciting new world, but the amount of personal data shared online, level of tracking and lack of security was a growing concern. Google Analytics was just launched then and was already gaining huge traction – so data from millions of websites started flowing into Google’s database, creating what was then the biggest centralised database about people worldwide and their actions online.

So as a young engineering student, I decided we needed to build an open source and transparent solution that could help make the internet more secure and private while still providing organisations with powerful insights. I aimed to create a win-win solution for businesses and their digital consumers.

And in 2007, I started developing Matomo with the help from Scott Switzer and Jennifer Langdon (who offered me an internship and support).

All thanks to the Matomo Community

We have reached significant milestones and made major changes over the last 15 years, but we wouldn’t be where we are today without the Matomo Community.

So I would like to celebrate and thank the hundreds of volunteer developers who have donated their time to develop Matomo, the thousands of contributors who provided feedback to improve Matomo, the countless supportive forum members, our passionate team of 40 at Matomo, the numerous translators who have translated Matomo and the 1.5 million websites that choose Matomo as their analytics platform.

Matomo has been a community effort built on the shoulders of many, and we will continue to work for you.

So let’s look at some milestones we have achieved over the last 15 years.

Looking back on milestones in our timeline

2007

Birth of Matomo
First alpha version released

2008

Release first public 0.1.0 version

2009

50,000 websites use Matomo

2010

Matomo first stable 1.0.0 released
Mobile app launched

2011

Released Ecommerce Analytics, Custom Variables, First Party Cookies
Released Privacy control features (first of many privacy features to come!)

2012

Released Log Analytics feature
1 Million Downloads!
300,000 websites worldwide use Matomo

2013

Matomo is now available in 50 languages!
Matomo brand redesign

2016

Released Roll-Up Reporting Premium Feature, Users Flow Premium Feature, White Label Premium Feature, A/B Testing Premium Feature, Media Analytics Premium Feature, Funnels Premium Feature and Activity Log Premium Feature
On-Premise Premium Plugins now available on the Marketplace

2017

Launched Matomo Cloud service
Released Multi Channel Conversion Attribution Premium Feature, Custom Reports Premium Feature, Login Saml Premium Feature, WooCommerceAnalytics Premium Feature and Heatmap & Session Recording Premium Feature

2018

Piwik renamed to Matomo
New Matomo logo and Matomo.org website re-launch
Launch of Matomo Tag Manager
10,000 stars on Github
GDPR comes into effect, and Matomo released new product features and published several new guides
17 Matomo features videos published online
Reached thousands of paying customers, making the project sustainable and financially independent

2019

700,000 websites worldwide use Matomo
Google Analytics importer released

2020

Matomo For WordPress goes live on the WP Marketplace!
Released Paid Advertising Performance Premium feature
100 million On-Premise Plugins downloads on the marketplace (since the beginning)

2021

1,000,000 websites worldwide use Matomo
including 30,000 active Matomo for WordPress installations
Released SEO Web Vitals, Advertising Conversion Export and Tracking Spam Prevention feature

2022

Released WP Statistics to Matomo importer

Our efforts continue

While we’ve seen incredible growth over the years, our work doesn’t stop there. In fact, we’re only just getting started.

Today over 55% of the internet continues to use privacy-threatening web analytics solutions, while 1.5% uses Matomo. So there are still great strides to be made to create a more private internet, and joining the Matomo Community is one way to support this movement.

There are many ways to get involved too, such as:

Submitting feature requests
Developing for Matomo
Leaving Matomo a review on sites like Capterra, TrustRadius, G2 Crowd, alternativeTo, SaaSworthy, Siftery, Open Hub
Translating Matomo
Joining our Security Bug Bounty Programme
Sharing Matomo with your peers
Talking about Matomo on social platforms

So what comes next for Matomo?

The future of Matomo is approachable, powerful and flexible. We’re strengthening the customers’ voice, expanding our resources internally (we’re continuously hiring!) and conducting rigorous customer research to craft a tool that balances usability and functionality.

I look forward to the next 15 years and seeing what the future holds for Matomo and our community.

