"[Sawmill] is simple to use and offers exceptionally many reporting functions.... Sawmill analyzes the logfiles up to the smallest detail. It even detects virus and wormattacks... and presents them in vivid graphics. The program interface is self explanatory.... The usability is good; only a few refinements are missing. The functionality and design leave nothing to be desired."

"When it comes to log file analysis, Sawmill is slick and easy to use.We are particularly impressed by the large number of quality graphs, tables, and charts that can be produced. This is an essential tool for any Webmaster."

From the c|net newsletter:

"If you're a Webmaster looking for an effective way to analyze your server's log files, then give the latest version of Sawmill a try. Sawmill processes server logs and produces hierarchical HTML reports. These hyperlinked reports contain a wealth of useful pie charts, bar charts, and line graphs that make quick work of interpreting data from your site. Version 5.0.3 now sports a new interface, cross-referencing features that allow you to track unlimited log fields, and a whole lot more. Kick up some sawdust!"

  - ZDNet review, June 12, 2000

"Sawmill is a detailed, user-friendly hierarchical log-analysis tool that uses a unique interview format to guide you through the process of browsing your log file's statistics. It then provides you with a wealth of valuable data about your Website traffic. With extensive documentation, attractive charts and graphs, an incrementally updated database for faster statistics generation, support for nearly all browsers, and support for most log-file formats, this application can offer you quickly produced, tailor-made data showing you how effective your Website is. The main report screen has a nice drop-down menu, letting you choose from a variety of reports and formats such as search term statistics, domain description statistics, browser type statistics, session statistics, and date/time graphs. For learning more about your Website visitors' demographics, browsing behavior, purchasing preferences, and favorite times to visit your site, this log-file analyzer can be a real help in improving your e-business strategy."

  - VersionTracker reviewers give Sawmill 5 Stars

"I love it and my clients love it! The level of detail you are able to provide with Sawmill is simply unmatched in any of the other statistics packages we've tried. The support is remarkable, offering detailed, thoughtful responses to every question or query we've had. If you must process stats logs, you owe it to yourself to try Sawmill."

"The author is very responsive to requests and bug fixes. so much so that I kept postponing using the program till new releases stop coming out so quickly. Boy was I wrong, I should have taken the plunge much earlier. We are a web hosting company, and have several servers with several domains/sites on each, log files are in the low GB per month, Sawmill was very easy to configure and use and once I configured it properly very fast. Support is superb. Highly recommended."

"This program is updated frequently and works great. Recently I found a problem with the scheduled tasks under OS X Server, and they worked on it with me until it was solved. They even gave me a $100 credit toward their software for helping them out on this bug. Great customer support!"

    - PC Magazine Review, November 27, 2001

"Sawmill is a detailed, user-friendly hierarchical log-analysis tool that Sawmill 6 is a surprisingly feature-rich, capable, and customizable analytics package. ... For technically inclined individuals on a budget, it's hard to beat. It outdoes ... its nearest competitor in terms of price, thanks mainly to a much greater degree of flexibility.

ISPs will really like Sawmill's virtual-domain tracking report, which analyzes numerous client domains. The program lets you give individual access to report profiles, so users can access their own reports. A bandwidth report helps ISPs monitor each domain's usage."

Educational customers:
Duke
Emory
Harvard
Kent State
Ohio State University
Oklahoma State University
Penn State
Stanford
Suffolk
SUNY
University of Arizona
University of California
University of Georgia
University of Illinois
University of Michigan
University of Missouri
University of Texas
... many others

Governmental customers:
City of San Francisco
City of Suffolk
.. others

I have to say that we are very pleased with your product and your company. I spent a long time researching log analysis software and I had always used WebTrends in the past because of their name and reputation. I am very glad that I spent the extra time to examine Sawmill's robust features and functionality because, in my opinion, it is a superior product to anything else out there.

Sawmill does things that I never could do with competing products. The "paths through the site" is invaluable for our website analysis and subsequent development. Since every element is fully customizable, and because the filters are so powerful, I get a TON of useful information that helps my IT team and my Marketing team. Furthermore, I am continually impressed with the list of new enhancements and additions when I read the release notices that you send out on occasion.

The amount of "bang for the buck" that we get out of Sawmill far exceeds the cost of the license; and the fact that we can have multiple configurations on one install is very cost effective, efficient, and helpful. Then the fact that Sawmill will analyze virtually any device that creates text log files means even MORE cost effectiveness. The ROI that we have experienced thus far using your product has been outstanding. ...and what's amazing is that we have not utilized all Sawmill has to offer yet! I wish that all my software purchases were so pleasing.

As if all the above were not enough, you and your development team have been super-terrific for support. We truly appreciate the time you have spent to help us configure Sawmill. You guys have even written custom config files that will allow us to analyze even more devices that are not listed in the 200+ item list in the product documentation.

It is very rare today that such customer service still exists. We are very happy of our choice to go with Sawmill and would highly recommend the product to anyone, both because of the product itself and the people behind the product. Please tell everyone on your team that they are doing an outstanding job and that their efforts make it an absolute pleasure to do business with Flowerfire.

We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership with you and your company. Please know that we appreciate your hard work to help us maximize the ROI realized from our Sawmill purchase. In today's tough economic times, the extra effort is truly appreciated.

