Before you reach for external analytics, cPanel already gives you a detailed view of your traffic through AWStats, which analyses your server’s own logs. It’s a great way to understand who’s visiting, what they’re loading, and how much traffic you’re really getting. Here’s how to use it.
Opening AWStats
In cPanel, under the Metrics section, click AWStats. Select the domain you want to view, and AWStats displays a full report drawn from your server logs.
What the report tells you
- Unique visitors and visits: how many distinct people came, and how many total sessions.
- Pages and hits: pages viewed and total server requests (hits include every image and file, so hits are always higher than page views).
- Bandwidth: how much data your site served, which helps you understand your usage against your plan’s allowance.
- Top pages: your most-visited content — useful for knowing what’s working.
- Referrers: where visitors came from — search engines, other sites, direct.
- Search terms and engines: what people searched to find you.
Server logs vs JavaScript analytics
AWStats reads raw server logs, which means it counts everything that hits your server — including bots, crawlers and requests that JavaScript-based analytics tools miss. That’s both a strength and a quirk: your visitor numbers here will look higher than in a tool like Google Analytics, because a lot of that traffic is automated. Both views are useful; they just measure different things.
Spotting problems in the stats
AWStats is handy for troubleshooting too. An unexplained spike in hits or bandwidth might reveal a bot hammering your site, hotlinking of your images, or an attack. The HTTP error codes section shows how many 404s and other errors visitors hit — a lot of 404s points to broken links worth fixing.
Using it to guide decisions
Look at your top pages to see what resonates with visitors, check your referrers to understand where your audience comes from, and watch your bandwidth trend over months to anticipate when you might outgrow your plan. Even a quick monthly glance builds a useful picture over time.
Where AWStats fits
For deeper insight into visitor behaviour — how long they stay, what path they take, conversions — a dedicated analytics tool complements AWStats. But for a fast, no-setup overview of your traffic and bandwidth straight from the server, AWStats is right there in cPanel and worth checking regularly. If a traffic spike is causing performance problems, send us the details and we can investigate the source.
