Let’s be honest – no one likes GA4. However, GA4 has been in use for over a year – with millions adopting it, so I can’t see them stopping now. As I see it – you have a few options here:
- Use a different analytics program altogether.
- Hire GA specialist to create reports from your GA data.
- Use a plugin that creates reports from the GA data (Analytify or Monster Insights among others).
This article will focus on option #1: alternate analytics trackers and programs. We have included 4 SAAS companies and 2 Open Source options. All six are available without self-hosting, which is just easier!
How did we decide which GA Alternatives to review?
During the research for this article we did look at dozens and dozens of programs. To pare down the list to a reasonable number, we automatically removed companies from our list if it was too expensive or targeting a different function.
A lot of analytics companies are targeting either funnel conversion or SEO as well as the standard website based stats. This is a nuanced difference. For example, SEMRush is also an analytics tracker but it is targeting an SEO focused crowd. Removing these companies let us pare down the options to six alternatives that we think are:
- most popular
- well supported/excellent customer service
- reasonably priced
- privacy-minded
- focused on site speed
- focused on stats that bloggers need
These reviews are presented alphabetically. I hope you find what you need!
Asynchronous: this code will be added after the page has loaded. To users, the page will load just as fast as before. Pagespeed Insights / GTMetrix will notice a longer full page load time.
Adobe Analytics
Adobe Analytics is purely analytics and it breaches the gap between small business data and Big Data – this is great if you segment all the data by visitor source, campaigns, device, platform and a variety of other conversion factors. This allows the creation of custom audiences and A/B Testing. If you’re not sure what that means, it is likely you do not need something as advanced as Adobe Analytics.
Clicky
Clicky is a SAAS service, you can access online from desktop or mobile. It provides real-time analytics, heatmaps, conversion tracking, event and goal tracking – this is far more than you would get from GA. It is customizable, similarly to Google Analytics and the reports are very familiar if you’re used to GA. The user experience isn’t modern but if you’re used to GA, then that’s not a problem!
The integration with WP is handy, the reports are easy to read. And there is no missing data – in fact you even get heatmaps and conversion tracking too. The value cannot be beat!
Fathom Analytics
In case you weren’t aware, GA is based on real data – it isn’t real data.
Fathom focuses on privacy even in the EU, and offers easy to use dashboard and tracking of essential data. However the tracking script is 97% smaller than GA and therefore loads faster. Other than privacy, it focuses on page views, tracking website use, conversions, unique visitors and bounce rate: All the things you’re used to in GA. But with Fathom, there is no ‘sampling’ or machine learning – the data is only representing real people visiting your site.
*Note: the data is all recorded and available in an easy to use dashboard however it is difficult to compare one time period against another. (These records have to be recorded manually to create a visible comparison.)
Lucky Orange
For gaining insights without any training or learning curve, Lucky Orange is the winner, hands down. The dashboards show you what is working and what isn’t allowing you to change your user experience and get better conversions.
Use it to review user behavior to improve funnel conversion rates, and identify specific parts of our website that aren’t performing well. It will not provide all the data you’re used to in GA.
Plausible
Plausible is my favorite kind of software – open source! And they are compliant with GDPR, CCPA and PECR. They are exclusively hosted on EU owned cloud infrastructure. They do not track, store or trace private information.
Dashboard provides: number of unique visitors, total visits (sessions), total pageviews, views per visit, visit duration, bounce rate, referral sources, top pages, event and goal tracking (if you have events and goals).
WP plugin provides easy access to dashboard data and super easy integration. I think this might be my favorite so far!
Simple Analytics
Simple Analytics is Open Source which are usually my preferred choice. But I’ll be honest, the data is detailed and kinda feels complex. The jargon is technical and I would use this if you need open source or self-hosted and the complex data that was available in GA. This API will also integrate with your ad company, if needed.
For most of us, another dashboard like Lucky Orange or Clicky will help us more and be easier to use.
Beginner Checklist
If you’re starting out, you’ll love our comprehensive 52 point checklist for your website! Read through once, and then work on items one at a time as it comes up!
Cathy Mitchell
Single Mom, Lifelong Learner, Jesus Follower, Founder and CEO at WPBarista.