MonsterInsights Review: Is It the Best Google Analytics Plugin?

I run a dozen WordPress sites for various clients and projects.

Previously, checking the performance of each website drove me crazy. I had to log into Google Analytics for each website separately.

Then, I would spend a lot of time trying to remember which property belonged to which website. Constantly switching between tabs cost me hours a week. And, I often lost track of what data I was looking at.

But the real problem is far more serious than convenience.

Each of my websites has different goals and metrics that actually matter. My e-commerce site requires conversion tracking, while my blog focuses on page views and engagement metrics.

The reality is that Google Analytics 4 shows statistics for each website, but I only need specific data for each website.

At first, I tried bookmarking each Google Analytics account.

This didn’t work because I still had to jump between dashboards and navigate through unrelated reports. I later tried using Google’s mobile app, but it was too clunky for managing multiple properties.

I was frustrated and wasting precious time that could have been spent growing my sites. I needed a tool that would not only import my data into WordPress, but also allow me to customize what was displayed for each site.

So I started looking for a WordPress plugin that would simplify Google Analytics data and show only the important information. Over the months, I tested dozens of analytics plugins.

I wanted something that would allow me to view key metrics without leaving WordPress and customize the dashboard to each site’s unique needs.

After extensive testing, I found that MonsterInsights might be the solution I had been looking for.

So, in this MonsterInsights review, I’m going to show you what I found and whether it’s worth your investment.

Key points you will learn:

• Does MonsterInsights Really Save Time for Multi-Site Owners?
• How to customize your analytics dashboard for different website goals
• The Real Cost and Value of Managing Multiple WordPress Sites
• Which features are most important to busy website owners?
• My honest recommendation after months of testing

What is MonsterInsights?

MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics 4 WordPress plugin. It allows you to transform complex GA-4 data into something simple and easy to understand and interpret quickly.

You can customize your Google Analytics 4.0 data to focus on what’s most important to you and analyze it right in your WordPress dashboard.

This means you don’t need to change platforms to analyze your data, streamlining your workflow and avoiding confusion.

You can set up MonsterInsights to track real-time analytics, SEO rankings, affiliate0 links, form signups, video engagement, and more.

Since MonsterInisights creates custom analytics reports, it can help you improve specific aspects of your website.

For example, you can use this information to understand which videos, affiliate links, and forms perform well. This can guide you in creating truly effective content, forms, and other content that engages your users.

With MonsterInsights, there are no random reports, no long setup processes, or no complicated charts.

If this GA-4 plugin is right for you, visit the MonsterInsights coupon page to get the best deal.

What is MonsterInsights Lite?

MonsterInsights now offers both premium and free versions of the plugin. The free version is always available for you to try out, ensuring you are confident in the product before purchasing.

It helps you quickly get basic but specific 0 data about your website. You can use MonsterInsights Lite to get the following information:

• Meeting
• Page Views
• New and returning visitors
• Top performing pages and posts
• Top referring domains
• And more…

Therefore, MonsterInsights Lite is perfect for small businesses, freelancers, and more.

To set up the free version of MonsterInsights, simply go to your WordPress plugin repository and install it like any other plugin.

If you run into any issues, here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to install the plugin .

MonsterInsights Review

In this MonsterInsights review, we’ll focus on the Pro version. This will help us thoroughly analyze this Google Analytics plugin so you can get all the information.

To ensure you have an easy read through this review, we have divided it into several sections. You can click on the links below to jump directly to the section of the review you want to read.

• Installation and Setup
• custom made
• Easy to use
• feature
• Support and Documentation
• Pricing
• Pros and Cons
• FAQ
• Final Verdict
• Note: Before you install and set up MonsterInsights, make sure you have a Google Analytics 4 account. But don’t worry, creating an account is easy. You’ll need a Gmail account to get started. Simply head to the Google Analytics sign-up page and select “Get Started Now.”

With that said, let’s get started with this MonsterInsights review.

Installation and Setup

What we like about MonsterInsights is how easy it is to install and set up.

First, visit the plugin’s official website and sign up. MonsterInsights offers 3 plans, which means you can quickly find a package that fits your budget.

You also get a 14-day, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee for extra security, and you can purchase packages securely using a variety of credit cards or PayPal, giving you plenty of choice.

After you’ve chosen and purchased a plan, head to the Downloads tab in your MonsterInsights account. Then, download the plugin’s ZIP file and copy the license key to activate MonsterInsights Pro in WordPress.

Now, go to your WordPress dashboard and proceed to Plugins » Add New . Here, upload your MonsterInsights ZIP file and activate it like any other plugin.

