While Google Analytics is the most popular and widely used analytics tool, it’s not necessarily the best option for every website and situation.
There are many valid reasons to seek out alternatives to Google Analytics, including:
- Its limited data reporting and use of data sampling
- Concerns over privacy and related laws
- Its highly technical setup and interface
- Frustrations over the transition from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 (including the potential loss of historical data)
- Its relative lack of behavioral insights
Whether you have issues with any of the above or something different altogether, an alternative analytics tool may be just what you need.
We’ve researched the marketing analytics solutions on the market and compiled the best Google Analytics alternatives in the list below.
1. Semrush
Semrush is a great alternative to Google Analytics because it can do more than track traffic and marketing analytics for your site—it can track your competitors’ performance, too.
With Semrush, you can track more than just your web traffic, user engagement metrics, and content performance. You can also use the platform to analyze your competitors’ trends and keywords and compare them with your own.
Semrush provides analytics data on visits, pages per visit, bounce rate, visit duration, and device and location data. It even has demographic breakdowns so you can know exactly who makes up your audience.
Additionally, you can track each user’s traffic journey and the other websites they typically frequent, providing unparalleled insights.
Benefits
- Track traffic and engagement metrics of your competitors
- Reveal users’ interests and brand preferences
- Analyze the backlink profile of your website and that of your competitors with the Backlink Analytics tool
- Unearth valuable keywords and monitor your Google rankings
- GDPR-compliant
- Access to an entire suite of SEO tools aside from marketing analytics
Pricing Options
You can try Semrush for free or select any of our three paid plans, starting at $119.95 per month.
For more details about each plan, visit our pricing page.
2. Clicky
Clicky is a privacy-friendly analytics tool often preferred over Google Analytics due to its ease of use and straightforward installation.
The tool is known for its real-time traffic analytics and heatmap tracking, which allows you to visualize the user’s journey on your site.
Outside of its highly regarded heatmap tracking, Clicky is a quantitative analytics tool, providing most of the same metrics as Google Analytics and other options on this list.
Despite its early 2000s-looking website, Clicky is one of the best Google Analytics alternatives.
Benefits
- Real-time reporting
- Heatmap tracking
- Backlink analysis
- Mobile compatibility
- GDPR-compliant
Pricing Options
Clicky offers a limited free plan and a 21-day free trial of the premium service. It also offers four paid options, starting at $9.99 per month.
3. Matomo
Matomo is a privacy-focused, open-source web analytics platform that tracks traffic, visits, and user behavior and provides reports on these analyses.
It is one of the most common analytics tools on this list. Over 1.4 million websites across 190 countries use it.
Matomo offers almost everything Google Analytics provides, along with additional features like heatmaps, session recordings, SEO keyword reporting, and A/B testing.
The platform prides itself on its adherence to privacy laws, such as the GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Matomo notes that because of its rigid compliance with these and other privacy laws, there’s no need to provide disclosures or obtain consent from your users to use the platform.
Matomo also makes it easy for users who want to migrate from Google Analytics. The platform allows you to import your historical Google Analytics data directly into the tool.
Benefits
- No data sampling. Unlike Google Analytics, Matomo tracks all user data to offer accurate results.
- Data ownership. You own 100% of the data Matomo finds.
- GDPR- and CCPA-compliant
- Behavioral analytics, such as heatmaps and session recordings
- Easily import historical data from Google Analytics
Pricing Options
Matomo offers a free plan with limited features and hosting on your own servers. Paid plans are based on your monthly traffic, starting at $23 monthly.
4. Piwik PRO
Piwik PRO Analytics Suite is a robust analytics solution focusing on privacy and data security. It offers the same range of quantitative data as Google Analytics. And product and business intelligence tools to take your analysis beyond traffic and engagement metrics.
Piwik PRO is much more intuitive and easier to use than many other entries on this list (including Google Analytics). And with real-time data monitoring, simple goal tracking and user segmentation, and customizable reports, you’ll probably never even miss Google Analytics.
Additionally, the dashboards and reports in Piwik PRO are very similar to those found in Google Analytics. So a transition from the latter will be painless.
Because of its wide range of integrated privacy and data security features, Piwik PRO may be most suitable for use in the government, healthcare, insurance, and finance sectors.
Benefits
- No data sampling. Piwik PRO provides full data sets with 100% accuracy.
