Urchin moves to a web analytics ASP business model

Urchin is a software editor that provides web analytics software and is pretty well implanted in the hosting world. Until now, they provided software packages that one would run on their premises or through their ISP. But their latest version is now provided "on demand" in ASP mode, which I can't help but think that this confirms the trend to use web beacons over log analysis software for web analytics -- as I advised previously -- which also is a perfect candidate for an ASP business.

A bit of warning about Urchin 6 "On Demand", its base price is not the lowest in this market, it's good for only 100,000 page views per month(*) and the extra cost of $1 per mille is absolutely, utterly, ridiculously expensive compared to what you can get with more powerful services from more experienced competitors in this business. I reckon there is a gap below the 2M page views per month, a lower limit for the big players, and Urchin is attacking this entry-level market. But they should revise their scale. For a comparison, WebSideStory with its HitBoxProfessional service starts at $35/month for 50,000 page views per month and $0.65 per mille.

And a bigger warning: always test several solutions thoroughly. All suppliers have different offerings and ways to crunch the metrics, and it's not easy to find the one that suits your needs.

(*) which is the level of traffic this very site receives right now.