Looking for an alternative to Google Analytics? You’ve come to the right place.
Dominating over 85.4 percent of the market for web analytic tools, Google Analytics is (by far) the most popular way to measure and track the performance of the website.
While Google Analytics is no doubt an incredibly powerful tool – it’s not the only one, with many privacy-oriented alternatives encouraging website visitors to migrate away to help protect the privacy of their website visitors.
So, without further ado – let’s dive right into this definitive list of the very best Google Analytics alternatives out there so you can find the one that’s right for your business.
What Is Data Sampling and Why Is It Important?
Before we touch on the powerful Google Analytics Alternatives on this list, let’s first go over what data sampling is.
Once a website reaches over 5 million views per month, Google no longer reviews all of the user data. Instead, it analyzes just 500,000 users from the 5 million (only 10 percent). Although the data from these users is “good enough”, it’s not nearly as accurate as it could be.
So, when you’re a company with tens of millions of views, getting analytics from just 10 percent of your visitors becomes a problem. It means 90 percent of all your users are unaccounted for.
The analytics tools below don’t sample data, and that’s one of the biggest pros of switching away from Google Analytics.
With that clarified and out of the way, here are the six best alternatives to Google Analytics.
The 6 Best Alternatives to Google Analytics In 2021
1. Fathom Analytics
Fathom is a privacy-centered, cookie-less alternative. Google Analytics has been known to collect data on more than just web activity. They also curate your user and reader’s data for Google’s own interests. Whether you want to protect your user’s browsing data or be known as a privacy-focused website, replacing your analytics tool with Fathom is a great way to start.
Integrating Fathom Analytics into your website is straightforward. Fathom’s web reports are also just as simple, coming in only a one-page view with all the basic analytic data. Things like unique visitors, site views, bounce rate, the average time on the site, and referral (how users commonly found your site) statistics are viewed on one page. There’s also a section for content, which shows the page views and unique visitors per page, like your homepage, top post, and more.
Where Fathom really shines is their privacy-focused, simplistic approach to analytics. Fathom users see all their stats on one page and can traverse between days, weeks, months, and even years. You can also cycle between daily and hourly data too.
Key Features For This Alternative to Google Analytics
- Fathom’s dashboard is simple; everything is shown on a single page of data
- Users can receive email reports weekly, monthly, or both
- Custom domains bypass ad-blockers
- Fathom is easy to install and is a lightweight script. So, it’s just as fast, or even faster, than Google Analytics’ load time
- Fathom does not collect customer data for their own pockets, unlike Google and no personal identifiable information (PIII) is collected, making it GDPR, ePrivacy, PECR, and CCPA compliant
Setting up Fathom is not only easy but comes with a 7-day free trial, and that’s always a plus. For the technical geeks out there, Fathom isn’t an open-source platform, so you won’t be able to add your own plug-ins or dive into a forum of other Fathom users to exchange GitHub links.
Not everything is perfect, so here are a few points to consider where Fathom falls short.
Points to Consider
- Fathom is a paid tool, which can feel intimidating considering Google Analytics is free.
- Fathom’s pricing plan is based on the number of views, so the cost increases as your website becomes more popular.
- No option to view page-specific metrics. So looking at how specific pages perform is next to impossible.
- No bounce rate metrics for individual pages. Bounce rates allow you to spot which pages need attention and improved user retention.
Fathom Analytics vs. Google Analytics – How Do They Compare?
Where Google wins in this bout is in its sheer number of features. Google Analytics is a powerful tool, especially when you learn how to use it correctly. However, Google’s data-collecting leaves less to be desired, especially when your users have to go through cookie prompts every time they go on your website.
Fathom, on the other hand, is more privacy-focused and bare-boned. While you get a lot of basic analytics, the functionality to hone into specific pages isn’t there. The upside to Fathom is that since you aren’t targeting users with advertisements or collecting their data, some internet laws don’t require you to have a cookie prompt. This can easily make users feel welcome to your site.
Pricing
- $14/month (100,000 page views per month)
- $24/month (200,000 page views per month)
- $34/month (400,000 page views per month)
- $44/month (800,000 page views per month)
- $54/month (1,000,000 page views per month)
- $74/month (2,000,000 page views per month)
You can check here for their complete pricing plans.
Our Thoughts on Fathom Analytics
Fathom is definitely a good option if you value privacy, especially user privacy. It’s a premium experience that you can give to your visitors, at the cost of losing more powerful features that you would get with Google Analytics.
All in all, it’s worth a try and comes with a free 7-day trial. This is an excellent analytics tool for website owners or managers that don’t want to spend too much time looking at numbers.
2. Matomo
Matomo is an open-source web analytics software. It was previously known as Piwik and PHPMyVisites back in 2007 when it was founded. The program is GPL-licensed and also puts visitor privacy first, protecting your viewer’s data from advertising companies.
