The best Google Analytics al­tern­at­ives

Even though Google continues to reign when it comes to search engines and online marketing, it doesn’t mean that as a website operator that you’re ne­ces­sar­ily bound to this service. There are actually many programs similar to Google Analytics available. One thing is clear: every webmaster needs a pro­fes­sion­al web analysis tool they can use to optimise their own website and monitor all relevant key figures. We will introduce you to some good Google Analytics al­tern­at­ives, highlight usability, cost, func­tion­al­ity, and privacy.

In terms of its func­tion­al­ity, there’s not much to object to when it comes to using Google’s tracking tool: the features on offer keep their promises, and the delivered results provide web­mas­ters with detailed in­form­a­tion on which parts of their web projects needs op­tim­iz­ing, and which are already suc­cess­ful. In addition, the service can be used free of charge.

Nev­er­the­less, Google Analytics also has its weak­nesses: for example, the time spent on a page is only taken into account if the visitor clicks on another page. If the visitor closes their browser instead, Google Analytics will display a duration of zero seconds. In addition, the data provided is rarely accurate to the minute as is the case with many com­par­able tools. There are also numerous browser plugins that block Google Analytics – or JavaS­cript, on which the tool is based.

However, the biggest dis­ad­vant­age of using Google’s website analysis tool is the fact that all in­form­a­tion collected about visitors is stored on the company’s servers. For this purpose, the software transmits the user in­form­a­tion received via cookies directly to Google. Only after several years does the internet giant delete this data from its servers, which are located in the USA and are therefore subject to less strict data reg­u­la­tions compared to some countries. Whether and how Google processes this user data is unclear. It’s possible that it will be used primarily to adapt the search algorithm being used.

Through the analysis results, Google can directly link users to their Google accounts if they have one. In theory, the company can track every step the user takes as long as they visit sites that use Google Analytics. In summary, the following dis­ad­vant­ages of the industry leader speak in favour of using a Google Analytics al­tern­at­ive:

• Transmits all data to Google
• User data stored for years
• Retention time only measured if users visit another webpage
• Analysis data is not accurate to the minute as with com­par­able services
• Eval­u­ation of social networks and mobile traffic is not optimal
• Various browser plugins block Google Analytics

Just like with Google Analytics, you also need to build a tracking code into your website in order to retrieve the stat­ist­ics with Matomo. There is a special campaign and target tracking for e-commerce available.

Open Web Analytics is available free of charge and there are no re­stric­tions regarding the amount of data sets and the number of websites you want to test. When it comes to the app’s per­form­ance, Piwik is the better Google Analytics al­tern­at­ive. Further cons are how un­re­li­able the de­vel­op­ment process is, and that updates are rare and irregular.

Mixpanel is a powerful Google Analytics al­tern­at­ive for very large web projects with a wide reach. Well-known customers include Airbnb, Spotify, and Uber. In addition to the im­press­ive amount of functions available, users also receive a high-quality interface. There is a free account for smaller web projects. The Freemium model is free for websites with a data volume of 25,000 “data points” per month (1 data point = 1 view, download, etc.). However, the func­tion­al­ity of this free version is sig­ni­fic­antly limited (including the number of possible users and projects). Packages start at around £80 per month.

After a free trial, you will have to pay a monthly fee of just under £10 to use Chartbeat.

Despite there being so many features, the dashboard manages to remain intuitive and can be cus­tom­ised. Special features of Adobe Analytics include real-time problem and op­por­tun­ity detection, social media in­teg­ra­tion, and a data work bench that marketers can use for analysis, whether they’re offline or online. To find out how much this Google Analytics al­tern­at­ive would cost, you need to get in touch with them to request the prices.

In­spect­let is free of charge for up to 1,000 sessions and 1,000 A/B test views per month, but the man­u­fac­turer also offers various packages starting at approx. £30. It’s more a case of ad­di­tion­al software, rather than a re­place­ment for Google’s analysis software. It can also be used together with other tools like Matomo without any problems.

Our overview shows that there are plenty of good al­tern­at­ives to Google Analytics. You can keep track of your web stat­ist­ics and use the in­form­a­tion to analyse and optimise your website without feeling like you’re obliged to use the market leader. If you want to keep full control of your own data and also search for a fully-func­tion­al and free al­tern­at­ive to Google Analytics, the Matomo open source program is certainly a good choice. Other tools have some very in­ter­est­ing features and provide valuable insights, but first make sure they take data pro­tec­tion seriously.