Culture Index exists to catalog cultural institutions online, and highlight the best practices that inspire us.
Launching with a focus on museums and building from there, we are a resource for both research and discovery. Browse information about online communications, and discover ideas with examples of what’s possible for cultural institutions in the digital space.
As a community project facilitated by Base, we invite you to use and contribute to this growing resource.
Matomo
Matomo (formerly known as Piwik) is an open-source web analytics platform that provides detailed insights into website traffic, user behavior, and engagement. Unlike Google Analytics (GA), Matomo offers full control over your data, giving organizations the ability to host the platform on their own servers or use Matomo’s cloud-based service. This makes Matomo particularly appealing to organizations that prioritize data privacy and compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR.
One of the key differences between Matomo and Google Analytics is the emphasis on data ownership and privacy. With Matomo, all the data collected is fully owned and controlled by the organization, ensuring that no third-party vendors can access or use the data for other purposes. This level of control is crucial for organizations operating in privacy-sensitive industries, or those that require transparency over how data is collected and processed.
Another significant difference is that Matomo is open-source, allowing for greater customization and flexibility. Organizations can modify the platform to meet their specific needs, such as integrating it with custom applications or building new features. Matomo also offers a wide range of features that match or exceed those of Google Analytics, including advanced segmentation, goal tracking, and real-time analytics. However, while GA is entirely free, Matomo’s self-hosted version is free but the cloud-hosted version and additional premium features may require a paid plan.
Matomo’s key advantage for many organizations lies in its ability to offer robust analytics without compromising privacy. For those looking to avoid Google’s ecosystem and maintain greater control over their data, Matomo serves as a powerful alternative to Google Analytics. While GA is more widely used and offers seamless integration with other Google products, Matomo provides similar insights while giving users more autonomy over how their data is collected and used.