Considering that Matomo is a dedicated program, the web analytics that it provides are advanced. Unlike Google Analytics, Matomo doesn’t do any form of data sampling, so everything you get is the full picture. Suffice to say, Matomo works just as well as Google Analytics but as a stand-alone program with privacy features for your users. It’s a win-win.
For those of you who are wary about transferring, Matomo has a lengthy 21-day free trial period. Their pricing plans are also very diverse, offering 10 different payment options based on how many views you’re getting. The higher the views, the lower the payment costs.
Key Features For This Alternative to Google Analytics
- Creates visitor profiles for each viewer that track their on-site interactions, viewing frequency, and more
- Analytics are 100 percent accurate, Matomo does not sample data like Google Analytics
- Testing and data features like heatmaps, A/B testing, form analytics, white-label reporting, and enhanced visitor profiles help you understand your data and make better business decisions
- Matomo catches keyword performance across Bing, Yahoo, and Google, showing you what keywords brought visitors to your website
- Reports can be custom formatted through 200 different templates
- Matomo does not track user data for 3rd party advertising programs, so your users don’t have to fill in consent forms
These are the main key features from Matomo, but you can find more on their product features page. Similarly, they also have a live demo available too, so you can have hands-on experience with that. Now, Matomo isn’t perfect. Here are some points you might want to consider.
Points to Consider
- You have to pay extra for advanced features if you go for the free version. These are billed yearly but range from €19 to €499 a year
- Matomo is a technical alternative, so those who are unfamiliar with web-related tasks might find it hard to migrate
- Pricing is expensive, but if you go for their Cloud package then most of the advanced features come free.
Matomo vs. Google Analytics – How Do They Compare?
Google Analytics is by far easier to set up than Matomo. It’s also a free service that doesn’t require much technical knowledge to set up and keep on running. Contrast that to Matomo, which often requires setting up a brand new server just to run the program, and you can see how Google Analytics is more convenient.
Matomo protects your users’ data and analyzes all of your visitors, unlike Google, which samples data. Users who can afford the advanced features get to use Matomo’s powerful tools for better analytics as well. By ensuring that your user’s data are not pocketed by Matomo, your users don’t have to fill in page-blocking consent forms about cookies while they scroll through your site.
Pricing
- On-premise servers: unlimited websites, team members, segments, and goals; raw data retention is forever; extra features require additional monthly charges
- Cloud servers: limited websites, team members, segments, and goals; raw data retention is forever; extra features come available with the plan
On-premise is free, but cloud prices will differ depending on monthly visits. You can check here for their complete pricing plans.
Our Thoughts on Matomo
Matomo is an excellent and equally powerful alternative to Google Analytics. Unfortunately, it comes with the need for web-related skills to pull off properly if you want the free plan. They do offer cloud hosting though, which comes with dedicated tech support and technical help.
Users who do have the skills to set up servers and manage this program on their own, Matomo has a dedicated user base who can guide and help you along the way.
3. MixPanel
MixPanel is one of the best alternatives to Google Analytics on the market. It’s used by over 26,000 companies worldwide, including the likes of Samsung, Twitter, and Expedia.
Blurring the line between data collecting and being a tool for retaining your users, MixPanel offers more than just analytics. It’s a complete set of tools to build your website and brand from the ground up. Although MixPanel doesn’t have a fool-proof alibi for being privacy-focused, this analytics service excels in other areas. From tracking real-time data to user interaction and even customizing funnels easily, MixPanel outclasses Google in all these areas.
Setting up and getting started is simple here. Reports are easy to create and customize, even with the numerous types of data you can arrange. It’s user-friendly and comes with a ton of customization in the UI alone. They have a lot of features, so strap yourselves in for this one.
Key Features For This Alternative to Google Analytics
- Users can quickly make custom reports based on time, browser, device, and many other metrics
- MixPanel identifies all your users uniquely and can group them based on their actions
- Easily make funnels and segmentations around your website to get page-specific data
- Intuitive and simple interface, which keeps data management clean
- Integrates with over 50 top tools in the market to help you analyze your stats and grow your business
- Send messages or offers to real-time users who are browsing through your website
Points to Consider
- MixPanel is better at reporting real-time events and what users do on your website. They aren’t great at finding your keywords, best-ranking pages, referrers, and so on.
- The pricing can be too high for small businesses with a limited budget
MixPanel vs. Google Analytics – How Do They Compare?
Google is a better option if you’re looking for results about how users came to your site. Google Analytics will show you your keyword search performance, top-visited pages, and so on. It’s also a much cheaper option between the two because it’s free.
On the other hand, MixPanel is an enterprise-level tool that might be too expensive for most companies. However, they do offer a great deal when it comes to real-time and behavioral tracking. This lets users make informed decisions about how their visitors are interacting with their site, which helps optimize and increase user retention.
