With over 17 million downloads and over 1 million websites, Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (GADWP) is the second most popular analytics plugin in the WordPress.org repository.
Today, I’m thrilled to announce that we have acquired the GADWP plugin from Alin Marcu and rebranded it as ExactMetrics.
Alin has done a phenomenal job in building an amazing product and community. As he wanted to pursue his next venture, he was looking for a new home for this extremely useful plugin.
Given our experience running the most popular WordPress analytics plugin, MonsterInsights, this was a perfect fit for our family of products.
Who are we?
Hi, my name is Syed Balkhi. I’m the founder of Awesome Motive, and we build amazing products that help small businesses grow and compete with the big guys.
We’re the team behind some of most popular plugins and resources including:
- WPBeginner – the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners.
- OptinMonster – popular conversion optimization software that helps you convert abandoning visitors into subscribers and customers.
- WPForms – the most beginner friendly WordPress contact form plugin.
- MonsterInsights – the most popular Google Analytics plugin for WordPress.
- WP Mail SMTP – the most popular SMTP plugin for WordPress.
Yes, we know a thing or two about building awesome products that customers love (at scale).
What does this acquisition mean for existing users?
Aside from new ownership and the new name, it’s business as usual. You can continue to use the plugin that you love without any interruptions.
In a future release, you will see the plugin icon change in the WordPress admin area.
With our experience and a dedicated team, we will be adding new features and improvements to ExactMetrics in the near future.
What’s Coming Next?
Our work is just starting.
Running an analytics plugin at scale comes with plenty of challenges. We have learned a lot from our experiences over the last several years.
We want to take what we learned from MonsterInsights and combine it with the best of ExactMetrics to create a new version that we know you will love.
This includes in-depth reporting for each use-case: publishers, eCommerce, forms, custom dimensions, etc.
It’s a massive task, but we’re up for the challenge. I will keep you guys updated as we roll-out new features.
I want to thank Alin for all the hard work he put in GADWP, and I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.
I also want to thank all users who have supported this plugin so far, and I hope to earn your support for years to come.
Sincerely,
Syed Balkhi
CEO of Awesome Motive Inc.
Hi, I have used GADWP for many years and I am now trying to activate ExactMetrics but the plugin keeps loading (no results showing).
What shall I do?
Hi Floris, we’re aware of an issue with certain versions of the Safari browser which has a bug in it that prevents types of animations from working. We’ll have an update out first thing tomorrow, but in the meantime, if you use any other browser it will work 🙂
Not happy about this. You say everything is still the same but it isn’t. I can no longer see daily statistics without signing up for Pro. This is the primary reason I use this plugin.
Hey Jeffrey,
We kept the plugin updated for as long as we could (nearly 2 years) until it became unscalable. I discussed the challenges in this post for the sake of transparency.
This wasn’t an easy decision for us, but we made it to ensure a sustainable future for the product.
We appreciate your patience and support through this process 🙂
You forgot to mention that in a “future release” you would just straight-up break the existing functionality of the plugin and require existing users to re-onboard on your centrally-managed application. No thanks.
Hey Nick, we did our best to keep the plugin functioning as-is for nearly 2 years until it became unscalable. I discussed the challenges we had in our blog post about the new authentication flow.
This wasn’t an easy decision to make, but we believe it was the right one to ensure the best future for the plugin.
Guys, you took something really special on the WP repository and completely destroyed it. You removed all the fantastic features and locked them behind an incredibly expensive paywall. Why would you do this? Surely you realised that the entire community would turn against you… moreover, you have damaged the Monster Insight brand name by pulling this stunt… If you really wanted to leverage their success you could have simply followed a clever “Add-on” structure… Keep the original functionality and charge for things like “WooCommerce Advanced reporting” or “Goal Tracking” … It really is a shame.
Moreover, the plugin Hijacks the dashboard and it is extremely buggy
Hey Mark, we did our best to keep the plugin functioning as-is for nearly 2 years until it became unscalable.
I discussed the challenges we had in our blog post which discusses why added the new authentication flow.
This wasn’t an easy decision to make, but we believe it was the right one to ensure the best future for the plugin.
If you’re noticing any bugs, please let our team know so we can address it asap. We truly appreciate your patience and support in this process.