Is using a pre-existing tool like Piwik for website statistics a better option than coding a solution in PHP?

Using a pre-existing tool like Piwik for website statistics can be a better option than coding a solution in PHP because Piwik offers a comprehensive set of features and functionalities out of the box, saving time and effort in developing and maintaining a custom solution. Additionally, Piwik provides a user-friendly interface for analyzing website traffic data, making it easier for users to interpret and utilize the statistics.

// This is just a placeholder code snippet as an example
// Actual implementation will vary based on the specific requirements and integration with Piwik API
// Connect to Piwik API and retrieve website statistics data
$piwikApiUrl = 'https://your-piwik-domain.com/index.php';
$siteId = 1;
$tokenAuth = 'your-api-token';
$requestUrl = $piwikApiUrl . '?module=API&method=VisitsSummary.get&idSite=' . $siteId . '&period=day&date=today&format=JSON&token_auth=' . $tokenAuth;

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $requestUrl);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$statsData = json_decode($response, true);

// Process and display the website statistics data
if ($statsData) {
    // Display statistics data in a user-friendly format
    echo 'Total visits today: ' . $statsData['nb_visits'];
    echo 'Unique visitors today: ' . $statsData['nb_uniq_visitors'];
} else {
    echo 'Error retrieving website statistics data';
}