Why AWStats shows more website traffic than Google Analytics

We've been progressively introducing Google Analytics to our customers and one of the first things people ask is why there is a difference between AWStats and Google Analytics.

The reason for the discrepancy is the way that the two calculate visits.

This is something that I've covered in more depth previous posts, Including "What is a unique visitor ? And how to count them" and touched on in my earlier in my article "Getting the most out of Search Log Analysis and Google Analytics".