Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence vs. Confluence’s built-in Analytics: A comparison

This post aims to compare the features of “Analytics for Confluence” and “Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence”. Both options have unique features and benefits, and it can be challenging to determine which one best fits your needs. In this article, we’ll compare the two analytics tools in depth to help you make an informed decision.

• Analytics for Confluence is a built-in feature for Confluence (Data Center and Cloud Premium & and Enterprise).
• Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence is a paid app developed by Gold Marketplace Partner bitvoodoo.

❓Why even bother comparing the built-in analytics features to a 3rd-party app like Viewtracker, you might ask yourself? While the built-in features from Analytics for Confluence may be sufficient for some companies, heavy Confluence users and administrators with specific analytics requirements have contacted bitvoodoo for more granular reports and additional features. Since 2010, bitvoodoo has developed many Viewtracker analytics features that differentiate the app from competitors and Confluence’s built-in analytics.

The following article will highlight the differences and similarities between the two Confluence analytics tools, displaying the features in tables structured by topic.

🌰 Summary: Viewtracker vs. Analytics for Confluence

Both Viewtracker and Analytics for Confluence track a wide range of metrics and generate reports to gain visibility into Confluence usage patterns. However, they have key differences that will be explained in depth later in this article. Here’s a quick summary:

• 🌐 Availability: Analytics for Confluence works for Confluence Data Center, Cloud Premium, and Cloud Enterprise plans and can be used at no additional cost. These plans may not be affordable for small to medium-sized organizations with few Confluence users. In contrast, Viewtracker is available on the Atlassian Marketplace for companies of any size, but has to be paid for annually or monthly, depending on the deployment.
• 📊 Reports & KPIs: Both tools track Confluence views, page & space interactions and searches and create visually appealing reports with the data. Viewtracker offers more filters to customize the built-in reports, allowing users to use CQL, look for content without interactions, filter by the source, etc. Viewtracker can also track specific Confluence components and 3rd-party app output, which the built-in analytics cannot.
• 🔒 Data privacy: Both Viewtracker and Analytics for Confluence can restrict access to analytics reports. Viewtracker has various data privacy levels that can be adapted at all times. By using these levels and excluding sensitive user groups and spaces from tracking, Viewtracker admins can decide which data to collect in the first place.
• 📶 System reports: Viewtracker introduced the Instance and Space Status Report in 2023, allowing Confluence administrators and space administrators to gain an overview of spaces in the entire Confluence instance, including user count, attachment storage, number of attachments, etc. Confluence Analytics possess the “Mission Control” feature, however, it does not have the same features.
• 📤 Data export: Tracked Confluence data is accessible via API and can be exported in both solutions. In Viewtracker Data Center, collected view data can also be imported into other Confluence instances. Additionally, it supports importing existing data from Confluence Analytics, ensuring continuity and preventing any loss of view data.
• 📎 Attachment tracking: Both tools track attachment views and display the data on a content level. Viewtracker’s Space and Global reports possess an attachment usage report, which can be filtered by views, creations, modifications and the number of attachments seen or not seen. The Instance Report further extends this functionality by tracking changes in attachment storage over time, offering valuable insights into data growth and usage trends.
• 🔎 Search tracking: Both Viewtracker and Analytics for Confluence track Confluence searches. While Analytics for Confluence also displays the click-through rate and the most-clicked content and spaces, Viewtracker tracks the number of search results that were offered to the user for each search term.
• 🧩 Macros: Viewtracker has built-in analytics macros that can be inserted on any Confluence page to visualize page and space usage. There are no macros for Analytics for Confluence.

🌐 Confluence Analytics availability

• Analytics for Confluence is a built-in feature for users on Confluence Data Center, Cloud Premium, and Cloud Enterprise. These options may not appeal to small to medium-sized organizations with few Confluence users.
• In contrast, Viewtracker is available on the Atlassian Marketplace for companies of any size, Confluence plan and user tiers (see table).

⚠️ Confusion alert: There is also a product called Atlassian Analytics, an analytics suite presented by Atlassian in 2022. This tool gathers insights from multiple Atlassian tools, mainly Jira and Bitbucket, and will also include Confluence insights in the future. However, the Atlassian Analytics suite is only available for Cloud Enterprise customers, and this post will not cover it further.

Confluence Plan	bitvoodoo’s Viewtracker	Analytics for Confluence	Atlassian Analytics
Confluence Server (until EOL)	✅	❌	❌
Confluence Data Center	✅	✅	❌
Confluence Cloud Standard	✅ (free for 1-10 users)	❌	❌
Confluence Cloud Premium	✅	✅	❌
Confluence Cloud Enterprise	✅	✅	✅

Feature comparison Viewtracker vs. Atlassian’s Analytics for Confluence

Here’s an overview of Viewtracker vs. Analytics for Confluence features to give you the key information you need. Keep scrolling down for a detailed breakdown of each analytics tool, divided by topic.