After that, you will be automatically redirected to the Monsterinsights wizard. If you are not automatically redirected to the setup wizard, go to Insights » Setup Checklist and select Start Wizard.

Now, this wizard helps you directly go through the setup process and customization of the plugin. This ensures that you have personalized and all features ready before using the plugin.

On the first screen, tell MonsterInsights whether your website is a business site, blog, or eCommerce store. This will help the plugin more easily set up functionality for your specific needs.

After that, just paste the license key you copied earlier  **to activate MonsterInsights Pro. Then click on ** “Connect MonsterInsights” to link your WordPress dashboard to Google Analytics.

You will then select the Gmail account you registered with Google Analytics in the next pop-up window. Finally, select “Allow” to grant MonsterInsights permission.

Now, in the next setup wizard screen, you will use the toggle buttons and checkboxes to enable different MonsterInsight features.

Let’s discuss these customization options and more.

custom made

As we mentioned, the setup wizard also allows you to customize MonsterInsights from your WordPress dashboard.

On the first customization page of the setup wizard, use the toggle buttons to enable Event Tracking and Enhanced Link Attribution . Below this, you’ll see all of the default file types that MonsterInsights tracks. You can easily add more file types to track in this area.

On the next screen, you can also use the toggle button to activate the following:

• 20+ advanced tracking features including conversion tracking, author tracking, custom sizes, scrolling, and more
• Add the recommended plugin to my website
• Privacy Compliance Plugin
• Advanced Reporting
• E-commerce Tracking
• Media Tracking

Now, once you go through the setup wizard process, the final screen will show you everything you just set up and tell you if anything is broken.

But with MonsterInsights, you can edit or further personalize these features and more after the initial wizard customization process.

Another interesting thing we found while reviewing Monsterinsights is how conveniently placed these customization options are.

Let’s start with the customization options you find on the Insights » Settings Checklist page.

Below the setup wizard, you will see different tabs to help you quickly personalize MonsterInsights to make it your customization hub.

You can quickly enable these features by selecting the button next to the tab or clicking "Learn More" and being redirected to the page where you can activate it.

For example, you can enable the following features on this page:

• Connect WordPress to Google Search Console
• Tracking Form Conversions
• Add site notes
• Activate the performance plugin
• Set custom size

If you want more customization with Monsterinsights, head to Insights » Settings in WordPress.

Here you will see different analysis tabs listed based on what you are measuring.

For example, in the Engagement tab, you can use the toggle button to enable demographics and interest reporting for remarketing and advertising.

Then below, you can use the toggle button to anonymize your IP address . This ensures user privacy and complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

After this, you can also use the toggle buttons to enable more specific link attribution , including “Anchor Tracking” and “Tag Links in RSS.”

You can then choose to enable scroll depth tracking, add domains for cross-domain tracking, and set up file tracking by adding file type abbreviations.

If you are running an affiliate site, go to the Publishers tab.

Here you can customize the Affiliate Link path to match your brand and style. This can help you cloak your affiliate links so they look less spammy, which can increase conversions.

You can do this by going to the Conversions tab where you can add your custom dimensions. Here, use the drop-down menu to select between Tags, Login, Category, Author, User ID, and Post Type and add them to your custom dimensions.

Now, as part of the tracking process, you can request MonsterInsights to send you weekly reports. All you have to do is go to the Advanced tab and enable email digests using the toggle button.

Enter the email address below where you'd like to receive the digest, and you're done.

On the same page, though, you can enable permissions for your team to ensure only authorized people can perform certain tasks.

First, use the drop-down menu to select the users that are allowed to view the report and save your settings. Then, use another drop-down menu to define the users that you want to exclude from analytics tracking, such as WordPress administrators and editors.

This will ensure you get more accurate results without having to track your team's site interactions.

Now, if you run a white label company or agency, you can share more personalized PDF reports from MonsterInsights. Still on the same page, find the “ Export PDF Report ” section and select “Use Custom Header Image.”

You can add your company logo to brand any detailed report before sharing it.

Easy to use

As mentioned above, one of the advantages of MonsterInsights is that you can view Google Analytics reports within WordPress. This makes it easy to use and allows even beginners to analyze their website data.

You can quickly find your WordPress website analytics by navigating to Insights » Reports .

Here you will see different tabs that track different metrics.

You get tabs like Overview, Traffic, Search Console, Ecommerce, Forms, Real-time, and more. Just select any tab to see a breakdown of the data for that category. Also, tabs like Traffic, Publishers, and Ecommerce come with drop-down menus to open more specific data.

