WordPress site owners know it’s important to have your Google Analytics tightly integrated into all aspects of your website. While there are a number of plugins that do this well, today I’ll be looking at the Analytify plugin compared to the market leader, Monster Insights.

Ease of Integration

You never want to muscle a plugin into place. Let’s see how easily we can integrate Analytify and Monster Insights.

Both plugins have free and pro versions so that you try both before you choose to upgrade to the paid version. Once you install either plugins they both have a convenient way to connect to your Google Analytics account through an easy no-code authorization flow. This means you don’t have to fuss around with finding your UA code and copy-and-pasting it into a settings field.

After completing the integration with Google Analytics, it’s time to configure the features you want. Both plugins have a suite of add-ons that allow you to enable various features like eCommerce tracking, form tracking, author tracking, etc. Simply download the add-on you want, activate it, and configure it using the helpful documentation.

Winner: Tie for similar setups and configuration. A slight edge goes to Monster Insights because they do support GA4 which is the default property type for new accounts.

Tracking Features

The main reason we use Google Analytics is to gleam insights into how our visitors are using our website so we can improve on it and ultimately optimize our businesses. Tracking is the way that’s done and there are oh so many ways to track visitors. Let’s review the tracking features each plugin advertises to see how they line up against one another.

Tracking FeatureAnalytifyMonster Insights
Universal Tracking
GA code for websites only
GA4 Tracking
New GA code for websites + mobile apps
eCommerce Tracking
(WooCommerce and EDD)
Outbound Link Tracking
See where you’re sending people
Enhanced Link Attribution
Track on-page button and link clicks
File Download Tracking
Track extensions like .pdf, .exe, .zip
Scroll Tracking
How far down the page visitors are going
Forms Tracking
How many submissions are you getting
Google AMP Tracking
If AMP is your thing…
UserID Tracking
Track registered users
Logged-In User Tracking
Similar to UserID tracking
Author Tracking
Tracking for your blog authors
Post Type Tracking
See how your CPTs perform
SEO Score Tracking
A Yoast integration
Category and Tag Tracking
Track your taxonomies
Focus Keyword Tracking
Another Yoast integration
Telephone & Email Link Tracking
Clicks for telephone (tel:) and email (mailto:) 
Vimeo Pro Events Tracking
Very niche feature but still cool
Hash URL Tracking
Useful for one-page websites
Custom Events Tracking
Record unique user behaviors and actions

As you can see above, both plugins stack up pretty well when put into a comparison table. Monster Insights does check more boxes than Analytify, with the most major one being the GA4 integration.

Winner: Monster Insights, with a slight edge. Analytify has confirmed they be compatible with GA4 in the near future.

Reporting Features

After you have all the tracking features you need enabled you’re going to want to see actionable data via reports right on your WordPress website. To me, seeing Google Analytics directly in my wp-admin is the best part of any GA plugin.

Let’s see what kind of features we have on the reporting end between these two plugins.

ReportAnalytifyMonster Insights
Dashboard Widget
SUPER useful for at a glance views
Page Insights Toolbar
See how pages are performing quickly
Email Summaries
Weekly analytics emails – IMO, not particularly useful
Real Time Report
See who’s doing what on your site
eCommerce Report
Stats for EDD and WooCommerce
Publisher Report
Stats for authors
Audience Demographic Report
See country, interests, devices, browser, etc.
Popular Posts
See a list of your top posts
Behavior Report
How visitors reached your site (keywords, referral)
Custom Dimensions Report
Create your own custom reports for authors, etc
Search Console Report
Track search terms and your rank
Forms Report
Track how your website’s forms are converting
Site Speed Report
How your website speed is and fluctuates
Individual Post & Page Report
Admin-side view of post/page performance
Customizable Date Ranges
Not really a report, but feature of the reports
PDF Exports
Useful for clients to view at-a-glance stats
Access Controls for Reports
Lock down certain reports to certain user roles
Headline Analyzer
Helps you write better headlines in the Gutenberg editor
Contextual Insights
Tips for how to improve traffic based off your data
Frontend Reports
Show your GA data on your website. Yay transparency!

From the list above, you can see that both plugins have pretty great reporting features. Either plugin will give you an excellent analytic reports right in your WordPress admin. However, Monster Insight’s reports allow you to dig deeper than Analytify so you can get greater detail. If using Analytify, you’ll have to go into GA to get that sort of data for many of the reports. As well, Monster Insight’s dashboard widget is a lot more feature-rich than Analytify’s.

