Flow Chart vs FreeForm Difference

[kirang29990284]

Why we see two different numbers for "/products/Laboratory_Analytics_Browse/uv-vis-spectrometers/spectrophotometer" for Flow 182 and Table 110

[SamuelPaulPeter]

Why the numbers don’t match (182 in Flow vs 110 in Freeform)

Because the two visualizations are counting different things:

Flow = Path Views

A Flow report counts every time a user comes from that page into your target page — even if the same visit loops, reloads, or hits it multiple times.

So if a user does:
A → Target → A → Target
Flow counts 2.

Freeform “Previous Page” = Single sequence per hit

Freeform counts only the previous page for each hit of the target page — no looping, no repeated paths counted separately.

If a user does the same sequence:
A → Target → A → Target
Freeform counts 2 hits, but not all path transitions (depending on granularity).

Also, Freeform often groups by Page Views, not path transitions.

Flow includes ALL transitions, Freeform shows the last page before each hit

That difference alone is why Flow numbers are almost always higher.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Agreed... "Flow Views" is different than "Page Views".... it's one of the reasons I don't use the flow report, because I always have to try and explain the difference between the metrics and the way the visualization is calculated.