Below the analytics tab is a graph that gives you a visual representation of your data, and you can toggle between sessions and page views.

You can set a date range for your data from the drop-down menu, including Today, Yesterday, Last Week, Last Month, Last 7 Days, and Last 30 Days. You can also set a custom date range to find the exact tracking window you need.

If you want to quickly download or share your data, use the Export PDF Report button. You can also store your data locally as a PDF file for added security.

Below the chart is the Site Notes section.

Here you can add the date and category along with the site notes you made. You can also add a star next to a note to mark it as "important." This is especially important if you run a large site or multiple sites with a lot of tracking variables.

In addition to graphs, MonsterInsights also allows you to see actual metric numbers.

Below the graph, you'll see the number of sessions and page views. Also on the same tab, you'll see the average session duration in minutes and the bounce rate in percent. Below each number, the percent change from the previous metric is shown.

For example, if you set your data date range to "Last 30 Days," the percentage will show whether your metric has increased or decreased compared to the previous 30-day range.

Next, MonsterInsights provides a chart showing new vs. returning visitors to help you visualize this data.

In addition to this, you get a device breakdown chart showing which users used desktop, tablet, or mobile. You can also see the percentages of these data next to the chart.

Additionally, you can use MonsterInsights to quickly view the top 10 countries driving your traffic, the top 10 referring domains, and the top 10 posts and pages. This gives you a quick overview of your site’s performance without having to look at a ton of data.

Now, most of the time, the data you receive from MonsterInsights will be enough to help you do a proper website analysis. But if you want to see the raw data in Google Analytics, just select the button below these listings.

For example, if you want to see metrics for all referrals to your site, select “See all referral sources” and MonsterInsights will redirect you to GA-4 under this specific report.

feature

Although we have discussed quite a few features in the ease of use, customization, and installation sections, let’s take a deeper look at them.

1. Track form conversions

Forms are an essential tool for any WordPress website. They help you create an easy two-way communication channel between you and your users.

Forms are great for getting feedback through contact forms, surveys, etc. They can also help you grow your mailing list as they are great lead generators.

Because of how important they are, tracking your forms is extremely important, and MonsterInsights is the perfect solution.

MonsterInsights can help you gain insights into forms created with most popular form builders. You can track forms created with WPForms , Formidable Forms, Gravity Forms , and more.

This Google Analytics plugin for WordPress makes it super easy to access your form analytics data by going to Insights » Reports » Forms . Here you can see information like form ID, impressions, conversion rate, and more.

This information can help you improve the user experience by identifying forms that are difficult for users to fill out. You can also identify your best performing forms and create more forms with similar layout, length, and fields.

2. E-commerce tracking

One of the strengths of MonsterInsights is its ability to connect to a variety of tools and WordPress plugins. Among them, the most popular are eCommerce WordPress tools.

You can connect MonsterInsights with WooCoomerce to help you track both physical and digital products. It integrates with Easy Digital Downloads to help you track digital products. Additionally, you can connect this analytics plugin with MemberPress and LifterLMS to track course purchases.

Since eCommerce is such a broad field, MonsterInsights divides the eCommerce tracking tabs into Report Overview, Channels, and Coupons.

You can use coupon metrics to see the effectiveness of your promotions, and funnel metrics to measure conversion rates. The overview option can help you get a more comprehensive view of your entire online store operations.

In addition, MonsterInsights can help you track the total number of "add to cart" and "remove from cart" actions. This can help you understand how many users abandon the shopping cart and find ways to increase conversion rates.

3. Custom size

Now, one of the main reasons you should consider using MonsterInsights is how easy it is to set up custom dimensions. As mentioned above, setting up custom dimensions using the Google Analytics 4 dashboard can be difficult. You need to understand things like GA4 events, rows, columns, and more.

With Monsterinsights, you simply select the custom dimension you want to track from the drop-down menu. The plugin will add additional GA-4 filters for you.

MonsterInsights can help you track super specific custom dimensions and help you figure out things like:

• Which author creates the best content
• Which content types are most popular?
• When is the best time to publish content?
• Tracking logged in user activity
• Categories and tags that bring the most traffic

4. Scroll Depth

Even though custom dimensions can help you understand which posts bring in the most traffic, you can still learn how interested users are in specific posts.

One way to do this is to use scroll depth analysis. This metric helps you understand what percentage of depth users scroll through your content. MonsterInsights shows you categories and their average scroll percentage. You can also get the overall scroll percentage for your entire website.