- User-friendly and familiar dashboards and reports
- Compliant with the GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA (among others)
- Integrated business intelligence tools
- Control of your data is in your hands
Pricing Options
Piwik PRO offers a free plan that can be used forever but has limits on its number of supported monthly actions (i.e., interactions with your site, including page views). Paid plans are customizable and determined based on your traffic and individual use case.
5. Heap
Heap is a product-focused digital insights and analytics tool used to analyze customer behavior at scale. It can help you understand how and why customers engage with your website. And identify pain points in the user journey or your conversion funnels.
Heap provides traditional quantitative analytics, such as page views, events, and engagement metrics. Following its recent acquisition of Auryc, it now also provides digital experience insights, such as heatmaps and session recording.
Heap also automates data capture, which means event tracking is baked into the platform and requires minimal setup.
However, Heap has a steep learning curve. And, as one of the most powerful analytics tools on this list, Heap also comes with a hefty price tag.
Benefits
- Powerful product and behavioral analytics
- Auto capture for all event data, allowing for the monitoring and analysis of every interaction users have on your website
- Advanced segmentation and reporting capabilities
- Heatmaps and session recordings
- GDPR-compliant
Pricing Options
While Heap offers a limited free option, you’ll need to speak with Heap’s sales team for a customized paid option, based on the size of your website and the traffic you receive.
6. Woopra
Woopra is an analytics suite with features comparable to those of Google Analytics.
However, Woopra differs in that it emphasizes and focuses on five categories of data:
- Journey
- Trends
- Cohort
- Retention
- Behavior
This categorization allows for more relevant, contextual insights than simple data presentation.
Woopra strives to provide analytics and reports that will help you understand who your customers are and how they behave across the lifecycle of their relationship with your business.
In addition to its web application, Woopra also offers a desktop application that provides improved performance and a better viewing experience.
Woopra also offers one-click integration with dozens of popular third-party applications, such as Slack, Zendesk, Google Ads, Google Drive, WordPress, and more.
Benefits
- Analytics categorization allows for better insights and understanding
- Track users at every touch point in their journey
- High-performance desktop client
- Simple integration with third-party tools like Zendesk, HubSpot, Google Ads, and WordPress
- Visualized reports
Pricing Options
Woopra offers a free plan, which has limited features and actions allowed per month. Paid plans start at $999 per month.
7. Fathom Analytics
Fathom Analytics is an alternative to Google Analytics that places privacy at the heart of what it does, even at the cost of data.
In fact, Fathom only offers a single dashboard, which provides quantitative data and metrics on your website’s performance, including traffic, time on site, bounce rate, and goal completions.
Fathom operates on a “privacy-first” policy. It tracks the most important metrics and streamlines that data into an easily digestible report so you can make key marketing decisions faster.
Fathom also claims to be able to bypass ad blockers, giving you access to a more complete set of data.
Due to its minimal data collection and pared-down, streamlined dashboard, Fathom is a good option for smaller or up-and-coming businesses.
Benefits
- Bypass ad blockers to get complete data
- Privacy-forward and compliant with the GDPR, CCPA, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR)
- Small embed code that loads extremely quickly
- Streamlined dashboard for fast analysis and decision making
Pricing Options
Fathom Analytics offers a free 30-day trial. It also has three paid plans depending on your monthly page views, starting at $14 per month.
8. Mixpanel
Mixpanel is a product analytics tool used to analyze how users interact with your internet-based product. It goes beyond simple traffic analytics to provide real-time data on trends and user behavior, allowing you to make data-backed decisions for the direction of your product.
Mixpanel works on the web, mobile, and other smart devices to give you a broad view of customer behavior.
This robust analytics tool allows for intuitive segmenting, A/B testing, custom event tracking, and user behavior insights.
Mixpanel is often used in conjunction with Google Analytics.
Benefits
- Works for in-app purchases and microtransactions
- Track user behavior
- Customizable dashboard options
- Easy to set up and use
- Robust reports and data visualizations
Pricing Options
Mixpanel offers a limited free plan and two paid options, starting at $20 per month.
9. Adobe Analytics
Adobe Analytics is an enterprise-level, cloud-based analytics platform that offers a similar range of data and metrics to that of Google Analytics.
However, Adobe Analytics has more advanced tools and reports.
For example, Adobe Analytics leverages machine learning to provide in-depth reports on attribution and predictive modeling. The platform analyzes data on user segments and journey habits to model future actions and business performance.
