Comparison of 30 User-Friendly Google Analytics Alternatives

I have been using Google Analytics for more than a decade and it was the undoubted market leader in this space. With the release of Google Analytics 4 (GA4) this changed for me. First, many standard reports have been missing, e.g. acquisition report, which I used a lot. Though GA4 offers a great reporting engine, I didn't want to spend so much time setting up custom reports for each site. In the meantime, Google added many standard reports but there are still other issues:

• Complex & Unintuitive Interface – GA4’s interface is less intuitive than Universal Analytics, making navigation and report creation more difficult.
• Steep Learning Curve – The transition from Universal Analytics requires significant time to learn GA4’s new event-based model.
• Missing Key Metrics – Some familiar metrics like bounce rate were initially removed (later reintroduced), and session definitions have changed.
• Privacy & Consent Mode Challenges – Stricter privacy controls sometimes result in data gaps and missing user insights.

Especially the last point makes web analytics in general less important and reliable. It all started back in 2011 when Google Analytics cut of organic search term data from Google Search due to HTTPS encryption. Since then, I relied more and more on Google Search Console.

Also the referrer data is much less accurate then years ago. Usually, you can capture only the referring domain but not referring URL any more due to privacy restrictions in browsers. This doesn't apply just to Google Analytics but all tools. However, it makes it less important to use a bloated web analytics solution with advanced attribution models if the quality and quantity of the underlying data is just getting worth than before.

Personal Selection Criteria For Web Analytics Tool

I wanted to find for my own projects a user-friendly, minimalistic alternative to Google Analytics. I was looking for a solution that covers these points:

• Continued development, i.e. will not disappear within the next years
• User-friendly interface to be efficient
• Cookie-less Tracking because I don't want to use cookie banners that doesn't help anyone except to drive revenue for the cookie banner SaaS providers
• Full Hostname in Reports since I have some domains belonging to each other which I want to track within one site project
• Outbound Link & File Download Tracking to collect at least some actionable data insights
• Custom Events/Goals & Custom Funnel (same as above)
• API Access + Documentation – while I do not need this today, I might want to incorporate some web analytics data in future projects
• Afforable Pricing – Well, the price is also important and most solutions offer a very afforable pricing. I think once the market consolidates a bit, we will unfortunately see some price increases.

Evaluation of User-Friendly Alternatives to Google Analytics

I was suprised about the amount of web analytics solutions that are available. I found more than 30 tools and there are probably more. Most solutions are similar and barely differentiate. Since so many companies offer the same, stick with the largest ones which probably won’t go offline but improve their service. I saw a couple of tools that discontinued their service.

Only few services disclosed their full company details which I found a bit strange when you entrust them your data. Also, it was difficult to find the data retention periods for many web analytics solutions. I made a comprehensive comparison which I put into a Google Sheet.

Comprehensive Web Analytics Comparison in Google Sheet

Web Analytics Tools Comparison Google Sheet.

In the Google Sheet you will find this information:

• Name
• Website
• Company Location
• Company Name + Address
• Comments
• Status
• Trial Period
• Tier 1 Price/Mo.
• Tier 2 Price/Mo.
• Tier 3 Price/Mo.
• Self-Hosted Version Available
• Data Retention Period
• Single-line Code Snippet
• Cookie-less Tracking
• Features:
  • Multiple Domains in one Site Project
  • Full Hostname in Reports
  • Outbound Link Tracking
  • File Download Tracking
  • 404 Error Page Tracking
  • Custom Events/Goals Custom Funnel
  • Custom Tracking Subdomain
  • CSV Raw Data Export via UI
  • API Access
  • API Documentation
• Pros
• Cons

Furthermore, I signed up for 16 solutions, integrated their code snippets into two of my sites, and collected data for one week (Feb 1st–2nd, 2025) on views, visits, and unique visitors for both a single-domain and a multi-domain site. You'll find this data in the sheet as well. For most tools, the data falls within a reasonable range, but some tools produced outliers. Pirsch informed me that their data is significantly lower due to restrictive bot traffic filtering. However, I remain somewhat skeptical that this is the only reason. Perhaps someone would like to conduct a broader, statistically more relevant test with more data.