Pricing
- Free plan (100,000 users per month)
- $25/month (additional monthly costs depend on monthly tracked users picked, includes all features in Free and more)
You can check here for their complete pricing plans.
Our Thoughts on MixPanel
Companies that are getting hundreds of thousands of views but little revenue in customer purchases will want to invest in MixPanel. By tracking user behavior closely, you’ll be able to optimize the process of how your visitors go around your site. Increasing user retention is a great way to improve profits with customers who are already there.
On the other hand, informational websites that offer a more read-and-leave approach might not benefit from this. Websites like The Verge target readers and benefit from ad revenue more than selling direct products. Samsung, on the other hand, sells a lot of items and will benefit from optimizing the buying process so that their sales increase.
4. Kissmetrics
Kissmetrics is a step above how MixPanel performs. It’s more complicated with a higher learning curve, but the rewards for mastering the platform cannot be understated.
Just like MixPanel, Kissmetrics focuses more on real-time user behavior than just pages of where your user came from. This lets you easily monitor key areas around your website and see how changes instantly affect your users’ experience. Founded in 2008, a year before MixPanel, Kissmetrics has been analyzing users for more than a decade. The analytics service specializes in deep tracking users for insights, by making user profiles, funnels, custom reports, and more.
Make no mistake, Kissmetric is a very premium service. It’s more expensive than MixPanel, but comes with dedicated email support, cross-platform or device support, and other testing tools like staging sandboxes, A/B tests, and flexible funnels. Here are some of Kissmetrics’ notable key features.
Key Features For This Alternative to Google Analytics
- Email customer support
- Website segmentations allow you to easily identify and track the behavior of users around key areas on your website
- Kissmetrics monitors customer interaction to your website regardless of device: phone, computer, tablet, etc.
- Customize reports from different data sets and funnels, helping you make informed decisions based on valuable behavioral data
- Makes visitor profiles for every single person and tracks their behavior. Doesn’t sample data
Points to Consider
- Much higher price compared to others on this list
- Lots of reviews complain about the lack of optimization with the interface.
- One of the highest learning curves for web analytics. Installing and integrating takes practice
- They don’t actively advertise their privacy policies, unlike other companies that strongly push privacy first
Kissmetrics vs. Google Analytics – How Do They Compare?
Google Analytics is better at pointing out where users came from and how they got to your website. Keyword search indexes, top-performing pages, and referrers help increase the ranking potential of your website. And of course, Google Analytics is cheaper at $0 per month.
Kissmetrics works just like a beefed-up MixPanel. It tracks user behavior and helps websites optimize the user experience. User behavior is further trickled down into individual user profiles, giving invaluable insight into how groups of users interact with your website. Finally, Kissmetrics does a better job at evaluating user behavior around specific areas of your website too.
Pricing
- $299/month for up to 10,000 unique visitors per month, with email and in-app chat support
- $499/month for up to 25,000 unique visitors with email, in-app chat, and phone support.
- For over 25,000 unique visitors per month, directly contact Kissmetrics.
You can check here for their complete pricing plans.
Our Thoughts on Kissmetrics
Kissmetrics is a premium industry service. If you can afford it and want to invest in something powerful, it’s definitely worth your money. Just keep in mind that aside from the hefty price tag, there’s also a steep learning curve.
This Google Analytics alternative is perfect for companies that are getting lots of monthly visitors. Companies that want to improve and streamline the user experience for better turnarounds in profit. If you think your unique visits per month aren’t aligning with the number of purchases from your customers, Kissmetrics is a great way to analyze and grow your business.
5. GoSquared
If you liked what you read about Kissmetrics and MixPanel, then GoSquared something very similar at a much more affordable price. This website has integrated the fine connection between web analytics and user behaviors seamlessly.
GoSquared is a simple-to-use web platform with an intuitive dashboard. There’s virtually no learning curve, yet users are greeted with a mix of web analytics and behavioral tools. While GoSquared isn’t as powerful as Kissmetrics and MixPanel, you still get tools like segmentation, event and user interaction tracking, conversion tracking, heatmaps, custom reports, and more. It’s an excellent bang for your buck type deal that’s perfect for startups who need something affordable.
Where GoSquared shines is its ability to provide behavioral data without losing what Google Analytics provides—web analytics. Users still get to see their keyword indexes, top-performing pages, and referral tracking. The integration process is simple and easy as well, especially for websites hosted on CMS platforms like Shopify and WordPress.
Key Features For This Alternative to Google Analytics
- GoSquared has a refreshingly simple interface. This is perfect for companies and business owners who’d like to check and understand their own analytics themselves
- The Now Dashboard is a real-time analytics page to show you what’s happening on your website right now. Similar to MixPanel and Kissmetrics
- Dedicated e-commerce metrics like revenue, transaction volume, items sold, etc.