We will write “Viewtracker” instead of “Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence” and “Analytics for Confluence” instead of “Atlassian’s Analytics for Confluence” in the following texts and tables for readability reasons. If there are differences between the products’ Cloud and On-Premise/Data Center versions, these will be visible in the features table.

Legend for all tables

• ✅ Feature is available
• ❌ Feature is not available

👣 Confluence tracking

Feature	bitvoodoo’s Viewtracker	Analytics for Confluence
Tracking of page, blog post, and attachment views	✅	✅
Tracking of content creations, edits and deletions	✅	✅
Tracking of Confluence searches	✅	✅ Cloud ❌ Data Center
Tracking of mentions	❌	✅ Cloud ❌ Data Center
Tracking of likes on content	✅ Data Center ❌ Cloud	❌
Tracking of likes on comments	✅ Data Center ❌ Cloud	❌
Tracking of visit sources	✅	❌
Tracking of Space Directory, Calendars, Team Pages, etc.	✅	❌
Tracking of 3rd-party apps (Scroll Viewport, Cosmos, Linchpin, Refined etc.)	✅	❌
Tracking of Confluence content viewed through Jira Service Management help desks (knowledge base)	✅	❌
Tracking of Confluence content viewed through the Mobile app	✅ Data Center ❌ Cloud	❌

Summary of main differences in Confluence tracking options:

• Both tools offer robust tracking of page, blog post, and attachment views. They also support tracking of content creations, edits, deletions, and Confluence searches.
• Viewtracker offers more comprehensive tracking capabilities. It uniquely offers tracking of likes on content and comments, visit sources, and even special Confluence elements like Space Directory, Calendars, and Team Pages. Additionally, it supports tracking 3rd-party apps and content viewed through Jira Service Management help desks.
• Analytics for Confluence Cloud is the only tool to offer tracking of mentions within Confluence.
• Viewtracker for Data Center supports tracking Confluence content viewed through the mobile app.

🔒 Data Privacy: protection and retention

Feature	bitvoodoo’s Viewtracker	Analytics for Confluence
Track views from Confluence users and anonymous visitors for publicly available content	✅	✅
Access control of reports	✅	✅
Limit access to Confluence user analytics data for specific user groups	✅	✅
Track Confluence views without exact user information (Anonymize tracked user data)	✅	✅ Data Center ❌ Cloud
Track the number of views without any user information or unique viewers count (Extended privacy mode)	✅	❌
Exclude specific user groups or users from tracking	✅	❌
Exclude specific spaces from tracking	✅	❌
Set a data retention period	✅ Data Center ❌ Cloud	✅ Data Center ❌ Cloud
Audit log for changes in data privacy & settings	✅ Data Center ❌ Cloud	❌

Summary of the main differences in data privacy settings:

• Viewtracker strongly focuses on data privacy and offers various data privacy levels. For example, it can remove all user-specific information and only display the number of views, which is especially important for GDPR compliance. The built-in Confluence analytics feature does not cover this. However, both solutions allow admins to control which users can view the analytics of the Confluence site or individual spaces.
• Viewtracker allows admins to exclude specific user groups and spaces from tracking, which helps gather only relevant data and complies with stricter data regulations. The built-in analytics has no comparable feature.
• Viewtracker for Data Center also logs changes in the data privacy or other tracking settings, allowing administrators to monitor when each change was carried out and by whom.

📊 Standard reports and KPIs

Feature	bitvoodoo’s Viewtracker	Analytics for Confluence
Popular Spaces	✅	✅
Popular Content	✅	On space level only
Most active readers/viewers	✅	✅
Most active contributors	✅	✅
Summary of most important metrics: all views, viewers, new content, edits etc.	✅	❌
Report on global (instance) level	✅	✅
Report on a space level	✅	✅
Report of individual content pieces	✅	✅
Report of other available URLs and third party apps (Calendar, Directory, Mantra, etc).	✅	❌
Report of instance activity (busiest time, storage status, etc,. “System Reports” below)	✅	❌
Line/bar/area chart with views, creations and edits	✅	✅
Line/bar/area chart with viewers, contributors, comments and content versions	✅	❌
Line/bar/area chart with engaged users, likes on content, likes on comments	✅ Data Center ❌ Cloud	❌
List report of all spaces	✅	✅
List report of all contents	✅	✅
List report of all users	✅	✅
User audit	✅	❌
Page actions (delete, archive, access page history etc. accessible straight from the reports)	✅	❌
KPIs for administrators to manage Confluence licenses and storage (see “System Reports” below)	✅	❌