While it is a premium analytics tool, its costs reflect its capabilities. Due to its extremely high price tag, Adobe Analytics is generally only for organizations with advanced analytics needs and high budgets.
Benefits
- Beautiful data visualizations
- Business intelligence tools and predictive modeling
- Has everything Google Analytics offers and more
- Provides deeper insights into your users and their journey
Pricing Options
Adobe Analytics offers three tiers of pricing, the costs of which are available at request only.
10. Plausible
Plausible Analytics is an open-source, privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics. It’s a good option for privacy-conscious website owners, as well as those looking for a quick and simple way to take a look at site traffic and insights.
Plausible is intuitive and very user-friendly. All its reports can be found on a single page with a simple, clean design.
Plausible doesn’t use cookies or collect any personal information, so it’s compliant with the GDPR, CCPA, and various other privacy laws. Its code snippet is also very small, which reduces its impact on your website’s loading time.
Plausible also integrates with Google Search Console, allowing you to see which search queries bring traffic to your site.
Benefits
- Simple, intuitive metrics all on a single page
- Lightweight script that keeps your site speed fast
- Source code available via GitHub, so anyone can review
- Compliant with the GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy laws
- 100% data ownership
Pricing Options
Plausible Analytics offers a 30-day unlimited free trial, with no credit card required. Paid plans begin at $9 per month, depending on your site’s monthly page views.
11. GoSquared
GoSquared Analytics is a web analytics platform used for understanding and engaging with your users. It positions itself as a privacy-friendly, simpler Google Analytics alternative.
In fact, the GoSquared interface is a single page, with only the key web metrics you need to monitor daily.
GoSquared prides itself on its beautiful, intuitive dashboards and reports that cut out the confusing, high-learning-curve features of Google Analytics.
GoSquared was also built as a real-time analytics platform, allowing you to instantly load and view data and reports.
The tool includes integration options with major third-party tools like Slack, Squarespace, WordPress, and Shopify.
Benefits
- Simple, intuitive interface and reports
- Real-time data reporting
- Key metrics and reports with no learning curve
- Compliant with the GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy laws
- Integration with Slack, Squarespace, Shopify, WordPress, and more
Pricing Options
GoSquared offers a seven-day unlimited free trial. Paid plans start at $9 a month, depending on your monthly page views and the number of projects.
12. Gauges
Gauges is a real-time analytics tool that provides web analytics and user demographics data. The platform is easy to use and understand and includes all the most important metrics you’d expect to see in an analytics software suite.
Gauges gives you complete, up-to-the-second insights on your traffic and engagement metrics, without having to refresh the page.
In addition, Gauges allows for the tracking of multiple properties at once. You can swap between websites, subdomains, or even different points in your conversion funnel.
This makes Gauges a great option for agencies and organizations with multiple websites and properties.
Benefits
- Real-time, complete analytics
- Focus on visitor metrics
- Clean and simple interface and reports
- Multiple property tracking capabilities
- Reasonably priced
Pricing Options
You can try Gauges for free on a seven-day trial, then select from the three paid plans which start at $6 per month.
13. Simple Analytics
Simple Analytics is a web analytics platform that was built and designed around the idea that analytics should be simple and privacy-friendly.
The platform offers a single, clean dashboard that’s easy to navigate and understand. It provides all the most important metrics for online businesses, including page views, time on page, top pages, and some demographics data, such as browser and location.
Simple Analytics doesn’t use cookies to collect any data. It’s compliant with the GDPR and other privacy laws.
While it doesn’t offer the sheer amount of data that Google Analytics provides, Simple Analytics is a great option for smaller organizations looking for a simple, privacy-friendly analytics solution.
Additionally, you can import your historical data from Google Analytics. That way, you won’t have any gaps in your data.
Benefits
- No data overload — only the most important data and metrics
- Simple design and easy to use
- Compliant with the GDPR and other privacy laws
- Import Google Analytics historical data
Pricing Options
Simple offers a 14-day free trial for its starter and business plans. Paid plans start at $9 a month.
Choose the Google Analytics Alternative That’s Right for You
Whatever your reason for seeking an alternative to Google Analytics, you have several options.
The most important thing is to find an analytics tool that suits your unique needs and budget.
And if you need a solution that provides web analytics for not only your business performance, but your competitors’ performance, look no further than Semrush.