Best analytics tools in 2025
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Data analytics software is more important than ever for businesses and organizations. Data is the new gold, and these tools aren’t just nice to have, they’re essential. Analytics tools help you turn data into clear, actionable insights. These tools help you stay ahead of the competition, whether it's scaling digital marketing, optimizing user tracking behavior, or gaining competitive intelligence.
In this guide, we’re breaking down the best analytics tools you need to know about. The Cybernews team and I looked at everything from real-world feedback to providers’ key features, ranging from customizable dashboards to cross-device tracking to see which tools made the cut. Our eight picks are the ones that can help businesses grow.
We’ll take you through each tool’s strengths and potential drawbacks. By the end of this guide, you’ll have valuable information with which to choose the right provider.
Best analytics tools – shortlist
- Semrush – best all-in-one solution for digital marketers
- Mixpanel – ideal for product analytics and user behavior insights
- Moz – great for simplified SEO with essential features
- Matomo – best for privacy-centric web analytics
- Adobe Analytics – best for enterprise-level analytics
Our experienced team of researchers, writers, editors, and technical support thoroughly tests digital marketing products working by clearly outlined and structured processes. We provide you with a big picture by combining in-depth, hands-on testing with insights from acknowledged industry research. Our purpose is to support you in selecting apps and tools that will meet your marketing objectives. Learn how we test digital marketing tools.
The best marketing automation tools compared
The following table will help you compare the top marketing automation tools. I’ve taken key metrics ranging from who each tool is best for, to top features and starting prices.
| Provider | Best for | Free version | Top features | Starting price |
| Semrush | Robust digital marketing suite | No | SEO tools, content strategy, competitor analysis, rank tracking, technical audits | $139.95/month |
| Mixpanel | Real-time product analytics | Yes | Real-time data collection, cohort analysis, custom dashboards, funnel reports | $24/month |
| Moz | SEO and marketing insights | No | Keyword explorer, link tracking, site audits, rank tracking | $49/month |
| Matomo | Privacy-focused analytics | No | On-premise option, customizable dashboards, heatmaps, conversion tracking | $26/month |
| Adobe Analytics | Enterprise-grade analytics | No | Real-time reports, predictive analytics, cross-device tracking | On request |
| AlphaSense | Market intelligence and research | No | AI-powered search, trend analysis, personalized alerts | On request |
| Hootsuite | Social media management | Yes | Scheduling, analytics, team collaboration tools, content library | $99 per seat/month |
| Zoho | All-in-one marketing automation | Yes | Multichannel campaigns, behavior tracking, CRM integration | $20 per seat/month |
The 8 best analytics tools – our detailed list
Next, I’ll expand on the specifications, features, and pros and cons of our top eight data analysis software programs. Here’s our detailed list of the eight best data analytics solutions.
1. Semrush – best analytics tool overall
| Best for: | Increasing search engine rankings and outpacing competitors |
| Free trial: | Yes |
| Top features: | Keyword Magic Tool for in-depth research, domain analytics with deep historical data |
| Starting price: | $139.95/month |
My top pick Semrush is one of the best analytics software and helps millions of users and top brands boost digital marketing with tools for SEO, PPC, and content marketing. It will boost your online visibility and performance.
Primary purpose and niche
Semrush is ideal for digital marketers, agencies, and businesses of any size focused on optimizing their SEO, PPC, and content marketing. You can use its tools to craft data-driven strategies.
Key features
The Keyword Magic Tool offers thousands of keyword suggestions for building content strategies. Also, the Backlink Analytics Tool identifies link-building opportunities and monitors competitors’ backlink profiles. For targeted campaign insights, the Position Tracking Tool monitors keyword rankings across devices and locations.
Pricing structure
There are several pricing plans including Pro at $139.95/month, Guru at $249.95/month, and Business at $499.95/month. The Pro plan is perfect for freelancers and small teams, while the Guru plan adds tools for historical data and content marketing. Finally, the Business plan works for larger organizations, adding advanced metrics, API access, and extended limits.
2. Mixpanel – best for advanced funnel tracking and real-time user behavior metrics
| Best for: | Understanding user behavior to optimize digital experiences |
| Free trial: | Yes |
| Top features: | Real-time data tracking, customizable dashboards, Cohort Analysis for behavior trends |
| Starting price: | $24/month |
Mixpanel helps over 20,000 businesses globally make data-driven decisions with its product analysis toolset. This data analytics tool gives you insights into user behavior for companies to drive engagement.
Primary purpose and niche
Mixpanel is great for product teams, marketers, and data analysts. It’s ideal for industries like SaaS, eCommerce, and media and entertainment. Businesses use it to look at user actions, optimize digital products, and track KPIs.
