Last Modified on July 11, 2024
Are you wondering if there are any decent Google Analytics 4 alternatives out there?
Over the past years, Google Analytics was the trusted analytics vehicle that got you from A to Z with no problem. However, it’s getting outdated and slow. Now, Google shows you their new shiny ride called Google Analytics 4.
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GA4 has all the bells and whistles you might want. However, Google is not recommending the switch from UA to GA4. They are forcing you to switch over right now.
Maybe you say: hold on, is this the best choice for me? Like with cars, there are multiple different analytics tools out there, and it’s up to you to decide which is the best for you.
To help you out, here are some GA4 alternatives you might want to consider if you’re switching away from GA4.
Whether you are a data analyst, business owner, or digital enthusiast, we will help you find a suitable tool for your needs.
Here are our top 5 GA4 alternatives:
Let’s dive in!
1. Matomo
To start our list of Google Analytics alternatives, we have Matomo.
If you were a fan of Universal Analytics because it was free, buckle up for this one. Matomo is an open-source analytics solution that lets you install their tool on your server.
Apart from what it costs to run the server and some add-ons you include in your installation, Matomo is free! It offers all the metrics a data professional would love and more.
Data professionals use it on over 1 million websites in over 190 countries. They have numerous European customers because Matomo is well-known for its data privacy.
Its developers designed Matomo Analytics with privacy in mind, allowing your configuration to follow the strictest privacy laws like GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, LGPD, and PECR. The French privacy authorities even recommend you install it on your server to control your data.
Now, let’s discuss some cool add-ons to consider. First, we have A/B testing.
This add-on allows you to use and run A/B tests on your site. With A/B tests, also known as experiments or split tests, you compare different versions of your website or app and determine the version that positively impacts your sales, conversions, web traffic, etc.
Next, we have Session Recordings.
If you want to find out what your users are doing on your website, you can start recording them, similar to the Hotjar feature. It can peek at what the user is doing on the website and document their session interactions.
You can then replay these interactions to understand their usage patterns and problems they may have, identify bottlenecks on your website, and find solutions to fix them.
Finally, they have a Google Ads connector. As the name suggests, it lets you connect Matomo to Google Ads so you can use the conversion data from your Google Ads campaigns – all without involving Google Analytics.
If you’re looking for an alternative to Google Analytics, consider Matomo. There is a good chance that it might be the perfect ride for you.
2. Piwik Pro
Before moving to the next item on our GA4 alternatives list, imagine you are in this scenario.
Your old car just broke down. It’s not repairable anymore, and you have no choice but to replace it. You’ve gotten so used to it that you wish they still produced the same one. If you could, you would buy the same model.
Universal Analytics is going away whether we like it or not. If you are still in love with the old UA interface and features and don’t want to switch to GA4, look at our next pick: Piwik Pro.
With Piwik, you will find a very familiar analytics solution to Universal Analytics. It has similar tracking, data, and reports, so you won’t have to train your team on an entirely new tool.
Piwik Pro has its tag management system, allowing you to ditch Google Tag Manager.
While ditching GTM is an option regardless of which Piwik Pro plan you use, you’ll want to ditch the privacy concerns. It is also well known for its privacy-safe approach and is the choice of various European data organizations.
This GA4 alternative allows you to adjust your data processing methods to comply with privacy laws like GDPR, LGPD, and CCPA, and to respect users’ rights.
An interesting thing you might find valuable within Piwik Pro is that there is no data sampling. Everything is based on your raw data. Nothing is sampled, meaning you always run your report on your entire data set and won’t run into accuracy issues.
Processing all your data would usually slow down your data crunching process and report loading, but with Piwik Pro, these are not an issue, and things are pretty smooth.
Next, they have a built-in consent manager that can be used to set up consent banners on your website. Accordingly, you can then manage the consent according to the laws in your country.
Lastly, since you will most likely go with one of the paid options of Piwik Pro, you can expect world-class support from the team at Piwik – something that free tools like GA4 don’t provide.
If you don’t want to rock the boat with a completely different approach to analytics and still have a reliable tool, take a look at Piwik Pro.
3. Amplitude Analytics
Google Analytics was always good at certain things, but only for those specific things.
Just like an SUV, you can get into it, and it’s a comfortable ride to get you from A to Z, but not much more. If you want to go off-road or off a beaten path, you will run into some problems. Specialized tracking cases need specialized analytics solutions.
If you want to track an app or web platform and understand how users navigate your product, you might want to look at a product-centric analytics tool like Amplitude Analytics.
This tool is built with product insights in mind, and it can tell you so much more about how users behave on your website or within your app.
Funnel, cohort, and user journey analysis are all part of product analysis, and Amplitude has these built in to give you ideas on improving your product.