Matomo Further Invests in Security by Doubling Bug Bounty Rewards

Matomo Core Team — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 03:27:56 +0000

Matomo is the leading open-source analytics solution free from data limitations.

As our mission states, we aim to create, as a community, the leading open digital analytics platform that gives every user full control of their data.

To do this, we operate a Security Bug Bounty Programme. This programme is designed to reward the hard work of skilled security researchers who sacrifice their time and energy to find and report security and vulnerabilities.

To continue our investment in security, privacy and transparency, we are increasing the security bug bounty reward to as much as $10,000 USD. This is an increase of 100% from our previous 2020 bug bounty announcement.

How much can I earn for reporting security bugs?

Reward amounts vary depending on the impact:

Low issues receive $222
Medium issues receive $555
High issues receive $1,000
Critical issues receive $10,000

How can I take part?

As of January 2022, global independent security researchers have identified and suggested 138 security related improvements. If you are interested in joining this growing community, head to our Security Bug Bounty Programme to find out how you can take part.

We thank you for keeping Matomo safe for our users and theirs.

About Matomo

Matomo is the leading open-source analytics solution free from data limitations. Make more informed decisions and enhance your customer experience while ensuring data privacy and ownership. Matomo is the trusted solution for over 1.5 million websites globally. Take back control of your data ownership and challenge the status quo.

Matomo’s 2021 Year in Review

Matomo Core Team — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 02:58:08 +0000

2021 has been an exciting year at Matomo!

We’re grateful for all community members who reported feedback and suggestions, our awesome team of translators for their work, and our Premium features customers and Matomo Cloud hosting customers for their amazing support.

We wanted to share some quick highlights to remind you of the exciting things that happened in 2021.

Matomo continues to develop

In 2021 we released a number of new features including:

SEO Web Vitals

The new SEO Web Vitals feature helps you track your critical website performance metrics, which are a core element of SEO best practice.

Advertising Conversion Export

Measure the performance of your ads without giving up privacy.

This exciting new feature supports privacy and compliance requirements by eliminating the need to put third-party advertising tracking codes on your site. Now marketers can easily import conversion data from Matomo into Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising or Yandex Ads.

Tracking Spam Prevention

Say goodbye to spammers & bots making your data inaccurate and say hello to reliable data.

This powerful plugin provides our self-hosting users various options to prevent spammers and bots from making data inaccurate so you can rely on your data again.

In 2021 we moved from Matomo 4.1.0 to Matomo 4.6.0, with our new releases delivering over 600 updates to improve the stability and functionality of the product.

Some of our team’s favourite updates in 2021 included:

- Graphs now show a difference for data of “unfinished” and “complete” periods, with unfinished periods now indicated by a dashed line.
- Improvements to Matomo Tag Manager’s debugger – now you can simply enter the URL in a form and click Debug.
- Dashboards now show proportional evolution comparison for incomplete periods (rather than absolute values).
We also rolled out general bug fixes in Matomo Mobile 2.5 for iOS and Android.
Continuous improvements to Matomo for WordPress.

In other news

Au revoir, tracking consent. France’s data protection authority, Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL), announced that Matomo is now exempt from tracking consent in France (under conditions).
We lowered the pricing for Matomo Cloud, the starting price is now 19 EUR or 19 USD per month.
For our self-hosting users, we introduced a 30-day Free Trial for Marketplace Premium Plugins.

If you haven’t explored our Marketplace yet, some of our most popular plugins include:

Out of a substantial list of 320 products, Matomo was recognised by Capterra as a leading global Web Analytics Software solution for 2021.

Matomo Community working together

MatomoCamp 2021 was a massive success thanks to our passionate community, sponsors and speakers. This virtual event was run by the Matomo Community, for the Matomo Community.

Some of the most popular sessions included:

All MatomoCamp sessions are now available on-demand. Enjoy!

More people are choosing ethical analytics

We surpassed the incredible milestone of 30K active Matomo for WordPress installations.

How can you get involved in 2022?

Our mission at Matomo is:

“To create, as a community, the leading open digital analytics platform, that gives every user full control of their data”

Join our mission by writing about Matomo on your blog, website, Twitter, talk at conferences or let your friends and colleagues know what is Matomo.