Key features
The tool offers real-time analytics to track user interactions across apps and websites. It offers instant insights into customer behavior, and its behavioral cohorts help segment users based on actions.
Also, its customizable dashboards let teams visualize important metrics like retention, conversion, and funnel performance. Furthermore, features like Lexicon Data Dictionaries ensure data quality and organization.
Pricing structure
The Growth plan starts at $24/month, offering advanced analytics and 20 million events. For large businesses, the Enterprise plan offers on-request pricing with unlimited events, better security, and personalized support.
3. Moz – best beginner-friendly SEO tool
| Best for: | Improving search visibility and simplifying SEO for all |
| Free trial: | Yes |
| Top features: | Keyword Explorer for traffic-driving keywords, Domain Overview for site analysis, Site Crawl for technical audits |
| Starting price: | $49/month |
Moz has been in the SEO game for over 20 years. Today, this all-in-one platform simplifies SEO for you via actionable insights and tools powered by AI.
Primary purpose and niche
Moz augments any online analytics endeavor, particularly if you want to boost your SEO performance. It’s great for beginners but also offers advanced tools for seasoned marketers.
Key features
Moz’s Keyword Explorer finds high-impact keywords by analyzing search volume, intent, and difficulty. Its Domain Overview is a snapshot of key site metrics, while Site Crawl provides in-depth audits, as well as error reports with recommendations. Its AI-powered insights clean up workflows, and the MozBar Premium Chrome extensions give you on-the-go SEO research.
Pricing structure
Plans start range from $49/month (Starter) up to $299/month (Large). The starter plan supports one website with 50 tracked keywords. The Large plan covers up to 24 sites with 3,000 keywords.
4. Matomo – best for self-hosted analytics complying with the GDPR
| Best for: | GDPR compliance and full data ownership |
| Free trial: | Yes |
| Top features: | 100% data ownership, customizable reports, no data sampling |
| Starting price: | $26/month |
Matomo is privacy-focused, and is an alternative to tools like Google Analytics, giving your business full control over analytics data. It has flexible hosting options (cloud or self-hosted) and supports global privacy regulations like the GDPR and CCPA.
Primary purpose and niche
Designed for organizations that need data sovereignty and strict privacy compliance. Matomo is perfect for the government, finance, and healthcare sectors.
Key features
Matomo never shares your data with third parties. It has privacy-friendly tools like cookie-less tracking, IP anonymization, and DoNotTrack support. Also, advanced features like heatmaps, session recordings, and A/B testing will help optimize your experience. Additionally, you can tailor Matomo to your needs with custom reports and API integrations.
Pricing structure
Plans start at $26/month for cloud hosting (50,000 hits/month). The on-premise version is free to download, though premium plugins aren’t free.
5. Adobe Analytics – best analytics tool for large enterprises
| Best for: | Enterprises that need detailed customer journey insights |
| Free trial: | No |
| Top features: | Cross-device tracking, predictive analytics, data integration |
| Starting price: | On request |
Adobe Analytics is a professional enterprise analytics platform. If you run a large organization, it lets you take data from multiple sources and extract actionable insights for data-driven decision-making.
Primary purpose and niche
It’s ideal for large enterprises that need extensive data integration, predictive insights, and flexible reporting. Adobe Analytics is widely used in sectors like retail, finance, and media.
Key features
This platform offers cross-device tracking, so you can analyze customer journeys across multiple devices. Its advanced predictive analytics help you identify trends and forecast outcomes. Since it’s an Adobe product, it integrates with the Adobe Experience Cloud. In addition, its Analysis Workspace is powerful for data visualization and reporting.
Pricing structure
Adobe Analytics doesn’t offer fixed pricing tiers, a free trial, or a free version as such. Since it’s an enterprise solution, everything is offered on a request basis.
6. AlphaSense – best for AI-powered market intelligence
| Best for: | Strategic decisions with AI-driven market insights |
| Free trial: | No |
| Top features: | AI-enhanced search, generative insights, premium data access |
| Starting price: | On request |
AlphaSense is a cutting-edge market intelligence platform. It uses proprietary AI and NLP technologies to quickly find critical insights from 10,000+ premium data sources. AlphaSense is one of the data analytics software companies that are trusted by 85% of S&P 100.
Primary purpose and niche
AlphaSense is designed for professionals in industries like finance, consulting, and healthcare. If you require fast insights for competitive intelligence or investment analysis, this is the platform for you.
Key features
The platform offers advanced AI tools like Smart Synonyms for expanded searches and Generative Search for on-demand insights. You can access data from regulatory filings, expert transcripts, and financial reports. Smart Summaries and customizable dashboards simplify the analysis, and real-time alerts and sentiment analysis are there to stay ahead of trends.
