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Compare Analytics Tools

Rating
4.5/5
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.
Chartbeat is a suite of content analytics tools for publishers that lets you track reader engagement on your site, optimize your user experience in real-time, and share key metrics with your team.
A website UX tool. See how your visitors actually use your website. It features visitor recordings, live chat, heat map suite, analytics, polls, & more.
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
  • Comes with headline testing tool
  • Dashboards are easy to read
  • Reporting is in realtime
  • Good referral report
  • Easy to use
  • Great tagging feature
  • Attentive support team
  • 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
  • Mainly designed for publishers
  • Their pricing is untransparent
  • Traffic sources could be improved
  • New version can be glitchy
  • Slight learning curve for beginners
  • 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
StandardFree
GA4 360$50k+ per year
BasicOn req.
PlusOn req.
PremiumOn req.
FullstoryFreeFree
BusinessOn req.
AdvancedOn req.
EnterpriseOn req.
Free trial period
Free plan
14 days
7 days
Free plan

Account Management

Trackable Items
100
1
1 per plan but option to add 1 for €5
User Seats
Unlimited
Unlimited
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)
  • United States
  • 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
Chartbeat
Lucky Orange
You
Data Freshness
4-8 hours (most reports), up to 24-48 hours
Realtime
Realtime
Data Retention
Customizable up to 14 months
13 months
2 months for heatmaps & recordings and 12 for other features
12 months on FullstoryFree, paid plans not published
Data Sampling
Explorations might use sampled data
Data Import
Import cost, offline or user/client ID data
Browser and Server APIs, Segment and Tealium integrations
Data Export
With sheets, BigQuery or API
Anywhere Warehouse (hourly sync to BigQuery, Redshift, Snowflake), add-on
Compliance
  • GDPR
  • CCPA
  • GDPR
  • CCPA
  • GDPR
  • CCPA
  • GDPR
  • CCPA
Cookieless
Google Analytics relies on first-party cookies.
Uses first-party cookies by default. Cookieless mode is optional.
Lucky orange uses first-party cookies
Capture needs the first-party fs_uid cookie

Alerts & Automation

Custom Alerts
Custom insights, in interface or via email
Metric, segment and opportunity alerts by email, in-app, Slack, Teams; Advanced and Enterprise
Email Reports
Recurring shared reporting

Reporting

Trend Reporting
Metric trends
Device Reporting
Device type, browser, OS and more
Device breakdown
Funnel Reporting
Customisable funnel exploration
Funnels and conversions
User Flow Reporting
Flexible Sankey chart exploration
Journey maps, page flows
Segmentation
Segment creation and overlap exploration
User segments
Cohort Reports
Cohort exploration
Retention Reporting
Combined with CLTV metrics
Advanced and Enterprise
Attribution Reporting
Attribution models comparison
Simple referrer graph
Ecommerce Reporting
Extensive e-commerce reports
Order Completed and Product Purchased events

User Experience Features

Heatmaps
GA4 does not offer heatmaps
Click and scroll maps
Session Recordings
GA4 does not offer recordings
Session replay, included in FullstoryFree
A/B Testing
Headline A/B testing tool
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
Custom event and user properties
Custom Metrics
50 event-scoped metrics
Custom calculations
Custom Reports
All reports are customisable
Dashboards, paid plans
Custom Events
25 parameters per event
Annotations
Notes feature added in 2024

Support

Support description
Support is available via chat and the support center.
Chartbeat's support is accessible by email during regular office hours. Overall they provide extensive documentation, but their support staff is responsive and very knowledgable in case you face issues.
Lucky Orange offers support by means of email, a live chat, and a ticketing system. Besides that, they have an extensive knowledge base and they offer an onboarding service.
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

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