Use the Matomo forum if you have any questions or feedback (free support), or purchase a Support Plan to get professional support and guidance.

To improve Matomo in your language, consider contributing to translations.

You can also support our efforts by purchasing Premium Features for Matomo or try our Matomo Cloud solution.

Thank you for being part of our Matomo community, we wish you all the best for 2022!

Exceeded GA’s 10M hits data limit, now what?

Joselyn Khor — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 00:21:00 +0000

Exceeded Google Analytics' 10M hits data limit, now what?

“Your data volume (1XXM hits) exceeds the limit of 10M hits per month as outlined in our Terms of Service. If you continue to exceed the limit, we will stop processing new data on XXX 21, 2019. Learn more about possible solutions.”

Yikes. Alarm bells were ringing when a Google Analytics free user came to us faced with this notice. Let’s call him ‘Mark’. Mark had reached the limits on the data he could collect through Google Analytics and was shocked by the limited options available to fix the problem, without blowing the budget. The thoughts racing through his head were:

“What happens to all my data?”
“What if Google starts charging USD150K now?”

Then he came across Matomo and decided to get in touch with our support team …

“Can you fix this issue?” he asked us.

“Absolutely!” we said.

We’ll get back to helping Mark in a minute. For now let’s go over why this was such a dilemma for him.

In order to resolve this data limits issue, one of the solutions was for him to upgrade to Google Analytics 360, which meant shelling out USD150,000 per year for their 1 billion hits per month option. Going from free to USD150,000 was too much of a stretch for a growing company.

“Your data volume (1XXM hits) exceeds the limit of 10M hits per month …”, what did this message mean?

With the free version, Mark could collect up to 10 million “hits” per month, per account. Going over meant Google Analytics could stop collecting any more data for free as outlined in their Terms.

Google Analytics’ Terms of Service (2018, sec. 2) states, “Subject to Section 15, the Service is provided without charge to You for up to 10 million Hits per month per account.”[1]

What is a "hit" in Google Analytics?
Data being sent to Google Analytics. It can be a transaction, event, social interaction or pageview - these all produce what Google calls a “hit”.

And their Analytics Help Data Limits (n.d.) support page makes clear that: “If a property sends more hits per month to Analytics than allowed by the Analytics Terms of Service, there is no assurance that the excess hits will be processed. If the property’s hit volume exceeds this limit, a warning may be displayed in the user interface and you may be prevented from accessing reports.”[2]

Possible solutions

So the possible solutions given by Google Analytics’ Data Limits support page were (also shown in image below):

To pay USD150K to upgrade to Google Analytics 360
To send fewer hits by setting up sampling
Or choose the slightly less relevant option to upgrade mobile app tracking to Google Analytics for Firebase.

Without the means to pay, the free version was fast becoming inaccessible for Mark as he was facing a future where he risked no longer having access to up-to-date data used in his business’ reporting.

Mark was facing a problem that potentially didn’t have a cost-effective solution.

So what can you really do about it?

This is where we can help provide some assistance. If you’re reading this article, we’ll assume you can relate to Mark and share with you the advice on options we gave him.

Options:

One option posed by Google is for you to send fewer hits by auditing your data collection processes

If you really don’t have the budget, you’ll need to reassess your data collection priorities and go over your strategies to see what is necessary to track, and what isn’t.

Make sure you know what you’re tracking and why. Look at what websites are being tracked by Google and into what properties.
Go through what data you’re tracking and decide what is or isn’t of value.
Set up data sampling, this however, will lead to inaccurate data.

From here you can start to course correct. If you’ve found data you’re not using for analysis, get rid of these events/pageviews in your Google Analytics.

But the limitations here are that eventually, you’re going to run out of irrelevant metrics and everything you’re tracking will be essential. So you’ll hit another brick wall and return to the same situation.

Option 2 – Ignore and continue using the free version of Google Analytics

With this option, you’ll have to bear the business risks involved by basing decisions off of analytics reports that may or may not be updated. In this case, you may still get contacted about exceeding the limits. As the free service is provided for only up to 10 million hits, once you’ve gone over them, you’re violating what’s stipulated in the Terms of Service.

