As you surely know, Google Analytics has recently been updated. Google Analytics 4 is now a reality and is what Google wants us to use. If this is something that worries you, you are not the only one, since Google Analytics 4, however interesting it may be, requires a small learning period due to the changes it brings.
Fortunately, it is possible to find a free alternative to Google Analytics and that is what we are going to do in this article. Here you will find the best alternatives to Google Analytics, lighter and easier to use tools so you can analyze your business data without it being a problem.
What Makes You Look for an Alternative to Google Analytics 4?
I am almost sure that if you are looking for an alternative to Google Analytics it is partly because of the change to Google Analytics 4. Many people don’t like it, they are used to the Google Analytics “of a lifetime”. It seems that the learning curve is higher and in the day to day in digital marketing or setting up a project or a business we hardly have time to learn new tools.
Look at Google Trends worldwide how searches related to “alternatives to Google Analytics 4” have increased since December 2021.
You are not the only one.
The alternatives to Google Analytics that exist are very good, and enough for what you usually do in the day to day, but in my opinion, you should combine them with Google Analytics. Those of us who work in digital marketing live very much inside, whether we like it or not, of the Google ecosystem, with all the good and bad that this entails.
A way to “escape” from the domains of the new Google Analytics 4, taking advantage of all its potential and without giving up this great tool, although hated by many people, is to resort to Google Analytics dashboards in Looker Studio.
A Looker Studio report with data from Google Analytics 4, as long as it is well done, allows you to see GA4 data without having to enter it, with improved usability, with the data you need without getting dizzy among so many options and without getting used to the great change it has suffered.
Here is an example of a Google Analytics 4 dashboard made with Looker Studio.
Matomo
Matomo is a web analytics platform designed with open source code with which you can carry out a large number of different functions. Some of the most outstanding features of Matomo include data collection, report creation and data segmentation. In addition, to facilitate its use, it integrates perfectly with a large number of tools such as CRM or marketing automation among others.
As it is an open source platform you can use it for free. In addition to this, it also offers a paid option where additional features are included such as having the ability to track more data, priority technical support or the possibility of having access to experimental functions that are added over time.
In addition to being free, Matomo has other advantages such as its flexibility, personalization or the high level of privacy it has. If we compare it with Google Analytics 4, Matomo makes use of a measurement data model based on events, while Google Analytics does so in data flows.
If you are looking for free web analytics tools and privacy is something that matters a lot to you, Matomo is a very interesting option to consider instead of using Google Analytics 4.
Overtracking
Overtracking is a Spanish Google Analytics alternative, which has interesting unique features that differentiate it from Google’s tool. This tool has been designed to facilitate its use to all those users who want to perform a web analysis and have no experience when using all these tools.
One of the main aspects for which Overtracking is known is its simplified analysis. Unlike Google Analytics 4, Overtracking presents the data in a much easier way to understand, without overwhelming the user with information that they do not understand. In addition, another of the most interesting aspects of Overtracking is that it provides the data in real time.
With Overtracking you will have updated information about the members who are live on your website, the devices that are being used or the most visited pages. Without a doubt, one of the most interesting aspects of Overtracking is that it has heat maps, a visual tool to identify in a much simpler way the areas that are most used within a website.
Finally, with Overtracking you can also record sessions to see what route your visitors take and thus better understand their experiences and behaviors. As for payment plans, Overtracking has four different payment options among which you can choose depending on what you need, but it also has a free plan so you can see better how it works.
Adobe Analytics
If you regularly use Adobe software in your business, this Adobe Analytics will be especially interesting due to how well it integrates within the Adobe ecosystem. Adobe Analytics integrates easily with other Adobe tools such as Adobe Experience Cloud, which allows you to comprehensively manage your business.
As for the characteristics of the tool itself, we are talking about an advanced analysis tool that is designed for large companies. This tool responds very well to pages that have a large volume of traffic and has several websites. Adobe Analytics performs very well carrying out real-time analysis and offers several functions.
It has advanced tracking and analysis such as behavioral tests, A/B tests and detailed audience segmentation in addition to the aforementioned real-time analysis. To make it accessible to all companies, Adobe Analytics can be customized as much as you want. This tool has different price plans with more or less advanced functions in each of them.
Amplitude
Unlike Google Analytics 4, Amplitude is a much more specific tool, designed 100% for product analysis. This tool revolves around the concept of events and properties. From the information obtained about the events and properties, Amplitude offers Charts where you can cross and visualize information in a much simpler way.
Amplitude has several plans, one of them being completely free. While Google Analytics is a much more general tool, with Amplitude we can obtain more detailed analysis, so it can be used to better work the user experience by having a more detailed analysis of all the interactions of the users of a website.
