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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.
The only digital insights platform that gives you complete understanding of your customers’ digital journeys, so you can quickly improve conversion, retention, and customer delight.
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.
Open Web Analytics is the free and open source web analytics framework that lets you stay in control of how you instrument and analyze the use of your websites and application
Pros
- GA4 is free to use
- Many functionalities
- The reports are customisable
- Large community
- Extensive documentation
- GA4 is easily scalable
- It is easy to implement
- It has data science capabilities
- Reports are easy to build
- Interface is user-friendly
- Comes with headline testing tool
- Dashboards are easy to read
- Reporting is in realtime
- Good referral report
- The software is open source
- It is very customizable
- Ecommerce reporting
- Privacy friendly
- The script is lightweight
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- Implementation can be hard
- Inaccurate data sampling
- UI is not easy to use
- Tech support is quite basic
- Difficult to share dasboards
- Onboarding could be improved
- Mainly designed for publishers
- Their pricing is untransparent
- Traffic sources could be improved
- Limited reporting features
- Technical skill required
- Comply with data privacy regulations
- You need a secure server
Pricing information
Starting Price
| Standard | Free |
| GA4 360 | $50k+ per year |
| Free | Free |
| Growth | On req. |
| Pro | On req. |
| Premier | On req. |
| Basic | On req. |
| Plus | On req. |
| Premium | On req. |
Free trial period
Free plan
Free plan
14 days
Free plan
Account Management
Trackable Items
100
1
1
Unlimited
User Seats
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
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
- European Economic Area (EEA)
- United States
- Not applicable
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
Chartbeat
You
Data Freshness
4-8 hours (most reports), up to 24-48 hours
Realtime
Realtime
Realtime
Data Retention
Customizable up to 14 months
12 months
13 months
Unlimited
Data Sampling
Explorations might use sampled data
Data Import
Import cost, offline or user/client ID data
by means of the REST API
Data Export
With sheets, BigQuery or API
Via CSV or API
by means of the REST API
Compliance
- GDPR
- CCPA
- GDPR
- CCPA
- HIPAA
- GDPR
- CCPA
- GDPR
- CCPA
Cookieless
Google Analytics relies on first-party cookies.
Heap relies on first-party cookies
Uses first-party cookies by default. Cookieless mode is optional.
Sets first-party cookies (owa_v, owa_c, session). Lifetimes can be shortened or made session-only.
Alerts & Automation
Custom Alerts
Custom insights, in interface or via email
Via Slack or email
Email Reports
Recurring shared reporting
Schedule regular emails for important charts
Reporting
Trend Reporting
Device Reporting
Device type, browser, OS and more
Funnel Reporting
Customisable funnel exploration
With quantitative measurement of user friction & step suggestions
User Flow Reporting
Flexible Sankey chart exploration
Sankey chart with path comparison
Segmentation
Segment creation and overlap exploration
Quickly identify patterns in user behavior
Cohort Reports
Cohort exploration
Retention Reporting
Combined with CLTV metrics
Attribution Reporting
Attribution models comparison
Track UTM parameters or initial referrer sources
Ecommerce Reporting
Extensive e-commerce reports
Easy setup with eCommerce Activation Kit
User Experience Features
Heatmaps
GA4 does not offer heatmaps
Session Recordings
GA4 does not offer recordings
Automatically filters relevant replays
Domstream
A/B Testing
Headline A/B testing tool
User Feedback
Track NPS score events in surveys
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
Support
Support description
Support is available via chat and the support center.
Heap offers extensive documentation and access to their in-depth collection of Heap University courses to get up and running. Need more help? Join the community or contact their knowledgable support staff through email.
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.
Because Open Web Analytics is open source, all documentation is found on GitHub. Apart from the community, there are no support options available.
Support Options
- Phone
- Live Chat
- Ticketing system
- Knowledge base
- Community
- Phone
- Live Chat
- Ticketing system
- Knowledge base
- Community
- Phone
- Live Chat
- Ticketing system
- Knowledge base
- Community
- Phone
- Live Chat
- Ticketing system
- Knowledge base
- Community