ga4.html

Google Analytics 4

Google's flagship analytics. Free at huge volume, deeply integrated with Ads — and a UX nightmare.

VISIT GOOGLE ANALYTICS 4

Quick facts

  • CategoryEnterprise / Google
  • PricingFree
  • Starts atFree
  • LicenseProprietary
  • Created2020
  • GitHub starsclosed
  • Script size~50KB
  • CookielessNo
  • Self-hostNo

What it is

GA4 replaced Universal Analytics in 2023. Free at scale, native integration with Google Ads / Search Console, deep BigQuery export. The dashboard UX is widely criticised — confusing event model, unintuitive reports, weak default views. GDPR-compliance requires consent banners and EU-data-region configuration. Still the default for ad-driven sites.

Best for

  • Sites running Google Ads who need ROAS attribution and conversion tracking
  • Teams who need free analytics at very high volume (10M+ events/month)
  • Companies with BigQuery data warehouses who want native export

When not to pick it

Skip GA4 if you want a usable dashboard. Skip if you want to avoid cookie banners. Skip if you want privacy-first defaults; Plausible / Fathom win.

My take

GA4 is the right pick only when Google Ads attribution or BigQuery export is a hard requirement. For everyone else, Plausible / Fathom give better UX, no cookie banner, and a clearer story for stakeholders. The "free" benefit is real only at very high volume.

Links

Compare Google Analytics 4 side-by-side

Google Analytics 4 vs Plausible Analytics → Google Analytics 4 vs Matomo →

Similar tools you should also consider

Plausible Analytics

Privacy-first, cookieless web analytics. The honest GA4 alternative — 1KB script, EU-hosted.

Read the take →

Matomo

The veteran open-source GA replacement. Heavyweight feature set, GDPR-compliant, self-hostable.

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Mixpanel

The product-analytics original. Funnels, retention, cohorts — the toolkit every PM learned on.

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If Google Analytics 4 is your pick — the next conversation is short

The 30-min call is where your analytics choice becomes a real implementation, an event-tracking plan that fits your product, and a privacy story that does not need a 4-screen cookie banner.