To make it more accessible to the user with less experience, Amplitude offers a whole series of tools to facilitate the understanding of the different Charts and events on the platform such as descriptions or labels.
Microsoft Clarity
Microsoft Clarity is Microsoft’s web analytics tool. It is a completely free tool that, despite having several similarities with Google Analytics 4, has its own differences that make it a very interesting alternative.
While Google Analytics is designed thinking about the analysis of traffic and metrics of the website, Microsoft Clarity focuses on recording user sessions. This allows you to better visualize the user experience and know what route or practices they carry out on your website. Unlike what happens in Google Analytics, with Microsoft Clarity you can record user sessions.
One of the advantages you have when using Microsoft Clarity is heat maps. Microsoft Clarity provides maps where you can click and see how visitors move within the pages of your website. With this tool you can also analyze the efficiency of interactive elements and forms, so you can get a much more detailed view of the individual users of your website.
Fathom Analytics
Fathom Analytics is a great alternative for all those who are afraid of Analytics 4 and its complexity. This web tool stands out for its minimalist character that works perfectly on any website regardless of the characteristics of the CMS that is used.
The main advantage of Fathom Analytics is its ease of use. We are facing a tool that you don’t have to invest a lot of time in studying how it works, since it is possible to obtain valuable data from very early on. Another feature of Fathom Analytics is that it does not use cookies, something that mainly differentiates it from Google’s tool.
As Fathom Analytics does not track users, it may not have as much depth in the information as Google Analytics, but it is light and powerful enough for the vast majority of users looking for detailed information about their website. Fathom Analytics has support for events and is also able to show information from devices, browsers and countries.
Fathom Analytics has 3 monthly rates for which there is no obligation of permanence. Depending on the number of page views per month the price will vary from 12.76? up to 40.12? maximum.
Plausible
Plausible is an open source tool. It is a fairly lightweight tool that has several differences with respect to Google Analytics.
As it is an open source system you can inspect its code on GitHub. This tool complies with all privacy regulations and does not use cookies. In addition to this, it does not collect personal data either, so you will not need to show the cookie banner or a privacy policy, since you will not be collecting any data.
Plausible is a very simple tool to use and has a very lightweight script. By having a script 45 times smaller than Google Analytics, loading times are not slowed down at any time. Although the statistics it measures are private, they can be shared with custom links for greater ease.
With Plausible you can easily track events, goal conversions and campaigns and, in addition, receive all reports periodically in your email. This tool has several options when hiring it, being the lowest price of 8.21? per month without obligation of permanence and up to 10,000 page views.
Simple Analytics
Living up to its name, Simple Analytics stands out for being a very simple tool. With this tool you will find very simple metrics. You can analyze the unique visitors to your website, the number of page views, the most viewed pages, the references to know where your visits come from, the type of device they use, the country and the browser.
This tool does not use cookies nor does it collect any personal data, so you can save the classic notices from your website. In the same way that the metrics are simple, so is its interface. Its clean and simple interface shows only what is necessary so you don’t get lost among the metrics.
It also stands out for how easy it is to install on WordPress through a plugin and it also allows you to export the data without it having to be processed in CSV format.
To adapt to all user profiles it has 3 different payment plans where the cheapest is 9?, the intermediate one is 49? and the highest one is 99?. Each of the plans has its own advantages and all of them can be tested for free to know well which plan is the indicated one.
Clicky
Finally, Clicky. With Clicky we are facing an analysis software that carries out more functions than tracking the key metrics, it is able to see the actions of your visitors, generate term maps and monitor the activity time among many other different options.
Clicky has several different payment plans depending on the websites you want to analyze. Fortunately, it also has a free plan that has up to one website and offers you the most basic measurement functions and up to 3000 daily visits. To have some of its most popular options such as heat maps it is necessary to have a plan that costs 13.68? per month.
This tool is based in the cloud and never slows down your website, so it is perfect for analyzing several facets of it without it being affected in performance. With Clicky you will not have to face some problems that Google Analytics 4 has, for example, the inaccuracy in the calculation of sessions that it usually has due to the lack of historical data.
One of the most interesting features of Clicky in addition to all the options available is its giant screen. Thanks to this feature you will have at your disposal in a single window frame all the traffic statistics of your website in real time. On this screen you can see real-time metrics such as visitors, goals, visitor actions, engagement time, tracked revenue, most searched terms and many more.
To greatly improve the ease of use it has, Clicky integrates perfectly with systems such as WordPress, Shopify or Squarespace among others.
Alex Serrano
12 años en marketing digital. Creador de Chartud y especialista en Looker Studio. Consultor SEO desde hace 8 años. Creador y divulgador de contenido en diferentes formatos como 300Segundos (newsletter) o SEOdesdeCero (podcast). También cofundador de RankPulse.app, herramienta de SEO Local.