There’s also the warning that “… you may be prevented from accessing reports” (Data limits, n.d.). So while we may not know for certain what Google Analytics will do, in this case it may be better to be safe rather than sorry by acting quickly to resolve it.

Option 3 -The Matomo solution – a privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative

Upgrade to a web analytics platform that can handle your demanding data requirements. Save money while continuing to gain valuable insights by moving over to Matomo Analytics (recommended)

This is where you can save up to USD130,000 a year. As well as that, the transition from Google Analytics to the Matomo Cloud is a seamless experience as setup and maintenance is taken care of by our experts.

For example, you can get up to 25M hits for USD3,241/month (or USD38,900/year) on the Essentials plan.

Or even 25M hits for USD4,991/month (or USD59,900/year) on the Business plan – which offers additional web analytics and conversion optimization resources.

Matomo Cloud is a great option if you’re looking for a secure, cost-effective and powerful analytics solution. You also get what Google Analytics could never offer you: full control and ownership of your own data and privacy.

Try Matomo free for 21 days – no credit card required.

No need to worry about losing your Google Analytics data because …

Now you can import your historic Google Analytics data directly into your Matomo with the Google Analytics Importer tool. Simply follow the step-by-step guide to get started for free.

Along with savings you can get:

A solution for the data limits issue forever. You choose the right plan to suit your data needs and adapt as you continue growing
100% accurate data (no data sampling)
100% data ownership of all your information without signing away your data to a third party
Powerful web analytics and conversion optimization features
Matomo Tag Manager
Easy setup
Support from Matomo’s specialists

Learn more about Matomo Cloud pricing.

Or go for Matomo On-Premise

If you have the in-house infrastructure to support self-hosting Matomo on your own servers then there’s also the option of Matomo On-Premise. Here you’ll get full security knowing the data is on your own servers.

Setup will also require technical knowledge. There will also be costs associated with acquiring your own servers, and keeping up with regular maintenance and updates. With On-Premise you get maximum flexibility, with no data limits whatsoever. But if you’re coming over from Google Analytics and don’t have the infrastructure and team to host On-Premise, the Matomo Cloud could be right for you.

Learn more about Matomo On-Premise.

Where do you go from here?

Getting 10 millions hits per month is no small feat, it’s actually pretty fantastic. But if it means having to shell out USD150,000 just to be able to continue with Google Analytics, we feel your problem could be fixed with Matomo Cloud. You could then put the rest of the money you save to better use.

If you choose Matomo, you now have the option to:

Raise your data limits for a fraction of Google Analytics 360’s price
Get a comprehensive range of analytics features for the most impactful insights to ensure your website continues excelling
Get data that’s not sampled – meaning 100% accuracy in your reports
Migrate your data easily with the help of Matomo’s support team

We’ll have you covered.

By sharing with you the options and advice we gave to Mark, we hope you’ll be able to find a solution that makes your life easier and solves the issue of data restrictions forever.

The team at Matomo is here to help you every step of the way to ensure a stress-free transition from Google Analytics if that is what works best for you.

For next steps, check out our live online Matomo demo and start your free 21-day trial.

References:

[1] Terms of Service. (2018, July 24). In Google Analytics Terms of Service. Retrieved June 12, 2019, from https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/us.html

[2] Data limits. (n.d.). In Analytics Help Data limits. Retrieved June 12, 2019, from https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1070983?hl=en

MatomoCamp 2021

Ben Erskine — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 23:00:10 +0000

MatomoCamp was the first online event developed by and for the Matomo community.

The key purpose of MatomoCamp was to encourage knowledge-sharing, it’s all about helping and learning from each other.

When was MatomoCamp?

MatomoCamp was held on Nov the 4th and 5th 2021 from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. CET.

How much did it cost to attend?

Nothing, MatomoCamp was completely free to attend.

What did MatomoCamp teach us?

Some of the most popular sessions included:

Who developed MatomoCamp?

A team of passionate volunteers have spent many hours developing this free event for the benefit of the Matomo Community.

We would like to thank them for their dedication. You can see a list of these amazing humans here.

What should I do now?

All MatomoCamp sessions are now available on-demand. Enjoy!