What is the best Apache logs Analyzer?

Question

What real-time log analyzer can you suggest for Apache access and error logs?

There is a list of web analytics software on WikiPedia, but it would be great to hear opinions from people with experience without having to try all of them.

Please don't suggest Google Analytics or any other hosted/JavaScript analytics suites, already using them, GA is not real-time and it is missing some data that the logs show. For example 404 errors, script errors, the full query-string of the referral, IP addresses, visitor path through the website, etc ...

Real time log analysis is waay different than real time JS-based tracking. The former is difficult to implement and doesn't scale across multiple instances, and the latter is what Google Analytics uses.
If you're looking for a solid Apache logs analyzer, check out Angelfish. http://analytics.angelfishstats.com/ — Andrew C, Mar 25 '16 at 19:02
I disagree with the policy of banning all opinion based questions. In many cases an opinion is valuable information, especially if the writer has used more than one product. Rather than ban them, opinion based questions should be flagged as such, and answers held to a different standard. — Sherwood Botsford, Nov 25 '16 at 14:19

score 61 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 07 '20 at 10:37

61

GoAccess is a free text/curses based log analyzer similar to "top".

GoAccess main scrollable dashboard

edited Jun 07 '20 at 10:37

Thomas Orlita

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answered Oct 03 '12 at 09:34

Evgeny Zislis

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Nice... CentOS even has it in its default repo. – Oct 31 '16 at 01:39
it would be great it you could share the centos repo! – Keerthana Prabhakaran Jun 27 '17 at 07:45

score 13 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 26 '18 at 02:35

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AWStats is a good open source solution.

Also see http://www.awstats.org and https://github.com/eldy/awstats

edited Feb 26 '18 at 02:35

Jay Taylor

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answered Nov 02 '10 at 15:55

Jeremy

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doesn't support nginx – Jürgen Paul Aug 20 '12 at 03:07
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AWStats supports Apache log format, and nginx can easily output in Apache log format, so... it does support nginx indirectly. – Tim Tisdall May 13 '15 at 13:58
Tried this. It can tell you what pages were viewed, and it can tell you who visited and when, and if you need to find out which visitor or IP has been methodically working through your site loading page after page as if they're looking for a vulnerability... go fish, because Awstats won't tell you, near as I can figure out. Or, someone's been repeatedly visiting my site from Google.hk search results, want to know who or what they searched? Tough luck. Blech. – John Smith Dec 04 '23 at 06:11

score 11 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 14 '18 at 23:58

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Matomo (former Piwik) is a good choice (better than awstats, in my opinion)

edited Mar 14 '18 at 23:58

Community

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answered Sep 19 '12 at 05:00

so_mv

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This is the right link for "Log Analyzer" feature of Piwik: http://piwik.org/log-analytics/ – NickT Feb 05 '13 at 08:28
Note: piwik requires that a javascript pixel be added to all your pages. – Jay Taylor Feb 26 '18 at 02:31
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Not necessarily Jay, you can also make Piwik/Matomo crawl your logs. The official manual to do this can be found at https://matomo.org/docs/log-analytics-tool-how-to/ – Pete Aug 24 '18 at 08:57

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 03 '10 at 10:49

5

This might seem like a bit of overkill, but Splunk offers web log analyzing and much, much more.

answered Nov 03 '10 at 10:49

scunliffe

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score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 12 '16 at 11:16

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I was using Urchin before I switched to Google Analyics. The Urchin Project no longer exists.

edited Mar 12 '16 at 11:16

Simon Hayter

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answered Nov 02 '10 at 15:54

FrankJK

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didn't know urchin could analyze logs -- but it can! this is great! – Evgeny Zislis Nov 02 '10 at 15:56
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only downside is that it costs a fortune :/ – Evgeny Zislis Nov 02 '10 at 15:58
Too bad there's no community edition or open source equivalent... – Lèse majesté Nov 03 '10 at 12:45
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Urchin has been discontinued. – Daniel C. Sobral May 04 '12 at 18:49
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This is the new alternative to Urchin (open source!) http://piwik.org/log-analytics/ – NickT Oct 23 '13 at 02:21
For log analysis, we replaced Urchin with Angelfish: http://analytics.angelfishstats.com/ – Andrew C Feb 26 '16 at 16:39
Google Analytics is Urchin, at least the javascript-based Urchin On Demand portion. After purchasing the Urchin company, Google Analytics killed the server side version. – zylstra Feb 09 '17 at 01:52
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@zylstra Because of course they did. :) – Benjamin Nolan Mar 21 '18 at 09:47

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 05 '12 at 16:18

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If you're looking for an offline analyzer, I quite like Sawmill:

https://www.sawmill.co.uk

It analyses all sorts of logs, including apache. Has a free trial period.

answered Nov 05 '12 at 16:18

Sam Critchley

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You have to pay for this... – tread Jan 05 '17 at 07:42

score 1 · Answer 7 · edited Mar 12 '16 at 11:19

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ChartBeat a very interesting service, it is actually much more than log analyst - more like a view of the buzz your blog creates, in real-time. Another tool that shows real-time Apache log streams I found, called A Live Log.

edited Mar 12 '16 at 11:19

Simon Hayter

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answered Nov 02 '10 at 16:08

Evgeny Zislis

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What is the best Apache logs Analyzer?

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