Summary of the main differences in reports and KPIs:

• User activity: This feature provides information on the number of pages created, edits, and comments posted by each user. Both tools provide these metrics.
• Understanding how users interact with Confluence is crucial for admins. Viewtracker provides a comprehensive list of pages with which a specific user has interacted, including views, creations, edits, and comments.
• Viewtracker offers a robust set of standard reports and KPIs, including a summary of the most important metrics in the reports. Analytics for Confluence covers essential reporting features but lacks some advanced metrics.
• Viewtracker Data Center uniquely offers a line, bar or area chart with engaged users, likes on content, and likes on comments, providing a more nuanced view of user engagement.
• Viewtracker allows admins to take direct actions on content displayed in reports: accessing the page history, seeing attachment details, and deleting unused content, among others. Analytics for Confluence offers no such shortcuts.
• Viewtracker’s System Report delivers KPIs like user count, space count, page/blog post count, attachment count, and attachment storage size. There is no comparable report on Analytics for Confluence.
• Lastly, Viewtracker possess an instance report which aims to help Confluence Adminstrators to detect the activity and engagement of their instance across time, as well as to discover when is their instance the most busy. Analytics for Confluence does not have a similar report.

⚙️ Report filters

Feature	bitvoodoo’s Viewtracker	Analytics for Confluence
Filter by content type	✅	✅
Filter by content status	✅	❌
Filter by Label	✅	❌
Filter views by source (JSM, Confluence App, Scroll Viewport etc.)	✅	❌
Filter by CQL queries	✅ Data Center ❌ Cloud	❌
Filter by login type (confluence users, anonymous users)	✅	❌
Filter for active or inactive users	✅
Filter for space type (exclude personal spaces)	✅	✅
Filter for tracked spaces and tracked users	✅	❌
Filter for only spaces/content with or without views, etc.	✅	❌
Filter by Space status	❌ Data Center ✅ Cloud	❌

Summary of the main differences in filters:

• Viewtracker offers a wide range of filtering options, making it more versatile for detailed analytics. For example, users can filter for spaces/content/attachments with or without views, with or without edits, newly created, their status, their type, etc. They can also filter for the source of a visitor to give more insights into how users access Confluence content.
  • Sources include Jira Service Management (knowledge base), the Confluence mobile app and Scroll Viewport, among others.
• Viewtracker also has a filter for a user’s login state, allowing you to differentiate between anonymous and Confluence users with login access.
• Analytics for Confluence offers basic filtering by content type (page, blog, attachment) and space type (general vs. personal space) but lacks more advanced options.
• Viewtracker for Data Center stands out for its ability to filter using CQL queries, offering more customization for users.

📶 System Reports for Confluence and space administrators

Feature	bitvoodoo’s Viewtracker	Analytics for Confluence
Total number of users per space and in the entire instance	✅	❌
Number of active and inactive users	✅	❌
Total number of spaces		✅ Mission control on Cloud Premium/Enterprise
Number of viewed spaces compared to total spaces	✅	❌
Total number of Pages/blog posts per space and in the entire instance	✅	✅ Mission control on Cloud Premium/Enterprise
Number of view pages compared to non-viewed	✅
Total number of attachments	✅	❌
Number of viewed attachments compared to total attachments	✅	❌
Attachment storage per space and in the entire instance	✅	❌
Graphs to visualize the total number of content across time	✅	❌
Graphs to visualize changes over time for active users, bandwidth usage, attachments, content, and spaces	✅	❌
Heatmap to display active and quiet periods in the entire instance or specific space	✅	❌
Top spaces based on storage increase, active users, new pages, and newly added attachments.	✅	❌
Content inventory to include content without any tracked views in the reports	✅	❌
List of existing public links and their views	❌	✅ Mission control on Cloud Premium/Enterprise

Confluence administrators are usually interested in keeping an overview of key performance indicators (KPIs) such as user count, space count, page/blog post count, attachment count, and attachment storage size. Viewtracker delivers these KPIs both on a global and on a space level. Analytics for Confluence offers no such overviews.
Next to the KPIs, Viewtracker also allows administrators to discover active vs. inactive users, content, spaces, top spaces based on growth metrics, and a heatmap based on active and “quiet” periods in Confluence.