Pricing structure
Like Adobe Analytics, this professional solution doesn’t have any fixed pricing tiers, a free trial, or a free version. Scalable annual subscriptions tailored to team size and content needs are available upon request.
7. Hootsuite – best for social media management and scheduling
| Best for: | Managing several social media accounts at once efficiently |
| Free trial: | Yes |
| Top features: | Centralized inbox, advanced scheduling, competitive benchmarking |
| Starting price: | $99 per seat/month |
For social media management, Hootsuite has you covered. It’s an all-in-one social media management platform trusted by over 22 million users worldwide. This tool simplifies scheduling, publishing, monitoring, and analyzing content across multiple social media platforms.
Primary purpose and niche
It’s ideal for small-to-large businesses and agencies looking to manage multiple social media accounts from one unified dashboard. It includes team collaboration tools and AI-driven insights.
Key features
Hootsuite offers publishing tools like AI-assisted content generation, optimal post-scheduling, and Canva integration for design creation. Also, its social inbox centralizes all of your private and public messages. Furthermore, it includes ROI tracking and advanced social listening to monitor brand sentiment and trending topics.
Pricing structure
Hootsuite has three pricing tiers: Professional at $99/month for one user and 10 social accounts, Team at $249/month for three users and 20 social accounts, and Enterprise with custom pricing at five users and 50+ accounts. Enterprise includes advanced features like employee advocacy, advanced analytics, and unlimited ad spending.
8. Zoho – best for all-in-one marketing automation
| Best for: | SMBs seeking versatile market automation |
| Free trial: | Yes |
| Top features: | Multichannel campaigns, behavior tracking, CRM integration |
| Starting price: | $20 per seat/month |
Zoho helps businesses generate, maintain, and convert leads using multichannel campaigns. Any organization can use Zoho’s data analysis program and boost its ROI with its extensive features.
Primary purpose and niche
Zoho is great if you’re looking for a centralized platform to automate marketing tasks. Lead generation, behavioral tracking, and CRM integrations are its strengths.
Key features
Key features include multichannel campaigns across email, SMS, WhatsApp, and social media. Furthermore, you can track customer actions on websites, visualize and automate custom engagement paths for prospects, and automate abandoned cart follow-ups. It syncs effortlessly with Zoho CRM, Salesforce, and e-commerce platforms.
Pricing structure
The Standard plan costs $20/month, ranging to custom Enterprise plans. The Standard plan includes bare-bones automation tools, email marketing, and WhatsApp marketing. Professional adds journey template and A/B testing. Enterprise offers lead attribution, advanced pop-ups, and workspace customization.
How did we select these analytics tools?
At Cybernews, selecting these analytics tools was a challenge. The world of marketing platforms is so vast and diverse, with platforms ranging from beginner-friendly automation solutions to enterprise powerhouses.
Our goal here was to show you how these data analyst tools offer a great balance between functionality, reliability, and value. Here are the main factors we took into account when choosing these analytics tools:
- Availability: We think that tools should be accessible to businesses everywhere, including various industries and locations. Also, free trials and freemium plans were an important factor. Finally, cross-platform compatibility and integration with major software ecosystems was another one of our criteria.
- Reliability: Consistency in performance is key. The platforms we choose must handle high-volume data and critical tasks without failures. Also, regular updates and strong customer support (and proven track records) are essential.
- Cost: Price varies widely with analytics tools, particularly with enterprise-focused options where costs can skyrocket. We aimed to provide the widest range of pricing tiers so that you can determine cost-to-value for your needs.
- Use cases: We considered use cases ranging from niche applications to overall versatility. For us, software that could be used for both startups and large enterprises scored higher.
Ultimately, I believe that online analytics tools must deliver results, otherwise you’re just left with features. We prioritized platforms that have a proven track record of scaling businesses and those that would result in informed decisions. Tools that simplified modern marketing scored the highest in our book.
What are analytics tools and how do they work?
Analytics tools turn raw data into something useful. Namely, these tools take information (like how many people visited your website, what they clicked on, or where they came from) and make it easy to understand.
At its core, an analytical tool helps you understand what’s working and what isn’t. Initially, the tool connects to your website, app, or other systems (where your data lives). Then, it starts to collect information, like how long someone stays on a page or which products they purchase.
Next, the tool processes all of this data, organizing it into reports, charts, or dashboards. This turns into insights that allow you and your business to make better decisions.
However, this is just the beginning. Today, advanced tools can track patterns over time, identify trends, and even attempt to predict future outcomes thanks to artificial intelligence. Specifically, an analytics tool may show you which campaigns drive the most sales or where a customer will disconnect during their journey.
