Ask HN: Looking for Google Analytics alternative after v4 | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Looking for Google Analytics alternative after v4

9 pointspknerd14 comments

I am kind of confused what GA4 is offering. All I want to see:

- Real time visitors - Keywords bringing people on my site - Basic Reporting for # of Views monthly/yearly basis.

Is there any free alternative?

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> Keywords bringing people on my site

You can't really know this. This data is usually found in Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster tools, etc.

Check out https://uxwizz.com (or https://wplytic.com if you have a WordPress site).

They do not seem to record keywords.

Read the first part of the comment:

> You can't really know this. This data is usually found in Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster tools, etc.

Before it used to be possible to get keyword data, but nowadays, it's impossible to get on your website. Only the search engine has this data and can provide it for you, no analytics platform can. In the best case, they can integrate with Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools to load the keyword data from them, but you can already see it there.

Try this:

Self hosted https://umami.is/

Free tier https://beamanalytics.io/

Check https://simpleanalytics.com/ Not free, but simple and privacy-friendly analytics tool. Mentioned here: https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/1670768473897857027

Wide Angle Analytics https://wideangle.co

- Custom Domains

- EU based and EU hosted

- Core metrics

- Bounce rate

- Time spent on site and time spent per site

- Entry/Exit pages

- Custom Actions and events

- Goal tracking

- Goal comparison

- Cookieless or with cookies

- Fingerprinting or NOT

- Do-Not-Track handling or NOT

- Supports Personal Data if you collect consent

By default, it is privacy-first and GDPR-compliant without the need for Cookie Banner. You can enable more tracking if you collect consent. You decide.

Disclaimer: it is our tool

You can import you GA data into Simple Analytics directly: https://www.simpleanalytics.com/blog/import-your-google-anal...

https://usefathom.com/blog/import-data-from-google-analytics has an importer for your old data even. It's not free.

https://www.goatcounter.com/

I've been working in Digital Analytics for 10 years as a freelancer for SMEs and implementations for billion dollar companies. I am very comfortable saying for 99% of websites there is no better alternative, paid or free to GA4 and based your requirements you fit into that 99%. Happy to debate this in comments.

edit: I believe the 1% exceptions are:

- if you are a are a tech company

- run multiple Adobe tools (CMS, CRM)

- have niche privacy requirements

- have an app

Doing that server side is often overlooked.

Care to elaborate?

You have a request coming in, and a response going out. This can be logged, via your webserver or a framework, for analysis [1]. The analytics you mentioned don't require JavaScript.

[1] goaccess for example https://goaccess.io/

Finding monthly visits is easier but how do I figure out Keywords?

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