CAOS | Host Google Analytics Locally vs Matomo Analytics – Powerful, Privacy-First Insights for WordPress

CAOS can be downloaded for free without any paid subscription from the official WordPress repository. CAOS (Complete Analytics Optimization Suite) for Google Analytics allows you to host gtag.js locally and keep it updated using WordPress’ built-in Cron-schedule. Fully automatic! Not a big Google Analytics user and just curious about your pageviews? CAOS fully supports Minimal Analytics 4. An extremely lightweight alternative to Google Analytics’ default libraries (gtag.js). Minimal Analytics also helps you get rid of that annoying Unused JS notice in Google PageSpeed Insights! Whenever you run an analysis of your website on Google Pagespeed Insights, Pingdom or GTMetrix, it’ll tell you to leverage browser cache when you’re using Google Analytics. Because Google has set the cache expiry time to 2 hours. This plugin will get you a higher score on Pagespeed and Pingdom and make your website load faster, because the user’s browser doesn’t have to make a roundtrip to download the file from Google’s external server. Just install the plugin, enter your Measurement ID and the plugin adds the necessary Tracking Code for Google Analytics 4 to the header (or footer) of your theme, downloads and saves the gtag.js-file to your website’s server and keeps it updated (automagically) using a scheduled script in wp_cron(). Or if you’d like to use the locally hosted file with another plugin, check Compatibility Mode under Advanced Settings, Either way, CAOS is a set and forget plugin. For more information: [How to setup CAOS](For more information: How to setup CAOS. Features Host gtag.js for Google Analytics 4 locally, Downloaded files are renamed to random strings to avoid ad blockers, Minimal Analytics 4 support, Compatibility Mode allows you to use the locally hosted file with all Google Analytics plugins, e.g. MonsterInsights (Pro), ExactMetrics Site Kit by Google, WooCommerce Google Analytics Integration, WooCommerce Google Analytics Pro, Analytify, And many more! Compatible with all Cookie Notice plugins, e.g. Complianz, CookieYes, WP Cookie Notice, Cookie Notice & Compliance, Cookie Notice & Consent Banner, And many more! Preconnect to google-analytics.com to reduce latency and speed up requests, Add tracking code to header, footer or manually, Save gtag.js anywhere within the WordPress content (wp-content) directory to avoid detection by WordPress security plugins (such as WordFence) or removal by caching plugins (such as WP Super Cache), Serve gtag.js from your CDN, Set Cookie Expiry Period, Force disabling display features functionalities, Track logged in Administrators, Features in CAOS Pro Use Google Analytics in compliance with GDPR with: – Randomize Client ID (which grants a fresh, untraceable UUID/ClientID to each visitor), – Stealth Mode (a unique, customized API, designed for WordPress, which anonymizes your visitor’s data before sending it to Google’s servers). Other features: – Cloaked Affiliate Link Tracking, – Cloudflare Compatibility Mode.

Version 5.11.1 and above include an important security related fix, it is highly recommended to update to this version. Already a Matomo On-Premise or Matomo Cloud user? You need to use the Connect Matomo plugin instead of this plugin. For all you WordPress website owners wanting an easier way to get customer insights to grow your business, you can now get the solution the professionals use, for free! Matomo Analytics is the #1 used Google Analytics alternative that offers a powerful range of features, security and protects the privacy of your users. This enables you to learn how to improve your website, make the right decisions for your business and stand out in the crowd in a safe and trustworthy way. Matomo’s mission is to give control and data ownership back to the user. By hosting web analytics on your own servers there’s no third-parties taking ownership, no on-selling of data and no-one looking in. This means when you install Matomo in a matter of a few clicks, you’re in full control. It’s also easier for you to get insights from Matomo Analytics with it’s time-saving interface design and out-of-the-box features, which require less manual configuration than Google Analytics. Matomo is free, secure and open – your ethical user insights platform. How Matomo Analytics for WordPress solves problems: 100% data ownership, no one else can see your data All data is stored in your WordPress and not sent to any third party or different country Super easy to install. No coding or technical knowledge needed #nocode Free to use forever Designed to save you time as an out-of-box solution (including many Ecommerce stores) Protects the privacy of your users GDPR Manager No data sampling Opportunities to extend with an ever-growing marketplace Supports over 50 languages Comes equipped with Matomo Tag Manager How Matomo focuses on privacy: Superb user privacy protection Heaps of features to anonymize data and IP addresses WP shortcode to embed an opt-out feature into your website Features to export and delete data for GDPR Ability to configure data retention Ultimately, Matomo lets you: learn who your customers are and their needs; understand what content works and how engaged your audience is; identify which marketing channels give you the highest ROI and invest with confidence in channels that convert for your business; and discover blockages and fix pain points for confused visitors to ensure they become satisfied customers. Features include: Ecommerce features (supports WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads and MemberPress out of the box) Campaign tracking Visitor profiles Tag Manager Dashboards Segmentation Real time reports Transitions JavaScript error tracking Extensive geolocation reports / maps Many different visualisations Row evolution Report comparisons Export features See the most drastic changes within a given time period Supports WP Rest API And hundreds of other features Easily give your colleagues access to your reports if / when needed Easily exclude certain roles, visitors and pages from being tracked Supports WordPress Multisite. (Note: Tag Manager feature does not work in MultiSite.) Import historical data from Google Analytics or WP Statistics Premium paid features: Heatmaps & Session Recordings Form Analytics Media Analytics Funnels SEO features – Keyword rankings Custom reporting Cohorts Users flow Prerequisites and technical requirements: Running Matomo Analytics on your server can use significant resources. Whenever someone visits your WordPress website, your server will need to serve your WordPress pages to the user, as well as tracking the user journey in Matomo, resulting in an additional request for each page view. The minimum PHP memory limit is 128Mb, but we recommend to use a higher limit (memory_limit = 256M). PHP 7.2 at minimum is required. From Matomo 6 onwards, PHP 8.1, MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.6 will be required at minimum. If your server does not meet those requirements, the plugin will not update to Matomo 6 and will tell you what needs upgrading. If you have high traffic website, or manage a lot of websites with WordPress MultiSite, we recommend installing Matomo On-Premise or signup to Matomo Cloud and install the Connect Matomo plugin instead. Needing to know more before you install? Have a read through the most popular FAQs to ensure you’re making the right choice for you. Over 1 million websites in over 190 countries are using Matomo already. Join the revolution too! Install Matomo on your WordPress website completely free and take back full control of your data! Third party resources we use: After activating this plugin, it will download a Geolocation database (DBIP-City.mmdb) from DB IP into your uploads directory. The DB-IP database is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This database is needed to detect the location of your visitors based on their IP. When you enter a URL in the SEO ranking widget, then a request with the entered URL may be sent to Google, Alexa, Bing, and other SEO providers. Credits The entire Matomo team and everyone who contributed André Bräkling who is the Author of the Connect Matomo plugin