Web Analytics Code Snippets

Web Analytics Code Snippets.

Web Analytics Screenhots

You can access the screenshots of compared web analytics tools so you don't need to register trial accounts with each service.

Web Analytics Screenshots.

Below, you find a full list of all web analytics tools that I collected with some personal notes:

Ahrefs Web Analytics

Pros

• Only cookie-less solution that is free for unlimited sites
• Clean, user-friendly interface with many drill-down options
• Overall, I like the solution. It is a simple, free alternative to Google Analytics
• I hope it remains stand-alone and not diluted by other Ahrefs tools when you are not using them

Cons

• First-party data is used to enhance Ahrefs database
• Not showing metrics per region / city
• Couldn't track different domains within one profile; eventually requires unlinking GSC (???)
• Functionality-wise still very limited but still in progress since recently launched
• Tracking snippet couldn't be identified for one site

Beampipe

Pros

• Overall, simple solution with free version for sites with small traffic

Cons

• Seems to be not maintained any more since last change-log entry dates from 2020
• Limited filter options and functionality
• Tracked numbers are much higher than average

CountVisits

Pros

• Auto-recognizes custom events such as form submissions

Cons

• Not possible to set a custom date range
• I am sceptical about life-time offers because at some point it becomes unsustainable
• Personally, I don't like the black web design and strange font type though it can be customized

Cronitor (Previously Panelbear.com)

Pros

• Cronitor Sites provides basic web analytics data but not more

Cons

• Focus of Cronitor lies on Uptime moitoring

Exact Metrics

• Not tested because focus on WordPress

Fathom

Pros

• One of the few services that shows the full hostname in the pages report

Cons

• One of very few apps that requires credit card and billing address details and will charge after 30 days
• Not showing metrics per region / city
• No option to publish / share report
• Personally, I like more strong contrasts in the color palette

Gaug.es

Pros

• Marketing attribution with custom domain tracking available

Cons

• Requires integration of long code snippet
• Uses cookie-based tracking

Get Insights

Cons

• Registration does not work + no response from support email

Goat Counter

Pros

• Probably developed with passion and good intentions
• For very small sites that need limited functionality OK

Cons

• Very old-fashioned interface which is not extremely user-friendly
• Shows only "Visit" as metric
• Limited filter options

Google Analytics

Pros

• Great solution for complex tracking requirements
• Great solution for complex custom reports

Cons

• Many reports available previously out-of-the-box, need to be manually setup in GA4
• Navigating through all the settings can be overwhelming & time-consuming
• Uses cookies and therefore requires cookie banner which increases complexity

GoSquared

Pros

• Clean, user-friendly interface

Cons

• Requires to add credit card details for trial

Independent WP

• Not tested because focus on WordPress

Kind Metrics

• Not tested because offline

Koko Analytics

• Not tested because offline + only available as self-hosted solution

LiteAnalytics

• No comments but I don't remember why 😄

Matomo

Pros

• If you want to self-host Google Analytics, this can be a solution
• A lot of tools and reports which are not available in most privacy-aware solutions such as A/B Testing, Heatmaps, Session Recording, etc.

