As a professional webmaster, I have seen all types and brands of website statistics. My pick for best web analytics or best website statistics is Urchin.
If you can’t get Urchin, Google Analytics is our second choice and is created by Urchin and owned by Google, but full-blown Urchin, typically only available from your web host, is even better than Google Analytics.
Hands down Urchin beats AWStats, Click Stats, Web Trends, all free Web stats from web hosts that are unbranded and even log files that Yahoo provides with their own web hosting package. Urchin is simply the best in the industry no holds barred.
I have Urchin for my own website and pay $5 a month to Hostway, my web host, on my shared server. I have seen other web hosts charge as much as $15 a month for Urchin, is it worth the price? If you are involved in pay per click advertising and serious about selling your services and brand, you bet it’s worth it.
If you like Google Analytics, you’ll love Urchin. Not only is it more secure and you do not share your stats with Google, but you have much more in-depth information about how people travel your website, how they get there, and from where they come.