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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.
One easy dashboard to see how many visitors are coming to your website, where they come from and what they do once they're there. Without cookies. Without stalking. Still lightweight.
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.
Pros
  • GA4 is free to use
  • Many functionalities
  • The reports are customisable
  • Large community
  • Extensive documentation
  • GA4 is easily scalable
  • Privacy focused
  • Cookieless
  • Lightweight script
  • Good support
  • Easy to use
  • Comes with headline testing tool
  • Dashboards are easy to read
  • Reporting is in realtime
  • Good referral report
Cons
  • Steep learning curve
  • Implementation can be hard
  • Inaccurate data sampling
  • UI is not easy to use
  • Limited features due to cookieless
  • Not very customisable
  • No free version
  • Mainly designed for publishers
  • Their pricing is untransparent
  • Traffic sources could be improved

Pricing information

Starting Price
StandardFree
GA4 360$50k+ per year
Starter€15 p/m
Business€40 p/m
EnterpriseOn req.
BasicOn req.
PlusOn req.
PremiumOn req.
Free trial period
Free plan
14 days
14 days

Account Management

Trackable Items
100
5-10+ depending on plan
1
User Seats
Unlimited
1-10+ depending on plan
Unlimited
Account Security
  • 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
Software Hosting
  • 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
Data Freshness
4-8 hours (most reports), up to 24-48 hours
Realtime
Realtime
Data Retention
Customizable up to 14 months
Unlimited
13 months
Data Sampling
Explorations might use sampled data
Data Import
Import cost, offline or user/client ID data
GA importer included
Data Export
With sheets, BigQuery or API
As CSV or via API
Compliance
  • GDPR
  • CCPA
  • GDPR
  • CCPA
  • ePrivacy
  • GDPR
  • CCPA
Cookieless
Google Analytics relies on first-party cookies.
Simple Analytics is cookieless by default.
Uses first-party cookies by default. Cookieless mode is optional.

Alerts & Automation

Custom Alerts
Custom insights, in interface or via email
Email Reports
Recurring shared reporting
Daily, weekly, monthly

Reporting

Trend Reporting
Curved and linear trend lines
Device Reporting
Device type, browser, OS and more
Funnel Reporting
Customisable funnel exploration
Line up goals for simple funnel
User Flow Reporting
Flexible Sankey chart exploration
Segmentation
Segment creation and overlap exploration
Filter dashboard with visitor attributes
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
Headline A/B testing tool
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
Able to include links in annotations

Support

Support description
Support is available via chat and the support center.
Simple Analytics offers knowledgable support through phone and 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.
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
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