Choosing from the different webstats analysis packages
In the main, the differences between any stats analyser package is the number of reports it makes available to you. Believe me, there is no report that is of any use that each stats analyzer package does not include in its software, it is clearly in their best interest to include the most essential reports. This, coupled with the fact that there is no statistical analysis which someone has not thought of, and you have pretty much a level playing field for all the players in the market. So how could you possibly choose between the myriad stats packages out there? Well, it depends really on your motivation: are you interested in pretty graphs? Or are you only interested in essential reports? How much money do you have to spend?
If you have the money to spend (and the control over your server environment to implement it) then a log analyzer is definitely to be recommended. There is free log analyzer software available to you, but the free stats packages tend to be either awkward to configure, cumbersome to use, and visually unfriendly. It's all a matter of weighing up what you need a stats package and if your needs are minimalistic, then a free webstats package could be perfect for you. There is, in my experience, little tangible difference between the free analysers and the relatively cheap ones, which is worth being aware of.
Generally speaking, the more money you spend the prettier the graphics you'll see and the more extensive the reports will appear. Like all statistics interpretation, there tends to be a core of data which is of paramount importance, and a lot of guff that is more-or-less meaningless. And again, like all statistics interpreters, people's ideas of what is useful varies dramatically. Some swear by path-analysis, others to a more sober visitors/page views analysis. This is all a matter of taste and you are better to consider your aims before choosing any stats package, no matter how pretty or comprehensive any package may look.
If you don't have money to spend then you are by no means lost - many of the free log reader programs are exceptional and give you exactly what you need. OK, some of them look a bit ropey but they definitely serve a valuable purpose.
The best way to choose a log analyser is to give their trial versions a go, you have nothing to lose. Nearly all log analyzer software manufacturers employ a trial period for their software (although you may have to contact some to acquire a trial license). Spend your time wisely before accepting any piece of software for the obvious reason that you will be relying on that software to enable you to focus on your online marketing and performance tracking.
Again, an option which is available for those with little or no money to spend. Easy to implement (copying-and-pasting a small piece of code into every one of your web pages), this method is available to you no matter what your current web host allows you in terms of log file access, etc.
Some integrated tracking options are simple "counters" (you've no doubt seen these posted on websites) which simply rack-up the numbers of page views. I'm excluding these because they are next to useless as anything but a gimmick. If you can't perform analysis on a temporal basis (eg. stats over time/date) then you simply cannot learn anything worth knowing.
The other options vary dramatically in what they offer you, but most have basic date/time visitor and page numbers, usually also giving you information on individual pages.
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