Here is why:
โ It's hard to understand and use
GA has a steep learning curve, which can be overwhelming for beginners or small businesses.
Be a good marketer โ use your time wisely.
โ Limited data sampling
The free version of Google Analytics uses data sampling, which may not provide accurate insights for high-traffic websites.
โ Data ownership
Google retains control over your data, which can concern businesses with sensitive information, especially if you're a big company!
โ Itโs a bloated script that affects your site speed
โ Itโs a liability considering GDPR, CCPA and other privacy regulations.
โ Itโs blocked by many plugins (adBlocks) and browsers, so the data is not accurate.
Instead, do this โคต๏ธ
โ
Use Search Console for data on search engine visibility.
โ
If you're worried about attribution, Ask your customers:
โ โ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ถ๐ด?โ
You can do this in their onboarding journey.
Don't make it a multiple-choice survey.
Let them answer in a free-form text field.
โ
Use a different solution for your SaaS product.
GA doesn't work for product analytics. Many SaaS CEOs fail to understand this.
Web analytics โ product analytics.
๐ต Use ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ alternatives. Here are some of them:
1๏ธโฃ Cloudflare: It's great but quite basic. I use this, plus you get all their DNS benefits (speed, cache, security, etc).
2๏ธโฃ Plausible: It has a paid version but also a self-hosted open-source (free).
3๏ธโฃ Matomo (formally Piwik). Privacy first analytics. It's self-hosted, but the level of data you get from it is probably going to be the most detailed in comparison to GA.
4๏ธโฃ Umami.is: self-hosted. But it is one of the most simple and lightweight you'll find.
There are a few more options, but honestly, I haven't tried them.
What tools are you currently using for your analytics?