Ask HN: Why do people dislike Google Analytics? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why do people dislike Google Analytics?

12 pointshershyb_10 comments

I see this pretty often on HN where users will not use an application if it incorporates Google Analytics, but I'm not really sure why. If anyone can help me out that would be super helpful. It also seems pretty difficult to write a custom solution over Google Analytics, so I'm wondering what people recommend instead?

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I'm pretty sure most people who disapprove just don't like giving Google insights to their users, privacy concerns.

I personally have a grudge because it goes from TOTALLY FREE to $150,000 a year overnight, based on number of users - and when your product is on the low end of the income-per-user scale that can be a problem.

We license based on location rather than user, so $150k for 10m users was … a bad joke we could not afford.

I have to say I did not actually know there is even a tier where they will charge something. I thought the data collection was worth it to them to offer the whole thing for free.

I haven’t done much research on this, but I think there are companies which pay for Analytics 360 which then resell usage of it to smaller companies so you don’t end up having to foot the full $150k. Some might be marketing agencies who want you to hire them, but there might be companies that offer it as pay-as-you-go. Just a thought.

they charge for analytics now?

Because using Google Analytics empwowers Google with data about your website and your users, which is bad for both your users and your business. Imagine Google using the GA data for ads, they can provide better ads for your competitors by using data farmed from your site.

If you want an alternative, I have been actually working on one: https://www.usertrack.net/

It's mainly for privacy reasons. You don't have to write a custom solution over GA, since it already exists: just install Matomo (formerly: Piwik) on your webserver and you're done. It's just as useful as GA, free, and all your data remain on your server. Try it!

Interesting responses. I just find it convoluted. I typically don't know where to look for the information/data that I want. Often, the data I want is very basic (eg. traffic on a specific path over a period; time on site; bounce rates), but I guess given the nature of data and analytics, it's tough for them to organize everything into a simple UI/Ux

What do you think of the way I organized data in this dashboard? Is it confusing? You can filter by path from the header bar + sign.

https://dashboard.usertrack.net/server/demoLogin.php (go to the Stats page, on desktop preferably).

You’re probably going to get responses from people about using Google Analytics instead of using products that integrate it.

I’m not sure why HN users would care that much if a site uses Google analytics because any ad blocker will easily block it.

Although I do have ad-blocker on my PC, on mobile/tablet it's a lot harder to block it, so I would still be affected.

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