Amplitude has an event-based data model, which makes implementing any SAS business a breeze. They also have hooks and APIs that connect everything, which developers generally love with the implementation of Amplitude.
Finally, here are three cool features that Amplitude has to offer. First is the Experiment feature, which lets you run A/B tests on your defined segments, perform data quality checks, and analyze the results all within this tool.
Next, we have Predictions that take your segments to the next level by predicting how users will behave in the future and what results to expect if you change anything around in your app or website.
Lastly, we have the Audiences feature, a built-in customer data platform (CDP). It’s natively integrated with Analytics, helping you manage your first-party data from different destinations, improve data quality, and discover new audiences.
GA4 can do some of these things, too, but it’s not as specialized in product analytics as Amplitude. If that’s more your jam, Amplitude might be the most suitable tool for your needs.
4. Fathom Analytics
You might be wondering: who needs all of these features? Maybe you are one of those who already finds Universal Analytics quite confusing.
We don’t blame you; with all these reports, buttons, and complicated menus, isn’t there an easier way? Who needs to learn to drive when you can pull out your phone and call an Uber?
There’s always space to go simpler and find an alternative that gets you to your destination without fuss.
With tools like Fathom, you may only get a fraction of a full-fledged analytics solution, but that’s okay because it will still give you the essential data you need. You get a simple dashboard with simple insights.
No more getting hit by hundreds of reports and not knowing where to click through to get to a single number. Fathom keeps it simple, and there’s value in such tools.
As we always say, the best analytics solution is the tool that you’ll use, and Fathom is so easy to use.
Three things stand out with Fathom. First, the dashboarding is super simple – it’s a single page.
Everything is stored in one place. Simply take any data you see in the system and build something simple out of that. You can also share it with your clients or stakeholders.
Next, they have a Google Analytics importer. You can import your historical UA and GA4 data to Fathom without extra cost, regardless of the amount of data.
It is something to consider when migrating from Universal Analytics.
Lastly, Fathom prides itself on having a minimal privacy footprint. It lets you customize all these different settings that might impede a user’s privacy rights.
Fathom makes it easy to learn what you need to make smart decisions from your website analytics, all while being GDPR, CCPA, and PECR compliant. Cookie banners should also no longer be an issue with Fathom.
If you simply want to know how many users are on your website, where they’re coming from, and look up additional basic metrics occasionally, give Fathom a spin.
5. Adobe Experience Cloud
With the last item on our GA4 alternatives list, it’s not about switching to a new car or ride. It’s more about getting more seats. Here, it’s more like driving around a tour bus than a car.
With an increased number of passengers, many different opinions, departments, and needs have to be met with this new analytics solution.
Even with these high requirements, we have the solution for your Google Analytics bus that you have been driving around all this time.
These needs are best resolved by the Adobe Experience Cloud.
Here, we are not talking about switching over, but a host of different tools, a whole ecosystem that lets you cover all your business analytics needs from conversion rate optimization (CRO) to a CDP and analytics suite like the included Adobe Analytics.
With Adobe, you will find a robust scalable system that meets your enterprise needs. You’ll find a comparable companion to the Google Marketing Cloud offerings in the Experience Cloud.
Here are three features that Adobe Analytics users love about this tool. First, we have Workspaces.
Workspaces are simple reporting solutions that let you put together data quickly and easily share it with colleagues and stakeholders.
Next, it has unified reporting, letting you combine different data sources, such as mobile and website traffic, into one unified data stream and analyze them together.
Finally, it has a feature that is sorely missed in GA4 – calculated metrics.
🚨Update: Calculated metrics are now available in GA4.
It lets you create new metrics from existing data points by combining them through math, for example. We had it in UA, but not in GA4.
Nonetheless, if you’re still using Google Analytics with your organization or enterprise but looking to switch, check out Adobe’s offerings!
Not really an alternative, but Microsoft Clarity is also worth mentioning due to qualitative data through session recordings and heatmaps, helping to understand user behavior and usability issues.
It gives you the full picture alongside with GA4.
If you want to learn more about this combination, check out our article: Microsoft Clarity vs Google Analytics.
Summary
There you have it! Those are our top 5 GA4 alternatives worth considering, regardless of what type of user you are. We hope you found one that suits your needs.
Of course, there are many more alternatives that we weren’t able to mention in this guide. One great alternative is the Cloudflare Zaraz for server-side tagging.
However, before the final decision, we’d recommend taking another look at GA4’s pros and cons.
Also, you might be interested in finding out about the costs of Google Analytics and the products commonly used with it.
Are you using any of these tools? What is your favorite analytics tool, and which are you using now? Let us know in the comments below!
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