For years, Google Analytics (specifically Universal Analytics) has been viewed as the de-facto standard for website traffic analysis, providing granular breakdowns of who is visiting your site, how long for, and a myriad of other information as a result of Googleâs extensive reach.Â
However, in July 2023 Google sunset Universal Analytics, and replaced it with Google Analytics 4. The change was in part driven by a changing legislative landscape, where GDPR in Europe and Californiaâs Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) required companies to better respect userâs privacy. All access to historic Universal Analytics data will be switched off from 1 July 2024, at which point youâll only be able to see your Google Analytics 4 data. Â
Despite the initial outcry, marketers have gotten to grips with GA4 and it remains the industry standard. But, some may see this as an opportunity to have a little bit less âbig techâ in their life. Weâve compiled some of the best alternatives to GA4 that you might want to consider.
Fathom Analytics
Fathom Analytics is a privacy focused analytics platform that proudly claim to âsell software, not dataâ. This means that, although you get much less information about your visitors than you would with Google, you are providing a more privacy-driven experience while still getting the essentials. The script they use on-site is very fast, which will improve SEO, and because they don't use cookies you wonât need to have a cookie notice banner on your website. You can even import your historic Google Analytics data into Fathom so you donât lose the data when Google deletes it in the future. Win-win!
Matomo
Promoting 100% data ownership, Matomo is presenting itself as the Google alternative, where you know where your data is kept, and is in full compliance with GDPR and CCPA. Unlike Google Analytics, Matomo doesnât use data sampling, which means your data is 100% accurate. Thatâs further improved via the tracking of personal data (something thatâs not possible to do in Google Analytics) while remaining fully compliant with local laws. Matomo is also open source, so you can examine the code that makes it work if you want to!
Clicky
Another privacy-friendly service (are you sensing a theme?) with no cookies, no personal data and full GDPR compliance, Clicky comes with a number of great features. Once it has been set up, Clicky can provide you with heatmaps, visitor and action logs, uptime monitoring, and bot filtering. They even claim they are able to track visitors who use ad-blockers through the use of proxying.Â
AT Internet
On their homepage, AT Internet says âwhat sets [them] apartâ is analytics with integrity. That translates to consistent and accurate data, confidentiality that is in compliance with GDPR and international data protection regulations, responsive support and a company thatâs independent. AT Internet also has numerous integrations with third-party marketing tools, such as Tag Manager, YouTube and Weborama, bringing you a unified view of your data. It also has custom data processing rules so you can filter out undesirable traffic â with no sampled data.
Snowplow Analytics
Snowplow Analytics is an open-source event data collection platform that supports web, mobile, server-side, email and advertising channels. It has a Behavioral Data Platform that allows you to visualise customer behavioural data in real-time, directly from your data warehouse or data lake.Â
You can enrich your data with third-party data, deploy it to your own cloud to ensure full data ownership, and have the freedom to define your own events and entities. A study produced by GigaOm found that Snowplow outperforms GA4, and is more user-friendly!
These are just a few of the Google Analytics alternatives available, and all of them bring slightly different functionalities, benefits and limitations. If you want to go down the âBig Techâ route, you also have Meta Pixel, Microsoft Clarity, and Adobe Analytics. The reality is that in a more-privacy conscious world, you arenât going to get the same unfettered access to customer data that you once had, and, really, thatâs probably not a bad thing.Â
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