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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.
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.
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
Snowplow is an enterprise-strength event analytics platform. It Identifies its users and tracks the way they engage with the website or application.
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
- The software is open source
- It is very customizable
- Ecommerce reporting
- Privacy friendly
- The script is lightweight
- Elaborate data import options
- Simple Client-side & server-side tracking
- Great support
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
- Limited reporting features
- Technical skill required
- Comply with data privacy regulations
- You need a secure server
- Steep learning curve
- Technical knowledge needed for implementation
- Only a collection tool
Pricing information
Starting Price
| Standard | Free |
| GA4 360 | $50k+ per year |
| Starter | €15 p/m |
| Business | €40 p/m |
| Enterprise | On req. |
| Test & Experiment Tracking | Free |
| Self-Hosted Pipeline | On req. |
| Snowplow Platform | On req. |
Free trial period
Free plan
14 days
Free plan
14 days
Account Management
Trackable Items
100
5-10+ depending on plan
Unlimited
User Seats
Unlimited
1-10+ depending on plan
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)
- Not applicable
- United Kingdom
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
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Data Sampling
Explorations might use sampled data
Data Import
Import cost, offline or user/client ID data
GA importer included
by means of the REST API
Data Export
With sheets, BigQuery or API
As CSV or via API
by means of the REST API
Compliance
- GDPR
- CCPA
- GDPR
- CCPA
- ePrivacy
- GDPR
- CCPA
- GDPR
- CCPA
- HIPAA
Cookieless
Google Analytics relies on first-party cookies.
Simple Analytics is cookieless by default.
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
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
Based on first visit, first action, channel or custom events
Retention Reporting
Combined with CLTV metrics
CLTV Analysis
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
Domstream
A/B Testing
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.
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