Google Analytics is a great service but trying to check your web stats on a phone (even a smartphone) can be a bit troublesome. Sure, you can view the standard web app with the browser but since the interactive graphs are rendered with Flash, they’ll be impossible to view on Android phones released to date. You can just about manage without graphs, of course, but unfortunately the date selection widget is similarly affected.

If you want to view other than the standard monthly period, you’re a bit stuck then. (Actually, you can modify the URL but that’s for hax0rz only).

So what you really need is an app. We’re going to take a quick look at three Android applications which provide access to your Google Analytics account. One is free (mAnalytics), and two paid (Mobile GA and Droid Analytics).

mAnalytics graphing

mAnalytics - Simple, functional, free

MobileGA-visitors-graph2

Mobile GA - Funkiest graphing

DroidAnalytics Graphing

DroidAnalytics - A good balance of features

Reporting Periods
First off, all three apps enable you to choose daily, weekly, monthly reporting periods. Droid Analytics scores here with additional hourly and annual reporting periods as default options. You might think that setting custom reporting period to a year would provide the same results, which it does, sort of. No problems for mAnalytics but it seems there’s something screwy about Mobile GA such that graphs for periods of greater than a month don’t always display. A bit inconvenient.

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Reports
None of the apps mentioned here can hope to match the functionality of the full-blown Analytics web application and whereas all three provide the same basic reports, the more advanced stuff does differ. Which app is most suitable will depend on your requirements – whether you need basic traffic info or you’re hoping to keep an eye on goals and conversion rates when out and about. This is where the paid for apps start to earn their keep. The tables below attempt to summarise the reporting available from the three applications.

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mAnalytics - reports

mAnalytics - Reports

DroidAnalytics Reports

DroidAnalytics Reports

Mobile GA - Reporting

Mobile GA - Reports

Features
All of the apps support graphing – essential for spotting trends in traffic. Mobile GA has the prettiest interface, providing colourful pie charts to graphically illustrate stats. It also sports nifty use of the accelerometer. Hold the phone in portrait mode and you get text based stats but tip it through 90° and the data is rendered graphically. DroidAnalytics is perhaps slightly more workmanlike in this respect but it gets the job done and checking trends is easier thanks to the on screen buttons which enable you to quickly switch between graphs displaying page views, visitors, visits, bounce rate and so on.

Options a-plenty in Droid Analytics

Options a-plenty in Droid Analytics

Prettiest charts in Mobile GA

Prettiest charts in Mobile GA

Conclusion
We’ve not said an awful lot about mAnalytics but if you’re just after a way to keep track of traffic, you don’t need goal or transaction info and you’re happy with a basic interface, stop reading right now and go get it from the market. It might be basic but it’s quick, has a simple and easy to read interface and it’s free.

If you need or want that bit more then either DroidAnalytics or Mobile GA will do the job. We slightly favour the former based on a preference for its interface, the hourly reporting feature and the quickly navigable graphs. There’s also that weird issue with Droid Analytics’ reporting period. And it’s a bit cheaper. There’s a trial of DroidAnalytics so you can try it out for 24 hours before buying. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of Mobile GA and we think they’ve missed a trick there. (Of course, if you’re in the UK you get a 24 hour grace period for all paid for apps anyway due to FSA distance selling regs).

For more info and screen shots check out the developers’ web sites (links in the table below). If you can’t speak Spanish (we think it’s Spanish) you might struggle gleaning much additional info from the mAnalytics site. But then, what more do you need to know?

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