Compare
Compare Analytics Tools
Rating
4.5/5
5/5
4/5
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.
Privacy-focused website analytics without compromise. Fathom doesn’t compromise visitor privacy for data. It made website analytics easy to use and respectful of privacy laws.
Hotjar provides Product Experience Insights about your website that show how users behave and what they feel strongly about, so product teams can deliver real value to them.
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 friendly
- Easy to use
- Customer support
- Ad-blocker bypassing
- Comes with great heatmaps
- Includes session recordings
- Good polling function
- Hotjar features exit surveys
- 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
- No data import
- Short free trial
- Limited features
- Hotjar is not available for mobile
- Steep pricing for large organisations
- Hard to exclude URLs from reports
- Mainly designed for publishers
- Their pricing is untransparent
- Traffic sources could be improved
Pricing information
Starting Price
| Standard | Free |
| GA4 360 | $50k+ per year |
| 100k page views | $15 p/m |
| 200k page views | $25 p/m |
| 500k page views | $45 p/m |
| 1 Million page views | $60 p/m |
| 2 Million page views | $100 p/m |
| Basic | Free |
| Plus | $49+ p/m |
| Business | On req. |
| Scale | On req. |
| Basic | On req. |
| Plus | On req. |
| Premium | On req. |
Free trial period
Free plan
30 days
Free plan
14 days
Account Management
Trackable Items
100
50
Unlimited
1
User Seats
Unlimited
Unlimited
1
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
- 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
Hotjar
Chartbeat
Data Freshness
4-8 hours (most reports), up to 24-48 hours
Realtime
30 minutes
Realtime
Data Retention
Customizable up to 14 months
Unlimited
12 months
13 months
Data Sampling
Explorations might use sampled data
Data Import
Import cost, offline or user/client ID data
Google Analytics importer
Send user data to Hotjar to enhance analysis
Data Export
With sheets, BigQuery or API
One-click CSV export
Export recording meta data
Compliance
- GDPR
- CCPA
- GDPR
- CCPA
- ePrivacy
- COPPA
- PECR
- GDPR
- CCPA
- GDPR
- CCPA
Cookieless
Google Analytics relies on first-party cookies.
Fathom is cookieless by default.
Hotjar relies on first-party cookies.
Uses first-party cookies by default. Cookieless mode is optional.
Alerts & Automation
Custom Alerts
Custom insights, in interface or via email
in the interface, via e-mail or Slack
Email Reports
Recurring shared reporting
Weekly or monthly reporting
e.g. daily survey responses reports
Reporting
Trend Reporting
Device Reporting
Device type, browser, OS and more
Device type, browser & OS
See on which device the user was
Funnel Reporting
Customisable funnel exploration
Discover why users drop off
User Flow Reporting
Flexible Sankey chart exploration
Segmentation
Segment creation and overlap exploration
Instant filters on any data point
Create custom filters for recordings
Cohort Reports
Cohort exploration
Retention Reporting
Combined with CLTV metrics
Attribution Reporting
Attribution models comparison
Ecommerce Reporting
Extensive e-commerce reports
By means of custom events
User Experience Features
Heatmaps
GA4 does not offer heatmaps
Unlimited
Session Recordings
GA4 does not offer recordings
Record all interaction with your site
A/B Testing
No A/B testing tool only integrations
Headline A/B testing tool
User Feedback
Place NPS ratings or a survey pop-up on every page
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
Can include: name, ID & value
Track and filter sessions & heatmaps
Annotations
Notes feature added in 2024
Hotjar does not have annotations
Support
Support description
Support is available via chat and the support center.
Fathom offers extensive support and video walk-throughs. For issues you can always contact their knowledgable email support.
Hotjar offers extensive documentation and a ticketing support system. Most requests are answered within 1-2 business days, but often faster.
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
- 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