Winner: Monster Insights – The depth of the reports and the excellent UI/UX makes this the clear winner. Analytify isn’t too far behind but lacks the number of reports and flexibility to customize your views.

Plugin & Third-Party Integrations

It’s important that whichever Google Analytics plugin you choose integrates well with the other plugins and third-party integrations on your website. For example, most websites have a form plugin installed and if you’re selling online with WordPress you’re most likely using WooCommerce.

IntegrationAnalytifyMonster Insights
eCommerce
WooCommerce
Easy Digital Downloads
LifterLMS
MemberPress
Restrict Content Pro
GiveWP
Forms Plugins
WPForms
Formidable
Gravity Forms
Ninja Forms
Contact Forms 7
Page Builder Forms & Custom Forms
(Divi, Elementor, Beaver Builder)
GDPR / Cookie Tracking
Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR / CCPA
GDPR Cookie Consent
Complainz Cookie Consent
CookieBot
Cookie Notice by dFactory
Other Integrations
Google Optimize
Thirsty Affiliates
Google Ads
Pretty Links (plugin)

Both plugins integrate pretty equally with various integrations, including plugins and third-parties. When it comes to analytics, you want to be sure you have the best tracking available. In this case, both have great integrations out-of-the-box and with available add-ons.

Winner: Tie – both have solid integration capabilities. Continued development on additional integrations should prove a clear leader. As a developer, I understand that the more third-parties you integrate with the harder it is to maintain them. Both plugins seem to be keeping an eye on offering the most integrations front-and-center while keeping

Pricing

Pricing is always an important factor to consider. As well, consider your client. Do they value seeing Google Analytics in their wp-admin? Are they continually in their admin dashboard or do they prefer to view native Google Analytics? Of course, budget is also a major factor. As you can see below, pricing varies from less than a hundred dollars to more than a few hundred depending on the solution you choose.

Note: This pricing is as of November 2021:

AnalytifyPro PlanConversion PlanDeveloper Plan
Price$59$99$299
AddonsLimitedAll AddonsAll Addons
# of Sites11050
SupportVIPPriorityPriority

Bottomline, Analytify is very affordable. Most folks will want the $99 plan because it includes all the goal, UTM, and form tracking addons.

Now, let’s take a look at Monster Insights:

Monster InsightsPlusProAgency
Price$99.50
(then $199 after 1st year)
$159.60
(then $399 after 1st year)
$239.70
(then $799 after 1st year)
AddonsLimitedEverythingEverything + Multisite Support
# of Sites1525
SupportStandardPriorityPriority

The thing to pay attention to with Monster Insights is that you’re billed the first year at a discounted rate. After one year of use, the bill goes up 50% or higher. That can be painful for site owners who aren’t running a revenue generating site.

Winner: Analytify – For having no introductory pricing and a competitive product.

Support and Documentation

Sometimes you need good support and documentation to help you get the job done. Let’s see how support and documentation ranks between Analytify and Monster Insights.

Documentation Winner: Monster Insights – Their documentation is clear to understand, typo free, accented with an excellent search, and has clear categorization of articles. Analytify is OK. I can get the information I need but the search lacks clear results and it just seems unpolished.

Support Winner: Undecided – Analytify isn’t based in the USA, Monster Insights is… being 100% transparent, that means a lot to me. Not because of any language barrier, but in the “Time to First Response”. It means I’ll get answers fast. Nothing is more frustrating than waiting up to 72 hours for a response asking for additional information. I’m not saying that’s the fact with Analytify, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens regularly with US customers.

So, which one? Analytify or Monster Insights?

Let’s be clear, I know both the owners of Analytify and Monster Insights. That aside, if you ask me which plugin I’d choose then I’d say: “It depends”. For this website, I use Analytify. For GiveWP, we use Monster Insights.

It’s likely much the same for you. The plugin you choose depends on the type of website you’re building. This website is my personal blog. Where I just write about stuff and have fun. I want to see how my users are interacting with it and $99 bucks a year is a great price point for me to get the stats I need.

If you’re building a website that needs deep integrations, Monster Insights may be a better buy. For GiveWP, we need more and Monster Insights provides that. We can afford it and… for a WP plugin it’s not cheap.

Bottomline: The choice you make depends on the type of site you’re building. Both plugins offer similar features, however Monster Insights is the clear winner in terms of features, popularity, polish, and support. Analytify shines for smaller sites with a limited budget.

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