Mint – Statistics Package For Websites

As most of you know, there are several popular methods for obtaining statistics for your blog. While Google Analytics is probably the most comprehensive one I know (with the added benefit of being free), it is limited somewhat by the fact the the statistics are not real-time. For most practical purposes, that limitation isn’t a big deal, but it’s sometimes nice to be able to see what’s going on within your website in real time.

On the recommendation of a friend, I splurged the $30 to finally see what Mint was all about. If you haven’t heard of it, Mint is a commercial statistics package with a pile of open-source plugins (called “Peppers” in Mint terminology). On my system, I have Peppers that display WordPress comments, downloads, most popular posts, and bandwidth. If you’re into podcasting, there are even Peppers for that.

I’ve been using it for the past two weeks now, and for the most part I am extremely happy with it. If gives me a vary comprehensive real-time snapshot of my blog at any time, and displays just enough information to be useful, but not overwhelming (something that Google Analytics doesn’t so so well, although some might argue that’s the point of it).

If you’re looking for something similar, I would highly recommend it.