- Dude Spellings
Harvest House Publishers

- Sreehar Madullapalli
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

- Richard Wakefield
Kusala Web Developments

- St. Petersburg Times

- Brandon Elliott
Imagion.com Web Hosting and Solutions

- Nevin Lyne
Gippy's Internet Solutions

Prominic.net
"Prominic.NET is a leading IBM/Lotus Domino hosting provider. As an Application Service Provider (ASP), our customers demand timely and up-to-date reporting for their web sites in any easy to use format. After reviewing many alternative solutions, including WebTrends and some home-grown software, we happened across Sawmill. I don't think there could have been a more perfect match between our 'dream' solution and what Sawmill provided. Naturally, we were ecstatic!

After learning more about Sawmill, it became evident that some work would be needed to make it easier for an ISP/ASP to dynamically configure Sawmill for multiple customers. In conjunction with the Sawmill developers, we were able to agree on a simple file format which would control Sawmill's configuration for our entire customer base. The Sawmill team worked closely with us to ensure our complete satisfaction with both Sawmill and the new ISP/ASP configuration tool.

I highly recommend Sawmill. Both the product and the support are incredible. I can easily state in good conscious I firmly believe you will be 100% satisfied! If you would like any more information about our experiences, please contact me."

- Justin Kuntz
Prominic.NET, Inc. - Systems Architect

Plexus Web Creations, Inc.
We suggested that Stephanie use Sawmill's "paths through the site" feature, in conjunction with its "session filters" feature, to show exactly which pay-per-click search terms were resulting in sales. Her response:

This is by far the absolute *BEST* log software I have ever seen. What you recommended worked perfectly. This information is priceless. You've definitely made a sale with me. I'll be purchasing this software for sure. I will also be sure to tell all of my customers that are interested in this level of knowledge about it as well.

- Stephanie B. Sharp
President, Plexus Web Creations, Inc.

Chapman Net Systems, Inc.
Your product is amazing. I've reviewed about 20 analyzers, and yours is by far the most comprehensive.

- Christopher Chapman
President, Chapman Net Systems, Inc.

Craig Schar, TCDA
[Sawmill] works like a charm ... even parses our separate url log from the [Cisco] PIX. Best log analysis I have seen for the pix, beats the $2500 and $4200 "enterprise" solutions, which I hated. We are definitely buying, thanks for the assistance.

- Craig Schar
Network Specialist
Texas Commission on Alcohol & Drug Abuse

Aviram Carmi
Thanks ... for producing a really nice program, and for being so responsive to bug fixes, requests, etc. I am only sorry I did not take the plunge and switch to Sawmill earlier...

- Aviram Carmi
 

Mike Romanello
"Sawmill is a nice, full featured program and provides everything we were looking for in stats analysis. We intend to buy a full version...."

- Mike Romanello
NationalGayLobby.Org

Fred Hicinbothem
"Ya know ... this thing is just plain kewl. I've got about 120 million hits in my databases now and I can examine the data in real-time as quickly as I can click mouse buttons! I can drill down however I like or view the data in different ways at different times. The presentation is excellent and I even know a few marketing folks who enjoy the Sawmill reports pages! Best of all, I can get to the data from the UNIX shell quickly and easily if I need to put together some targeted reports. Another feature I use is the ability to display arbitrary application data using the tool - this isn't just for access logs! Finally, I can't say enough about the responsiveness of the Sawmill staff, and Greg in particular - keep up the good work!

- Fred Hicinbothem
(www.catalog.att.com/cmd; www.e-care.att.com)

Garry Dolley
"First off, let me say that Sawmill is by leaps and bounds THE BEST statistical logging program EVER. I'm a Systems Admin at a web hosting company and I live in UNIX (Linux, FreeBSD, etc...). I'm very used to going through many steps to install any software that we need. However, I was absolutely AMAZED at how SIMPLE Sawmill was to install. Great job."

- Garry Dolley

Luka Lussar
I really like [ the MacOS version of ] Sawmill. The setup is quite easy and the results are really great. Clearly one of the best log analysers! And I'm very pleased with the fast and helpful support, too.

 -Lukas Lusser

Mike Larsen
(Mike Larsen purchased Sawmill for his company. Here's what he wrote about it in a discussion group posting:)

Check out Sawmill at:

http://www.flowerfire.com/sawmill/

It's *exceptional* (and it even looks pretty). It runs as a cgi program, but you can set up databases with different filters for the program to write to. I've implemented it where I work, and we're involved in beta testing version 3.0.

I've made two requests for enhancements; one for a simple error log analysis format, and one for tracking hourly usage over the course of a 24 hour period. The error log was simple, and Greg (the author) had it ready within 12 hours, for all supported platforms (there's a list on the web site). The hourly tracking was a fairly extensive rewrite, and he had it ready for testing within 5 days.

It'll handle log files for Apache, Netscape, a Mac server (can't remember the name), and another I've never heard off. It has a nice feature for presenting a limited interface for security purposes, it's almost infinitely customizable via a browser interface, and the online documentation is as good as the product; Sawmill's online doc is complete and well organized.

Check the web site. Again, it's superb, and the author is aggressive about implementing improvements. I'd be interested in getting other folks' impressions of it off-line.

I'm not associated with Flowerfire in any way other than being an ecstatic customer.

- Mike Larsen

Chuck Agol
(Chuck Agol purchased Sawmill for his company. Chuck has made several feature requests, which we've happily implemented. Here are excerpts from his emails to us:)

I've placed my order via your site and am totally digging your product....
I don't have words for your helpfulness! ...
You've been unbelievably kind and helpful! ...
I truly think it's the best agent analyzer on the market....
This is everything I could dream for in a stats program!
 

Chuck Agol
President
Uncommon Scents Inc.