Google look set to (finally) release Urchin 6
About 2 years ago I was asked to review the available analytics tools and propose one to purchase for use with a web based application. At the time I looked into the free options (like AWStats), the mid-range options (like Urchin), and the damn expensive options (like WebTrends). As cost was an issue but so was customisation I proposed Urchin, which combined impressive reports with what seemed like enough flexibility to be customised for our needs.
Something else Urchin had going for it was the (then) recent purchase by Google. I saw this as promising for future releases, and almost immediately Google introduced Google Analytics - a free version of Urchin where the statistics are gathered by javascript and hosted by Google.
My boss went ahead and purchased the base Urchin license and over the following few weeks I taught myself how to customise the reports to suit our needs. Ultimately we decided that we would produce our own log format (previously we were using Apache logs) and Urchin was also very well suited for these needs - this is just one of the reasons we needed Urchin Software over the Google Analytics approach. Learning how to configure Urchin wasn’t always easy, and the help text is fairly limited - Google seem to have adopted a model that’s growing in popularity where you can purchase support and also the expertise often needed for custom solutions.
Anyway all was going well, however while Google have been regularly improving their free online solution the software version (still called Urchin) was going stale. The improved flash reports in Google Analytics were showing up the dated SVG reports in Urchin, and several of the cool new reports were just not available.
Finally this looks like it’s about to change, with Google releasing a beta version of Urchin 6. They’ve simplified the cost structure (meaning it’s more expensive for anyone wanting the basics, but cheaper for anyone wanting all the extra modules such as load balancing, funnels, etc) but apart from that I’m yet to find out what’s changed. I have managed to get hold of the beta but it’s currently not installing - there seems to be an issue with MySQL that I can probably solve myself.
I will be sure to report my findings here once I manage to get it working!