Cons

• Requires integration of long code snippet

Metrical

Pros

• The UI looks nice and it's very simple

Cons

• No confirmation info when registering
• Datepicker to select date range doesn't work properly
• The data stronly deviates from other web analytics providers
• It seems as if the project is in maintenance mode
• The Visits chart is empty

MicroAnalytics

Pros

• Simple interface

Cons

• Only 1 site accepted during trial
• Developer page is empty
• Data spread across multiple sub-pages

Monster Insights

Not tested because focus on WordPress

Offen

Not tested because only available as self-hosted solution

Open Web Analytics

Not tested because only available as self-hosted solution

Pirsch

Pros

• Very good feature set which goes above what most others offer (Funnels, A/B Testing, Comparisons, Views, etc.)
• Very easy setup of goals and funnels
• Manually filter by extensive dimensions which most apps don't offer
• Very good documentation
• Offers detailed drill-down filters, e.g. for dates and many other dimensions

Cons

• Navigation bar is not super user-friendly
• Compared to the other solutions, the tracked metrics seem to be very low; according to Pirsch they filtered more than 50% bot traffic but the numbers are still much lower than the average + I haven't checked whether other solutions also filter bots

Plausible

Pros

• Dashboard can be published and shared
• Integration with Google Search Console to integrate keyword data

Cons

• Limited filter options
• The complete website footer on the report dashboard is unnecessary

Simple Analytics

Pros

• Supports annotations (very helpful for analysis)

Cons

• The complete website footer on the report dashboard is unnecessary
• Metrics on dashboard are very limited
• Compared to the other solutions, the tracked metrics seem to be very low

Squeaky

Not tested because offline

Swetrix

Pros

• Good filter and different chart options

Cons

• Navigation bar is not super user-friendly
• The complete website footer on the report dashboard is unnecessary
• The dashboard boxes are very small showing ony 5 records and URLs are cut

Tiny Analytics

Pros

• Promotes extra features such as heatmaps and session recording

Cons

• Registration not possible due to error 500 since days
• No link to API documentation or documentation in general

Twipla

Pros

• Offers extra features such as heatmaps and session recording

Cons

• Requires integration of long code snippet
• Bloated interface with many annoying popups
• Code snippet must be added to the body section
• Code snippet couldn't be detected between body tags

Umami

Pros

• Clean, user-friendly interface
• Custom report builder
• Allows comparisons
• Simple pricing model
• Very fast

Cons

• No funnel or goal tracking
• Events need to be setup in code; nice would be the setup via rules in the interface
• Would be nicer to see the data as line chart rather than bar chart
• Unnecessary questions during signup

Usermaven

Cons

• Requires integration of long code snippet
• Multi-line code snippet
• Site verification did not work for me + only service where I couldn’t proceed without site verification
• One of the few services which bombards you with marketing mails after registration

Vercel (previously Splitbee.com)

Cons

• Focused on developer tools
• Couldn't find the link to add my sites for web analytics

WithCabin

Pros

• Clean, user-friendly interface
• Allows custom tracking subdomain
• Simple pricing model

Cons

• Not showing metrics per region / city
• Only 1 domain in trial supported
• Compared to the other solutions, the tracked metrics seem to be very low

Clustered Solutions

I clustered the web analytics solutions into different segments:

Shortlisted Web Analytics Solutions

• Ahrefs
• Fathom
• GoSquared
• Pirsch
• Plausible
• Umami
• WithCabin

Enterprise Web Analytics Solutions

• Google Analytics
• Matomo

WordPress Web Analytics Solutions

• Exact Metrics
• Independent WP
• Monster Insights

Special Mentions

• Cronitor / Vercel: These tools focus more on uptime monitoring or web developer tools. Web Anayltics is just a side feature.
• Twipla / Usermaven: These tools have been annoying because they use some aggressive onboarding marketing (mails, etc.).
• Fathom / GoSquared: Only solutions that required to add your credit card deatils to start a trial.

Future of Google

Besides all that, Google is being attacked in several of its core business areas, and for the first time in a long while, a major internet company that once disrupted the market is now being disrupted.

• Search Engine – AI-driven search tools and vertical-specific alternatives (Amazon, TikTok) reduce reliance on Google Search.
• Advertising – Privacy regulations, AI-powered competitors, and cookie deprecation challenge Google’s ad dominance.
• Web Analytics Solution – Privacy-first analytics and GA4 dissatisfaction drive businesses toward alternative tracking solutions.