This information can help you improve user experience by telling you the optimal content length and layout of your posts. It can also help you decide where to add call-to-action (CTA) buttons to increase conversion rates.

Now, the higher the scroll rate, the higher the bounce rate, which is an important SEO signal. In addition, the scroll rate itself is an SEO signal, and improving this metric can improve your visibility in search results.

Here are some other features you can get from MonsterInsights.

• File Download Tracking: MonsterInsights can automatically track downloads. You can see how many times visitors have downloaded files from your website, such as eBooks, PDFs, and more. You can customize the file types you want to track, giving you insight into your audience’s preferences. These insights can help you create engaging content, increase user engagement, and grow your email list.
• Video and Media Tracking: If you have videos on your site, you can use MonsterInsights to track the number of viewers and duration of views. You can track video views on YouTube, Vimeo, or directly through your WordPress media library, no code required. This can help you understand which videos are most engaging and which ones might need improvement. You can also see how far users progress through your videos, letting you know if your videos are too long or failing to capture your audience’s attention.
• Affiliate Link Tracking: If you promote other products on your website, you can use MonsterInsights to track how many people click on your affiliate links. This can help you understand which products attract the most visitors and which affiliate programs perform best. This way, you can focus on promoting the products that are most likely to bring in revenue.
• Real-time analytics : Get instant insight into your website's activity. With this feature, you can see the current number of website users, track the effectiveness of ongoing marketing campaigns, and determine the best time to publish new content. This real-time data is essential for making quick decisions and optimizing your content strategy.
• Outbound Link Tracking : This feature helps you monitor links that take visitors away from your website, such as affiliate links, social media links, or external resources. By tracking these outbound clicks, you can understand which external links are most popular with your audience. This can help you find opportunities to create similar content or establish new partnerships. This feature is especially useful for affiliate marketers who want to optimize their linking strategy for better results.
• Enhanced Link Attribution helps you understand exactly which links on your landing pages are being clicked. This is useful if you have multiple links pointing to the same page, or if you want to understand which content is most engaging.

Now, even though MonsterInsights is the best WordPress plugin for Google Analytics, it still comes with some additional features to make it easier to use and improve your user experience.

1. Display popular content

The MonsterInsights plugin comes with a Popular Posts widget. You can use this feature to showcase your best performing posts and products anywhere on your website. You can add this widget to your sidebar, at the end of your post, or within the body of your article to make it easier for your audience to browse.

This feature helps visitors discover engaging content, increases page views, and reduces bounce rates. You can also change the look of the widget using customization options. Additionally, you can choose how to determine popular posts, making it easy to engage your audience.

2. Create an engaging headline

MonsterInsights’ built-in Title Analyzer helps you write engaging, SEO-friendly titles that drive more traffic and social media shares. It evaluates your title based on word balance, sentiment, and character count, and provides suggestions to make it more impactful.

By optimizing your headlines, you can attract more clicks and improve the performance of your content.

3. Website Speed

MonsterInsights offers a Site Speed report that measures your site’s loading time on mobile and desktop devices. It provides an overall performance score along with actionable recommendations to improve your site speed. Faster loading times improve user experience and boost search engine rankings, helping you retain visitors and reduce bounce rates.

4. Event Reminders and Email Notifications

Stay up to date with MonsterInsights campaign alerts and email notifications. These features allow you to stay informed about your site’s performance, track important metrics, and respond quickly to any issues. This proactive approach ensures you can maintain and grow your site’s effectiveness over the long term.

Support and Documentation

First, the MonsterInsights homepage clearly describes the plugin’s features through screenshots, FAQs, and easy-to-read content snippets. This ensures that you can quickly understand the features of MonsterInsights before browsing the documentation or contacting customer service.

Now, if you want to access the MonsterInsights plugin documentation from the homepage, scroll to the footer section and you will find the link there. This will lead you to the exhaustive list of MonsterInsight documentation, references, and tutorials.

The documentation pages are organized by category and displayed as tiles, with the number of articles under each category clearly visible. You can find categories like Getting Started, FAQ, Plugins, Account Manager, etc.

When you select one of the tiles, such as "Getting Started," you'll be directed to a page where all the articles in this category are arranged in a list format. The resources listed are carefully organized to ensure that you can quickly find what you need.

To further improve the user-friendliness of the documentation page, MonsterInsights displays the category and the most popular posts in that category on the left. It also provides a search bar so you can find content faster.

Besides that, the articles themselves are easy to understand, short and to the point. These resources are accompanied by screenshots so you can visually understand the steps.

Now, there are two main ways to contact MonsterInsights.

