Good idea to track pageviews with MySQL?

[wige]

I am looking for a way to track how many times different pages are visited on my site. I am considering using a MySQL table to do this, so that I can link the information to other tables and create recommendations customized for a user based on what products that user has already viewed, as well as creating lists of popular products for other users.

My dilemma is, would this be efficient, or would I be wasting resources by storing this data in a database instead of a log file? I would hope I would be able to analyze the database in real time and avoid the overhead of constantly parsing a frequently accessed log file, but if it would drain the resources of the server, I would have to find a different solution.

Your thoughts, comments, advice and suggestions are appreciated.

[Tech Manager]

Wige:

One of my clients averages about 70,000 hits a day and I store his data in a MySQL database and analyze the data in real time.

Another client averaging about 50,000 hits day relies on a log file and parser. Real time analysis is a bit slower.

I think the higher the data volume the better off you will be to rely on a database instead of a logfile. With the right table design the performance hit has been negligible when analyzing the database in real time.

I prefer the MySQL solution. But of course the typical considerations apply: CPU, RAM, MySQL version, etc.