Compare
Compare Analytics Tools
Google Analytics 4
Free plan
Only Google Analytics 4 has:
- Custom Reports
Heap
Free plan
Only Heap has:
- Session Recordings
- User Feedback
Simple Analytics
From €15 p/m
No feature only Simple Analytics has.
Plausible Analytics
From $9 p/m
No feature only Plausible Analytics has.
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.
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.
Lightweight and open source web analytics. No cookies and fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA and PECR. Made and hosted in the EU, on European cloud infrastructure.
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
- Privacy focused
- Cookieless
- Lightweight script
- Good support
- Easy to use
- Lightweight
- Open-source
- Cookieless
- EU cloud infrastructure
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
- Limited features due to cookieless
- Not very customisable
- No free version
- Limited features
- No audience reporting features
Pricing information
Starting Price
- StandardFree
- GA4 360$50k+ per year
- FreeFree
- GrowthOn req.
- ProOn req.
- PremierOn req.
- Starter€15 p/m
- Business€40 p/m
- EnterpriseOn req.
- 10k page views$9 p/m
- 100k page views$19 p/m
- 200k page views$29 p/m
- 500k page views$49 p/m
- 1M page views$69 p/m
- 2M page views$89 p/m
- 5M page views$129 p/m
- 10M page views$169 p/m
- EnterpriseOn req.
Free trial period
Free plan
Free plan
14 days
30 days
Account Management
Trackable Items
100
1
5-10+ depending on plan
1-10+ depending on plan
User Seats
Unlimited
Unlimited
1-10+ depending on plan
1-10+ depending on plan
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)
- European Economic Area (EEA)
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
You
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
Unlimited
3-5+ years depending on plan
Data Sampling
Explorations might use sampled data
Limited data sampling in reports with over 20M pageviews
Data Import
Import cost, offline or user/client ID data
GA importer included
e.g. import GA data
Data Export
With sheets, BigQuery or API
Via CSV or API
As CSV or via API
Export your data to CSV
Compliance
- GDPR
- CCPA
- GDPR
- CCPA
- HIPAA
- GDPR
- CCPA
- ePrivacy
- GDPR
- CCPA
- PECR
Cookieless
Google Analytics relies on first-party cookies.
Heap relies on first-party cookies
Simple Analytics is cookieless by default.
Plausible is cookieless by default.
Alerts & Automation
Custom Alerts
Custom insights, in interface or via email
Via Slack or email
Traffic spike notifications through Slack or email
Email Reports
Recurring shared reporting
Schedule regular emails for important charts
Daily, weekly, monthly
Weekly or monthly email reporting
Reporting
Trend Reporting
Curved and linear trend lines
Device Reporting
Device type, browser, OS and more
Device type, browser & OS
Funnel Reporting
Customisable funnel exploration
With quantitative measurement of user friction & step suggestions
Line up goals for simple funnel
User Flow Reporting
Flexible Sankey chart exploration
Sankey chart with path comparison
Basic reporting by looking at Entry & Exit pages
Segmentation
Segment creation and overlap exploration
Quickly identify patterns in user behavior
Filter dashboard with visitor attributes
Use filters to segment your audience
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
Ecommerce revenue tracking
User Experience Features
Heatmaps
GA4 does not offer heatmaps
Session Recordings
GA4 does not offer recordings
Automatically filters relevant replays
A/B Testing
User Feedback
Track NPS score events in surveys
Customizability
Custom Properties
25 user-scoped & 50 event-scoped dimensions
Custom Properties (Business plan and above)
Custom Metrics
50 event-scoped metrics
Custom Reports
All reports are customisable
Custom Events
25 parameters per event
By means of adding CSS classes
Annotations
Notes feature added in 2024
Able to include links in annotations
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.
Simple Analytics offers knowledgable support through phone and email.
Plausible offers extensive documentation which is the first place to find answers. Still haven't found what you're looking for? Contact their email support for knowledgable support.
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