- User interaction, heatmaps, conversion, and event tracking for behavioral data
- Email and live chat customer service support. Even offers phone support for enterprise-level plans.
- Live chat support for individual customers
Points to Consider
- Data is exported into Microsoft Excel rather than customizable reports
- User reviews complain about slow customer support responses
- No funnels
GoSquared vs. Google Analytics – How Do They Compare?
Google Analytics still has the edge when it comes to web analytics. Keyword indexing, referrer tracking, top-performing pages, the whole works come complete with Google. Also, the free cost from Google is always a plus.
GoSquared still has a lot of what Google has to offer, yet is different enough to provide twice the value. With GoSquared’s behavioral data, businesses can optimize customer retention, satisfaction, and the interface experience. The live chat system also adds a very personal way to talk to customers directly, which is as convenient as it gets.
Pricing
- Free plan for up to 1,000 pageviews per month.
- $79/month for up to 10 million pageviews per month.
- $499/month for unlimited pageviews.
You can check here for their complete pricing plans.
Our Thoughts on GoSquared
Users who love MixPanel and Kissmetric but can’t afford them will love this one. GoSquared is basically a lighter version of those two analytical tools, all without sacrificing the importance of web-based analytics.
Real-time data, behavioral stats, and web performance. GoSquared is a steal at the price point it’s at, although it does get pricier past a certain view count.
6. Heap
Heap stands out from the rest of this list right from the beginning. Its ability to start recording user behavior across your entire site as soon as it’s installed, without requiring any setup, means you don’t have to waste time adding triggers or conditions.
Also, Heap is perfect for users and website owners who might not know how or where to set up funnels. Since Heap immediately captures all user behavior around your website interface, you don’t have to worry about setting up your own heatmaps and funnels. For example, Heap automatically tracks how many users click buttons, comments, and more. This lets you compare data from all over your website.
By collecting and storing so much data, Heap promotes cross-referencing and hypothesizing, unlike any other platform. Unfortunately, that also means you might have two pieces of data that seem correlated but don’t actually connect. That grey area does irritate some users and we’ll talk about that below. For now, here are Heap’s key features.
Key Features For This Alternative to Google Analytics
- Heap immediately collects all sorts of user interaction data from your website the moment it’s installed. This removes the need to set up specific funnels, which is beginner-friendly
- All the pieces of data you get can be correlated with each other through multiple graphs, views, and arrangements. Doing so helps you understand if there’s a connection between different behaviors around your website
- Heap has an Autocapture function that doesn’t require you to write in any code to your website to start capturing user behavior
- Segments user behavior into groups so you can analyze them together
Points to Consider
- Because of how free and open the data collection system is, inexperienced website owners feel unguided in analyzing the collected data. Without funnel suggestions, it gets difficult for you to formulate valid theories on your own
- Lack of customization for graphs and formatting, particularly with graph colors, titles, line names, etc.
Heap vs. Google Analytics – How Do They Compare?
Google Analytics and Heap are two completely different types of analytical tools at this point. However, whichever one is more useful depends on your use case. Google Analytics is best for figuring out how your user got to your website.
On the contrary, Heap is best at figuring out what your user does on your website. It does a fantastic job at this, capturing every user interaction the moment Heap is integrated into your site. It’s purely a behavioral tool but is also affordable for most startups, with the first analyzed 10,000 monthly visits being completely free.
Pricing
- Free plan for up to 10,000 sessions per month.
- For more sessions per month, directly contact Heap.
You can check here for their complete pricing plans.
Our Thoughts on Heap
Heap is a great alternative for Google Analytics if you’re a website that needs to optimize the user experience. Websites that sell products, like Amazon, study user behavior down to the smallest habits to continue selling products efficiently.
For eCommerce, SaaS, and other product-oriented website owners, Heap definitely has a lot of value for your website. On the other hand, businesses that focus on read-and-leave users should stick to Google Analytics or migrate to Fathom and Matomo instead.
Google Analytics Is Great – Should You Even Consider Alternatives?
While we’re advocates for privacy and protecting website visitors (of course) – as of present we (at RunCloud) are still avid users of Google Analytics (as well as Google’s entire suite of services, actually).
Because while some of these alternatives are easier to set up and easier to use, it’s widely accepted that Google Analytics is the only analytics solution that integrates with the rest of Google’s products (i.e. Google Ads, etc.) so if you grow your business with PPC advertising and want to truly track the impact of your marketing efforts justifying the migration is difficult. While if you run websites and are more interested in a few KPIs & really prioritize your website visitor’s right to privacy over everything else – Fathom is an excellent alternative to Google Analytics. that can easily be tracked using Fathom.
Have you considered making the switch to a Google Analytics alternative in the past & what did you end up deciding? Let us know & join the conversation in the comments. 💬