Today, the internet is massive, and analytics tools are essential if you manage a website, or oversee digital campaigns. Why? Without these tools, it’s a guessing game.
As you grow your business, you’ll need to know how to create marketing campaigns that lead to sales, and how and why that happens. You’ll want to know why customers abandon their carts before checkout, or how to create and automate a better email campaign. This is why analytics tools’ intelligence is essential.
What types of analytics are used in marketing?
Marketing analytics lets businesses turn guesswork into strategy by providing data-driven insights across different platforms and channels. Here are the most common types of marketing analytics you’ll come across:
- Web analytics: Tools like Semrush, Matomo, and Adobe Analytics track how people interact with your website. For instance, metrics like pageviews, time spent on a page, and conversions tell you if you’re doing well or why (and if) your visitors are leaving. This is crucial to understand a website's performance.
- Social media analytics: Social media is much more than just likes and shares. Rather, it’s a goldmine of insights. For social media, tools like Hootsuite scan engagement, identify top-performing posts or even track social campaigns that convert to sales. What resonates most with customers is the key, and these tools can pinpoint that.
- Email marketing analytics: Though email may seem ancient, it’s still a significant factor in business success. Platforms like Zoho can track open rates, click-throughs, and unsubscribes. This is crucial as a pathway to improve overall engagement.
- Attribution analytics: Attribution analytics tools track the customer’s journey across channels to show which efforts directly drive sales. Tools like Mixpanel and Matomo can show you which efforts directly drive sales. This is your proof that an ad or social campaign has paid off.
As you can see, a great analytics tool can give you a 360-degree view of your marketing stance. With a good tool, you can vastly improve your marketing efforts.
How to choose the right analytics tool
Picking the right analytics tool based on your business needs is far from easy. That’s why we created this guide. As experts at Cybernews, we’ve narrowed down the following key considerations when choosing the right analytics tool:
- Your needs: Identify your top priorities first. Remember to pick a tool according to the level of your team’s level of technical expertise.
- Key features: Pinpoint the key features you need. This may be data insights, integrations, or customization. It may also be all of the former. Few tools cover it all (and they’re not cheap) so consider this carefully.
- Scalability and support: Are you growing your business? Pick a tool that can handle increased data as you expand. Do you need extensive customer support? Ensure the tool you use offers that via live chat, email, or an extensive knowledge base.
- Weigh cost and value: Prices vary a lot in the analytics tools sphere. You have free trial options with limited features, and you have enterprise solutions costing thousands of dollars per year. Don’t pay for unused features.
- Test and compare: Of course, none of the above matters if you don’t run a trial to evaluate performance and ease of use. You can also ask experts about their experiences with different tools for a more informed decision.
By taking the above into account, you’ll have a structured approach to choosing the right analytics tool. Taking notes and testing things out is never the wrong strategy.
Final word on best analytics tools
An analytics tool is one of the best investments you can make for your modern business. Far from just crunching numbers, analytics platforms these days offer you customer insights and strategies to drive real results.
No matter if it’s boosting SEO, tracking customer checkout behavior, email performance, or complying with privacy laws, there’s a tool out there for you and your team. Out of the eight best analytics tools in our guide, we chose Semrush as our winner. Why? Simply because it offers the best of all worlds.
Then again, Semrush may not be ideal for you if you’re a large organization. In that case, you may need Adobe Analytics. Is privacy your top priority? Matomo is the tool for you.
All in all, the key is defining your needs and the needs of your team. Don’t forget to test the tool before committing, and that is the most important piece of advice I can offer you.
FAQ
What is the difference between web analytics and marketing analytics?
Web analytics is about tracking website metrics like traffic and pageviews. Marketing analytics takes it a step further (beyond the website) and analyzes multiple channels.
Are free analytics tools worth using?
Yes, free analytics tools are a fantastic starting point. Platforms like Google Analytics are free but lack the professional features offered by premium solutions like Semrush or Adobe Analytics.
Can analytics tools integrate with other marketing platforms?
Yes, many modern analytics tools integrate seamlessly with platforms like CRMs, email marketing software, and social media tools.
How can analytics tools improve my website’s performance?
An analytics tool can enhance your website’s performance by identifying weak spots, like high bounce rates or slow-loading pages. User behavior and traffic source data can allow you to optimize content, improve user experience, and boost your conversion rates.
How secure are the data privacy features of analytics tools?
Most reputable analytics tools tend to take data security and privacy seriously. This is very important since violating strict data regulations like the EU’s GDPR and the US’s CCPA may result in large fines. Stored and processed data should ideally be secure and private.
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