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Rating

4.5/5

5/5

Summary

A customisable and free web analytics tool. Get insights into user behavior with an event-based tracking model, and know what drives sales and traffic with extensive attribution methods.

A free privacy focussed open-source web analytics tool, which gives you 100% data-ownership. You can even use Matomo without needing to ask for consent.

Enterprise-level web analytics. Adobe Analytics lets you mix, match, and analyze data from any digital point in the customer journey.

Fullstory is a digital experience analytics platform that combines session replay, product analytics and AI-generated insights, with a permanent free plan.

Pros

GA4 is free to use
Many functionalities
The reports are customisable
Large community
Extensive documentation
GA4 is easily scalable

Data display
Flexible data visualisation
Engagement reporting
Privacy oriented

Great segmentation
Good video tracking
Customizable
Easy report creation

Permanent free plan with session replay
Choice of EU or US data center
SOC 2 and ISO 27001, 27701 and 42001 certifications
Warehouse sync to BigQuery, Snowflake and Redshift

Cons

Steep learning curve
Implementation can be hard
Inaccurate data sampling
UI is not easy to use

Integrations
Branding method

Pricing can be quite steep
Tech support can be improved
Can be difficult to implement
Can be challenging to get educated

Paid prices not published
Dashboards and StoryAI not in the free plan
Alerts and retention reports need an Advanced or Enterprise plan
Moving to the EU data center means opening a new account

Pricing information

Starting Price

Standard	Free
GA4 360	$50k+ per year

On-Premise	Free
Cloud	€19+ p/m

Select	On req.
Prime	On req.
Ultimate	On req.

FullstoryFree	Free
Business	On req.
Advanced	On req.
Enterprise	On req.

Free trial period

Free plan

21 days

Free plan

Account Management

Trackable Items

100

Unlimited

User Seats

Unlimited

10 on FullstoryFree, paid plans not published

Account Security

Single Sign-on
Two-factor Authentication

Single Sign-on
Two-factor Authentication

Single Sign-on
Two-factor Authentication

Single Sign-on
Two-factor Authentication

Data Processing

Data Center Locations

European Economic Area (EEA)
United Kingdom
United States

European Economic Area (EEA)

European Economic Area (EEA)
United States

European Economic Area (EEA)
United States

Software Hosting

Public Cloud
Private Cloud
On-Premise

Public Cloud
Private Cloud
On-Premise

Public Cloud
Private Cloud
On-Premise

Public Cloud
Private Cloud
On-Premise

Data Ownership

Google Analytics 4

You

Adobe Analytics

You

Data Freshness

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

15 minutes or more

2 hours

Data Retention

Customizable up to 14 months

Unlimited and customizable

25 months by default

12 months on FullstoryFree, paid plans not published

Data Sampling

Explorations might use sampled data

Matomo doesn’t use data sampling

Some Audience Manager reports display results sampled data

Data Import

Import cost, offline or user/client ID data

Import Google Analytics data, search keywords & server logs

Though data sources, API or data connectors

Browser and Server APIs, Segment and Tealium integrations

Data Export

With sheets, BigQuery or API

to CSV, XML, Json or Looker Studio or via HTTP API

Through data feeds, a data warehouse or FTP and SFTP

Anywhere Warehouse (hourly sync to BigQuery, Redshift, Snowflake), add-on

Compliance

GDPR
CCPA

GDPR
CCPA
ePrivacy

GDPR
CCPA
HIPAA
PECR

GDPR
CCPA

Cookieless

Google Analytics relies on first-party cookies.

Matomo offers cookieless tracking.

Adobe uses tracking cookies

Capture needs the first-party fs_uid cookie

Alerts & Automation

Custom Alerts

Custom insights, in interface or via email

Receive alerts from every report by email or SMS

Via e-mail or SMS

Metric, segment and opportunity alerts by email, in-app, Slack, Teams; Advanced and Enterprise

Email Reports

Recurring shared reporting

Detailed daily, weekly and monthly reports

Flexible scheduled reporting

Reporting

Trend Reporting

Metric trends

Device Reporting

Device type, browser, OS and more

Device types, OS, OS versions & mobile carriers

Device breakdown

Funnel Reporting

Customisable funnel exploration

Basic funnel reporting

Bar chart funnel report

Funnels and conversions

User Flow Reporting

Flexible Sankey chart exploration

With flexible Sankey chart

Fallout & Flow (Sankey chart) reports

Journey maps, page flows

Segmentation

Segment creation and overlap exploration

Based on visit, interaction, campaign, ecommerce, demographics & device

Advanced segments with Segment builder & Segment manager

User segments

Cohort Reports

Cohort exploration

Analyse and segment by cohort

Churn, rolling & latency tables

Retention Reporting

Combined with CLTV metrics

Retention cohort report

Advanced and Enterprise

Attribution Reporting

Attribution models comparison

Model comparison report

Apply to metrics, breakdowns or compare models

Ecommerce Reporting

Extensive e-commerce reports

Very flexible ecommerce reporting

Order Completed and Product Purchased events

User Experience Features

Heatmaps

GA4 does not offer heatmaps

Filter specific pages or hide elements on the page

Called activity map

Click and scroll maps

Session Recordings

GA4 does not offer recordings

Record specific pages or only after activity or duration

Session replay, included in FullstoryFree

A/B Testing

A/B Testing Platform (premium feature)

A/B experiments in Guides and Surveys add-on; Optimizely integration

User Feedback

Guides and Surveys add-on

Customizability

Custom Properties

25 user-scoped & 50 event-scoped dimensions

5-15 for each scope and can't delete them

Custom event and user properties

Custom Metrics

50 event-scoped metrics

Unlimited calculated metrics

Custom calculations

Custom Reports

All reports are customisable

Flexible report design

Reports in Analysis workspace are customisable

Dashboards, paid plans

Custom Events

25 parameters per event

Up to 1.000 success events

Annotations

Notes feature added in 2024

On any graph or via API

Available in Workspace

Support

Support description

Support is available via chat and the support center.

Matomo offers extensive documentation and video tutorials. Because Matomo is an open source product, you can also get help from a large community. Do you need personal help? Contact Matomo's support team for general issues or contact Innocraft for Matomo Cloud-hosted services.

The support of Adobe Analytics consists of an expansive knowledge base and an online community. Phone and chat options exist for certain user types. Besides that, they offer many training options and tutorials.

Support is by email and support ticket during regional weekday business hours, with a help center and community forum. Free plan tickets have a 2 business day response target, paying customers 1 business day. A Premium Support add-on gives 24/7 critical support. The FullstoryFree help article lists email support as a paid plan feature, while the support hours article lists a response target for free plan customers.

Support Options

Phone
Email
Live Chat
Ticketing system
Knowledge base
Community

Phone
Email
Live Chat
Ticketing system
Knowledge base
Community

Phone
Email
Live Chat
Ticketing system
Knowledge base
Community

Phone
Email
Live Chat
Ticketing system
Knowledge base
Community