Webalizer vs AWStats

Webalizer and AWStats are popular server-side analysis packages that provide web statistics to generate
data using raw server logs. Let’s compare these two popular web stats programs.

AWStats
AWStats is not a marketing tool and uses server log files to interpret data. It provides a better idea
regarding the amount of bandwidth use and information about the robot and human visitors. It is mostly
used by network administrators.

Webalizer determines visitor numbers as follows:

 AWStats generates server log files and uses IP address and user agent to determine if the visitor
is a human or robot.
 It records new visits within a time frame of 60 minutes.
 Even if AWStats keeps a record regarding known robots, some bots cannot be identified.
 AWStats can be used to check bandwidth used by various robots and crawlers, and utilize this
data to somehow determine if the visitor is human or not.

Webalizer
Webalizer is not a marketing tool and functions to capture traffic without differentiating between
human and robots by default. It provides a 30-minute visitor window.

Webalizer determines visitor numbers as follows:

 Webalizer interprets server log files and generates reports accordingly.

 It provides a window of 30 minutes to the visitors and records the visits within this time period.
 By default, it treats robot and human visitors as same, but it can be set up to ignore certain bots.
But, even after such set-up, all bots can’t be detected and hence it is better to ignore it.

The advantage of Webalizer is that it is capable of capturing traffic which may otherwise be not captured
by client-side analytics programs such as users having JavaScript turned off on their computers.

The limitation of Webalizer is its over-estimation of data, and absence of cookies to identify visitors. The
30-minute visitor cut-off window means that if a user visits a new page after this window, it is
considered as a separate visit. The problem is that after visiting a website if the user doesn’t visit
another page for 31 minutes, it will be counted as a new visit again.

Webalizer vs AWStats
Webalizer provides a visitor window of 30 minutes, while the window is of 60 minutes in case of
AWStats. Thus, reports generated by Wabailzer is higher.

Webalizer by default does not differentiate between human and robot visitors, while reports generated
by AWStats will provide a good understanding between human and robot visitors.

AWStats displays higher amount and better presentation of data as compared to Webalizer.

Verdict
Webalizer is preferable as reports generated by it are more practical.