Benchmarking Wordpress: Google Analytics plugins

I have decided to benchmark Google Analytics plugins for Wordpress. I have done this test once before, but I decided (perhaps wrongly) to delete all my old posts when I reinstalled and re-themed my blog, and since all the plugins have been updated since then it will be interesting to do the test again.

The following plugins are tested:

• Google Analyticator (v5.3.1)
• Google Analytics for Wordpress (v3.2.3)
• Google Analytics (v1.0.1)

How did I perform the test?

I do the test on a fresh install of Wordpress, and use Firebug while loading the page. I refresh the page 5 times, and calculate the average loadtime. I run the test without any plugins installed first so that I have a base to test against. I use the plugin WP-Memory-Usage to measure memory usage.

Conclusion

Google Analytics for Wordpress and Google Analytics performed roughly the same in this test (though Google Analytics adds the least memory overhead), so if you want simplicity go for Google Analytics. If you want more options go for Google Analytics for Wordpress. So what about Google Analyticator? Well, it adds more overhead than the other two, and uses more memory, but it comes with a nice admin dashboard widget that comes in handy if you want a quick view of the statistics without needing to log on to the analytics webpage.

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