Cloudflare Web Analytics - New Free Web Analytics Service
Cloudflare has announced Cloudflare Web Analytics, a free analytics service that is available to anyone, including non-Cloudflare customers.
Cloudflare Web Analytics is a feature-rich service that shows near real-time end-user behavior within seconds of a server request. In the future, the dashboard will automatically update data in real-time.
The service shows:
- Visits by country;
- Visits by source;
- Unique visitors;
- Tracking clicks;
- Browsers Device type;
The control panel itself has a drag-and-drop function that allows you to limit yourself to a certain period, as well as explore changes in traffic.
The free service also includes diagnostics for Web Vitals - Google metrics that will become a ranking signal in 2021.
Cloudflare Web Analytics currently stores one month of data and does not support conversion tracking yet.
First of all, the new service is focused on privacy. It will not track site visitors. This means Cloudflare does not use IP addresses to compile web analytics. Also Cloudflare CTO John Graham-Cumming confirmed that the company itself does not use analytics data.
According to the company's CTO, Cloudflare Web Analytics solves three main problems:
Confidentiality. Most analytics tools track the browsing behavior of visitors to show them ads later. It can benefit advertising companies, but most websites don't need it. Cloudflare Web Analytics' privacy-focused approach solves this problem.
Accuracy. Consumers are becoming more concerned about privacy these days and are increasingly using ad blockers. Most analytics tools cannot accurately identify these users in terms of their metrics. Cloudflare's offering does not include pixels that track user behavior, which allows for more accurate metrics.
Simplicity. Most analytics services are overly complex, with many tools, some of which are never used by website owners. Cloudflare Web Analytics is not only privacy sensitive, but also easy to use, offering important statistics that can be viewed right from your dashboard.