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Google Analytics 4

In Web Analytics

Key facts

Category
Web Analytics
Starting price
Free plan
Hosting
Public Cloud
Data stored in
European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, United States
Cookieless
No
Open source
No
Compliance
GDPR, CCPA
Last updated
15 February 2023

From the vendor's own pages. How we research tools · Google Analytics 4 alternatives

Measured by New Metrics

What Google Analytics 4's default install code did on our own test page, before any consent.

Script size

153.5 KB downloaded (435.6 KB unpacked)

Requests after one page view

2, to region1.google-analytics.com, www.googletagmanager.com

Cookies

  • _ga (first-party, 400 days)
  • _ga_<ID> (first-party, 400 days)

Browser storage

None

Stores data before consent

Yes, on the first page view. Do you need consent? Rules per country

Blocked by ad blockers

Yes, by default in uBlock Origin and Brave (EasyPrivacy blocks the script). Adblock Plus lets it through unless EasyPrivacy is switched on.

Measured on 31 October 2026 in Chrome. Your own setup can differ. How we measure

About Google Analytics 4

Improve your website’s customer experience with free digital analytics. Google Analytics gives companies insights into their websites, their audiences, and their online marketing efforts. Analytics helps marketers find the messaging and channels that generate the right results by being powerful, flexible, and easy to use. Using state-of-the-art conversion attribution and testing tools, companies of all sizes can optimize their digital strategies and build a better user experience. Take advantage of Google’s user insights. Understand your website users to better evaluate the performance of your content and products. Find out what’s working and fix what’s not. Let Google Analytics work for you, whether your business is big or small.

Customisability

GA4 might not look that impressive out of the box, but once you start customizing it to your needs, that can change quickly. With the ability to change every standard report plus the explorations feature, you are able to display all the metrics that you want in the reports that you want. This makes this free web analytics tool quite flexible compared to some of its competitors.

An overview of GA4

Wrap up: what do we think?

Overall, apart from some privacy concerns and a steep learning curve, GA4 is a good option to consider when choosing a web analytics tool. It’s free, flexible, comes packed with tonnes of features, and has a large community around it. Other advantages include explorations, an event stream to BigQuery and of course the Google Ads integration.

Pros
  • GA4 is free to use
  • Many functionalities
  • The reports are customisable
  • Large community
  • Extensive documentation
  • GA4 is easily scalable
Cons
  • Steep learning curve
  • Implementation can be hard
  • Inaccurate data sampling
  • UI is not easy to use

Software type

We classified Google Analytics 4 as Web Analytics. In addition, Google Analytics 4 is proprietary software.

Software details

Product of Google LLC

Headquartered in Mountain View, United States

Founded in 2005

marketingplatform.google.com

+1 650-253-0000

Google Analytics 4 Pricing

Standard

The free version of Google Analytics know as GA4.

  • Lower limits for data collection & processing
  • 24 hours data freshness
  • Community support
  • Up to 25 parameters per event
  • Up to 50 event scoped custom dimensions

Price

Free

GA4 360

Enterprise-level Google Analytics for large data limits.

  • High data limits (1M+ monthly sessions)
  • 1 hour data freshness
  • Enterprise-level tech support
  • Up to 100 parameters per event
  • Up to 125 event scoped custom dimensions

Price

From $50k per year

*Additional taxes may apply depending on your country.

Support

Support is available via chat and the support center.

Support hours

Mon
09:00 - 17:00
Tue
09:00 - 17:00
Wed
09:00 - 17:00
Thu
09:00 - 17:00
Fri
09:00 - 17:00
Sat
Closed
Sun
Closed

Support languages

40+ languages

Account Management

Trackable Items

100sites or apps

User Seats

Unlimited

User Roles

Viewer, Analyst, Marketer, Editor, Admin

Account Security

  • Single Sign-on
  • Two-factor Authentication

Data Processing

Data Center Locations

  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

Software Hosting

  • Public Cloud

Data Ownership

Google LLC

Data Freshness

4-8 hours (most reports), up to 24-48 hours

Data Retention

Customizable up to 14 months

Data Sampling

Explorations might use sampled data

Data Import

Import cost, offline or user/client ID data

Data Export

With sheets, BigQuery or API

Compliance

  • GDPR
  • CCPA

Cookieless

Google Analytics relies on first-party cookies.

Platform

Open Source

Real-time Dashboard

Real-time report

Self-hosting Available

API Access

Data API, Admin API, BigQuery export

AI Features

AI-powered insights and predictions

Alerts & Automation

Custom Alerts

Custom insights, in interface or via email

Email Reports

Recurring shared reporting

Integrations

50+ like Google Ads, Search Console, Looker Studio, BigQuery

Reporting

Trend Reporting

Device Reporting

Device type, browser, OS and more

Funnel Reporting

Customisable funnel exploration

User Flow Reporting

Flexible Sankey chart exploration

Segmentation

Segment creation and overlap exploration

Cohort Reports

Cohort exploration

Retention Reporting

Combined with CLTV metrics

Attribution Reporting

Attribution models comparison

Ecommerce Reporting

Extensive e-commerce reports

User Experience features

Heatmaps

GA4 does not offer heatmaps

Session Recordings

GA4 does not offer recordings

A/B Testing

User Feedback

Customizability

Custom Properties

25 user-scoped & 50 event-scoped dimensions

Custom Metrics

50 event-scoped metrics

Custom Reports

All reports are customisable

Custom Events

25 parameters per event

Annotations

Notes feature added in 2024

Terms explained

What the features and terms on this page mean, in our glossary.

FAQ

Is Google Analytics 4 GDPR compliant?

The short answer is: no. Despite some changes in privacy settings, Google Analytics 4 still collects personal data (unique user identifiers) and processes it outside the EU. Finally, Google Analytics 4 is still a product developed and maintained by Google – a US entity subject to US data surveillance laws such as FISA and the Cloud Act.

Can Google Analytics track social media?

With Google Analytics, you can get a wealth of information about your website and its visitors, including those who find you on social media. You can track, for instance, the total traffic to your site and the traffic sources (such as social networks).

When will Universal Analytics be deprecated?

On July 1, 2023, standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits. Google Analytics 4 is the next-generation measurement solution, and it’s replacing Universal Analytics.

Can Google Analytics work without cookies?

Your website can run Google Analytics based on the consent state of your end-users if you use Google Consent Mode. As an alternative to cookies, Google Consent Mode lets Google Analytics collect basic measurements without using cookies, maintaining user privacy while providing valuable insights into your website’s performance.

Is your question not listed? Ask us and we'll look into it right away.

1 Review

5/5

  • Sven
    Used Google Analytics 4 for 2-5 years as Growth Marketer

    What do you like?

    A love Google Analytics. This tool brings you incredibly powerful data to make decisions on and grow your business with. A must have for every online marketer to get more insights about your users and website usage, to track marketing campaigns, landing pages and goals, and track down website errors. I like how Google offers free online courses (from beginner to expert) and demo accounts to educate yourself.

    What do you dislike?

    Google Analytics can be tricky to get used to after working with Universal Analytics for a long time. Some features that I was used to are missing or different. However, Google is doing a good job of listening to its users and is releasing new (feature) updates weekly, if not daily.

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