The first method is for non-customers who wish to ask general questions or make a pre-sales enquiry. You will need to fill out a short contact form with your details, the version of MonsterInsights plugin you are enquiring about, and your version of WordPress.

You can also select an option from the "How can we help you today?" drop-down menu to route your inquiry to the appropriate department for faster assistance. Finally, please enter your message in the text box provided before submitting the form.

If you are a customer, please submit a ticket to support to get faster help.

The ticket system can only be accessed after logging into your MonsterInsights account under “Support .” Here you’ll find the form pre-filled with the information you used when registering the plugin, which makes the whole process very simple.

So, all you have to do is select an option from the “How can we help you today?” drop-down menu and fill in the message box. You can also use the AI chatbot to find out more information quickly and easily.

You can now also access MonsterInsights support and documentation when logged into your WordPress dashboard. Simply go to Insights » Settings Checklist and scroll to the last section of the page. Here you’ll see a list of accessible posts, a popup widget to open the documentation, and other options.

Remember, the MonsterInsights support team will respond to you within 24 hours on weekdays, and their business hours are 9am to 5pm UTC -5.

Pricing

As mentioned above, MonsterInsights offers a free version that you can test before purchasing the pro version. With the free version, you can connect to Google Analytics 4, customize reports in WordPress, and more without any coding experience.

Currently, MonsterInsights offers 3 professional plans:

• Plus Plan: This plan starts at $99.60 per year for 1 website. You can view unlimited page views and user metrics. You will get standard reports such as real-time analytics, publisher reports, site speed, search keyword reports, etc. It includes standard analytics tracking such as scroll tracking, media tracking, etc. You also get growth tools such as a headline analyzer and a popular posts widget with 20+ templates.
• Pro: This plan starts at $199.60 per year for 5 websites. You get everything in the Plus plan plus advanced reports like eCommerce reports, form conversion reports, coupon reports, and more. You can integrate the plugin with plugins like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, and more. Plus, you get other growth tools like user journey reports.
• Agency Plan: This plan starts at $399.60 per year for 25 sites. You get all the features of the Pro and Plus plans, plus more features to help you better serve your clients. These features include: automatic alerts when significant analytics changes occur on the sites you operate. The automatic site annotation feature also helps you track all metric events happening across different sites. In addition, you get site management tools such as client license management, advanced access controls, and WordPress multisite support.

Pros and Cons

advantage:

• Easy installation and setup via simple wizard
• View analytics directly in your WordPress dashboard
• Customize reports to focus on important metrics
• Integrates with WooCommerce and other eCommerce plugins
• Extensive, user-friendly support and guides
• Provide analysis of different types of indicators
• Intuitive, beginner-friendly dashboard and setup
• Real-time analytics

shortcoming:

• Requires premium version to access all features

FAQ: MonsterInsights Review

Is MonsterInsights Free?

Yes, MonsterInsights offers a free version called MonsterInsights Lite. This free version provides basic features such as connecting to Google Analytics, viewing basic metrics, and customizing simple reports. For more advanced features, you can upgrade to a premium plan.

What is the difference between MonsterInsights and Google Analytics?

MonsterInsights is a WordPress plugin that simplifies Google Analytics data and displays it in WordPress without adding tracking code. It offers features like eCommerce analytics tracking and custom dimensions without having to navigate to the Google Analytics dashboard. Google Analytics, on the other hand, is a service owned by Google that provides detailed reports and data.

How accurate is MonsterInsights?

MonsterInsights is very accurate because it connects directly with Google Analytics. This WordPress plugin for Google Analytics simplifies the data and makes it easy for you to understand. But it relies on Google Analytics for data collection and processing. This ensures that the displayed metrics are accurate and reliable.

How long does it take for Google Analytics to collect data?

Google Analytics will typically begin collecting data within minutes of being set up on your site. However, it will take approximately 24 to 48 hours for all features and reports to be populated with data for deeper analysis.

Final Verdict: MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights achieves its goal of making analytics easy for beginners. It gives you powerful insights into Google Analytics without having to write any code. You can set it up without having to write any code, and customize the metrics based on your website’s needs. It also allows you to easily view different types of metrics without a lengthy setup process.

Therefore, MonsterInsights is undoubtedly the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress.

Congratulations! Now you have a deeper understanding of MonsterInsights.

Besides that, here are some other articles you might be interested in reading.

• How to Add Google Analytics Code in WordPress
• How to Use Google Analytics – A Beginner’s Guide
• 5 Best Google Analytics Plugins for WordPress

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