Plugin of the Month: Koko Analytics- A Privacy-Friendly Alternative for Google Analytics

It’s time for the wp-content.co Plugin of the month and this time we are introducing a  privacy-friendly analytics plugin called Koko Analytics. As you know, there are many analytics tools on the market such as Google Analytics, Analytics Cat, etc. There are also several local solutions that collect analytics without third parties but require elevated privileges in most environments. Koko Analytics is a free, open-source solution that works inside of WordPress.

The plugin works on shared hosting or on any web server since it is fully integrated with WordPress. It deals with thousands of site visitors as well as sudden bursts of higher traffic levels, works with pages served from page caching plugins and is GDPR compliant by design. Though you get fewer data back, it keeps you in accordance with every major standard (like GDPR) without any work. It’s privacy-oriented and doesn’t require any third-party integration. 

Why should you use Koko Analytics?

As mentioned above, Koko analytics makes your website GDPR compliant without any fancy work to a privacy policy and gives your users privacy. Most likely, you won’t even notice that Koko Analytics is there. After installing the plugin, you get an analytics widget displays on your dashboard displaying the last two weeks of analytics.

These days privacy compliance is getting difficult to ensure. When you involve a third party, you have to follow their policy and you tend to stay with them. When they make bad decisions or change their regulations, you have to either move or update your privacy policy too. Whereas you don’t need to do much if you own and control the data.

When someone comes to your website, you’re surely going to collect information about them and their visit, but it’s expected. This is the difference between Koko Analytics and other analytics solutions. The data you see is data only you see. Third parties aren’t privy to it, and it isn’t something to be sold. It is also much lighter than most analytic hook-ins. 

Features:

• No external services. Any data about your visitors never leaves your site.
• No personal information is recorded that could lead back to a specific visitor being tracked.
• Can handle thousands of daily visitors or sudden bursts of traffic without breaking a sweat.
• Option to not use any cookies while still being able to determine returning visitors and unique pageviews.
• Option to automatically delete older data.
• Built-in blacklist to filter referrer spam.
• Compatible with pages served from cache.
• Compatible with AMP powered pages.
• Completely open source (GPLv3 licensed).
• GDPR compliant by design.

Conclusion

If you care about privacy and about compliance, the Koko analytics plugin is great. If you are not using Google Adsense and want something to track analytics, this is lightweight and compliant. Some people just don’t want to use Google Analytics, and this is the quickest easiest way to do so. There are obviously limitations, but you can make the choice between freedom for your users and convenience without making things too hard for yourself.