Okay, today I logged into Bloglines only to be blasted with around fifty different people talking about Shaun Inman’s new Mint web stats tracking application. I think I will stick with WP-Shortstat and AWStats, thank you very much.

I don’t think most people really took an objective look at this new application being released.

First off, we have the $30 fee. Now I know when you look at the development hours that were put into the application this may seem pretty small, but have you compared this application to the rest in its field for cost, for features? AWStats? Shortstat? Urchin? These products and all of the others I can think of off the top of my head are 100% free. Doesn’t this sort of make Shaun the Microsoft of web stats? Ignore the user interface, because as interesting as it is, it is not that amazing.

Another thing that is really bugging me is the fact that everyone is tripping over their feet to pat him on the back, as though he did something different, or even new. He just added AJAX and a nice set of graphics, which I find both a little slow to load.

Also, I like looking at numbers as much as the next person, but with all of them crammed onto the screen in alternating cell colours, it really does not convey to me what I am looking at. I feel like I am missing something, and the comparisons are just numbers which honestly, over a period of time, lose all meaning. Where are the graphs, and pie charts?

On to the programming side of Mint, and we are left with a Stats program that I can’t view properly in Internet Explorer. Not a big deal as Firefox is my browser of choice, and anything buy IE is the browser of choice for most Web Developers, and thus Mint’s target audience, but what if I am at a friend’s place that lives on IE and I want to check my stats? Sorry, Shaun does not support that. My choices are to then convince my friend to install a browser that is “better” cause I say its better, and thus allow me to view my stats, or I wait until I get back to the safety of my Firefox installed PC.

On the tracking side Mint uses Javascript to track the users coming to the site. I know many people, especially my computer literate friends that have turned off Javascript on all sites, and that means they won’t be counted. I want my friends to be counted.

I know that so many people are going to defend Shaun and his Mint, but I really don’t think it is worth $30. As a free utility I might have tried it, but after seeing the demo, I doubt I would have kept it as my primary tool.

It really comes down to a simple numbers game. As much as Shaun deserves some compensation for his work, does he really deserve $30,000 for every 1,000 licences? I think he will probably be able to do atleast 1,000 over the first year, and maybe another 100-200 a year after that if he add updates.

I know he has the Pepper API, and that may be either a very helpful addition, or it could be a costly trend, as people add features that should have already attached to Mint on release. Will the developers of the additions charge for their code if they consider their feature worth having?

Do you really need a stats program that uses AJAX, just because it uses what is currently an “in” technology to use and is made by Shaun Inman. When there are hundreds of other stat tracking applications out there?

Like I said at the beginning, I think I will stick with WP-Shortstat and AWStats, and I have a feeling that more and more people will agree with me as time goes on.

NOTE: I tried the demo of Mint on another site, so for those saying I don’t know what it does, I have tried it. I have played with it, and that is how I know how responsive it is, and what its features are.

Update: I have added another look at Mint after using it for a while now. Read about it.