From what i understand compute stats on impala is the latest implementation and frees you from tuning hive settings.
From official doc:
If you use the Hive-based methods of gathering statistics, see the
Hive wiki for information about the required configuration on the Hive
side. Cloudera recommends using the Impala COMPUTE STATS statement to
avoid potential configuration and scalability issues with the
statistics-gathering process.
If you run the Hive statement ANALYZE TABLE COMPUTE STATISTICS FOR
COLUMNS, Impala can only use the resulting column statistics if the
table is unpartitioned. Impala cannot use Hive-generated column
statistics for a partitioned table.
Useful link:
https://www.cloudera.com/documentation/enterprise/5-5-x/topics/impala_perf_stats.html