📥 Data export and import

Feature	bitvoodoo’s Viewtracker	Analytics for Confluence
Export reports to CSV	✅	✅
API	✅	✅
Import existing views with Cloud Migration Assistant	✅ Cloud	❌
Manual import of views (for on-premise to on-premise migration)	✅ Data Center	❌
Import views tracked by Analytics for Confluence	✅ Data Center	n/a

Summary of main differences in export and import:

• Export data: It is crucial to share relevant Confluence analytics insights with stakeholders and export data into other company-specific tools. For this, both Viewtracker and Analytics for Confluence offer an export option.
  • Both options offer a CSV export suitable for any 3rd-party software.
  • Both solutions have an API to transfer analytics data to other software directly.
• Import data: When migrating Confluence Server or Data Center to Cloud, existing view data from Viewtracker is automatically imported to the Cloud with the Cloud Migration Assistant. When migrating from one on-premise instance to another instance, Viewtracker offers a manual export/import of the view data. Analytics for Confluence does not have the option to migrate existing data.
• Moreover, Viewtracker administrators can import collected views from Analytics for Confluence into the Viewtracker reports, ensuring continuity and preventing any loss of view data.

📎 Attachment tracking

Feature	bitvoodoo’s Viewtracker	Analytics for Confluence
Report for attachment views	✅	✅
Report for attachment creations, edits and deletions	✅	❌
Filter by Content Status	✅ Data Center ❌ Cloud	❌
Multiple graphic chart styles (line, bar, area)	✅	❌
Attachment report on a global level	✅	❌
Attachments – global level: Changes over time for attachment number, bandwidth usage, and storage size growth (see “System Reports”)	✅	❌
Attachment report on a space level	✅	❌
Attachments – space level: Changes across time for Attachment storage, attachment bandwidth, storage growth (see “System Reports”)	✅	❌
Report attachment views on a content level	✅	✅
Exclude file formats from tracking	✅	❌

Summary of the main differences in attachment tracking:

• While both solutions track attachment views and downloads, Viewtracker also tracks who created, edited, or deleted an attachment, when these actions happened, and which attachments are have been seen and which not.
• Viewtracker reports on page, space, and global attachment interactions, while Analytics for Confluence only lists attachment views per page.
• Viewtracker allows administrators to disable tracking of specific file types, such as images.
• Viewtracker gives administrators insights into attachment storage and growth.

🔎 Search tracking

Summary of the main differences in search analytics:

• Both solutions track user search queries, enabling you to understand what users are searching for and identify potential problems.
• The reports list the search terms, how often they were searched for, and how many users used the query. This allows you to identify the most popular searches.
• Analytics for Confluence also indicates the click-through rate of the search term and the most clicked content and spaces.
• In contrast, Viewtracker displays the number of results for each search term, allowing you to find searches that uncover no Confluence content. This can point you to potential content gaps.

🧩 Report Macros

It is often helpful to display analytics data on a Confluence page. With the Viewtracker macro: Analytics Report Macro, you can select various metrics for a space or page and display them as charts, tiles or text/lists. The macro also allows you to make selected analytics data accessible for users who don’t have access to Viewtracker.

• This macro is available for both Cloud and Data Center. Read more about it in our documentation or our blog post.
• The built-in Analytics for Confluence has no report macros.

Feature	bitvoodoo’s Viewtracker	Analytics for Confluence
Analytics Report: Chart – Displays selected metrics (e.g., likes, views, comments) as Line, Bar, or Area Charts.	✅	❌
Analytics Report: Tiles –Displays selected metrics in the shape of tiles.	✅	❌
Analytics Report: Text – Displays selected metrics in text fields.	✅	❌
Viewtracker macro Used to track and display metrics. It is now replaced by the macros above.	Deprecated	❌
Viewtracker Report macro Used to display a specific page’s view count and viewer list. It is now replaced by the macros above.	Deprecated	❌
Popular Content macro Used to display the top content of a space.	Deprecated	❌

Summary and recommendations

Both Confluence’s built-in analytics and Viewtracker – Analytics for Confluence are powerful analytics solutions. Far beyond simply tracking Confluence page views, the tools help Confluence administrators gather and analyze usage data and statistics about their Confluence instance. They track Confluence user activity for individual users or entire organizations, providing valuable insights into user behavior and content engagement.

Which solution best fits each organization is a matter of Confluence plan and personal preference. While larger organizations who are already using Confluence Data Center, Cloud Premium or Enterprise might stick with the built-in analytics options, smaller companies might also want to dig deep into their Confluence usage data and consider Viewtracker. Companies of any size with specific analytics requirements who are not satisfied with the built-in analytics options might also be drawn to Viewtracker with its more granular features and controls.

Regardless of your company size and Confluence deployment, Viewtracker is an affordable Confluence analytics app that benefits everyone. We would love you to try Viewtracker and start analyzing your Confluence data today.

To learn about each Viewtracker feature in more detail, access the Viewtracker Data Center or the Viewtracker Cloud documentation.