Google Analytics Alternatives
For years, Google Analytics has been a popular tool used by many companies to monitor Web traffic and user behavior. With the transition from Google UA to GA4 and companies struggling to understand the data and due to privacy concerns, many companies are looking around for alternatives. In this post, we discuss several alternatives to Google Analytics, including Snowplow, HubSpot Analytics, Shopify Analytics, Adobe Analytics and SimilarWeb.
Why look for an alternative to Google Analytics?
Although Google Analytics is a powerful tool that can do an awful lot, there are several reasons why companies may be looking for Google Analytics alternatives:
Complexity
If you're not a data analyst yourself and often deal with data, it can be quite difficult to understand how best to use and set up Google Analytics. After all, there is so much possible that it can be quite overwhelming. While the tool is well put together, it's completely understandable that you want a little more ease of use and simplicity. Especially when you want to share data with other colleagues and managers as well.
Privacy issues
The way data is collected and processed can cause concern, especially with the advent of strict privacy laws such as the GDPR.
Cost
Google analytics is free to use. So that's not where the cost goes. Want to get more out of Google analytics? Then you need to upgrade to Google Analytics 360, the premium version of GA. However, the costs involved are incredibly high. In fact, the starting price is 50,000 euros and can go up to around 150,000 euros per year. For small and medium-sized companies, this is often far too expensive and not worth the cost.
What are good alternatives?
Snowplow: Flexible and scalable data analytics

Snowplow is an open-source platform that allows you as a business to set up and track your own data collection and processing, giving you a lot of flexibility and scalability.
A big advantage of this tool is its flexibility and customization. You can set up your own tracking and data in the tool, allowing you to see the data you need and want. Furthermore, the tool can handle very large amounts of data, which makes it good to use even for fast growing companies and when you have a lot of traffic on your site. Another advantage is that not only simple reports but also advanced machine learning models can be seen with this tool.
The downside of Snowplow is that it can be very tricky to set up, you need quite a lot of technical knowledge to work your way through the tool. So this is not useful and feasible for everyone if you don't have this knowledge or background. So you will probably need help implementing it and being able to maintain it. So this can add up quickly in addition to the high price of the tool which is around $800. This makes it not the most scare tool for small to medium-sized businesses.
HubSpot Analytics: Integration with marketing and sales tools

HubSpot Analytics is part of the broader HubSpot CRM and marketing suite and provides comprehensive reports and insights specifically for marketing and sales. So in addition to analyzing your website traffic, the tool is also suitable for other purposes.
One advantage of using Hubspot is that you can easily intergrate it with Hubspot's other systems, such as their CRM or marketing tools, this allows you to do everything in one place, making it more manageable. This is then also directly a disadvantage, because you are dependent on the tool, if you use all their intergrations.
Another advantage of Hubspot is that it is fairly user-friendly and easy to navigate for people without a technical background. So you can get started quickly and are not spending a long time learning exactly how the tool works. Furthermore, it is nice that the tool sees sales and marketing as its starting point, so it is also set up with that focus. This makes it a powerful tool for optimizing your customer-focused strategies.
One drawback of Hubspot is the cost. Hubspot's price starts at $20 per month, but can go up to several thousand per month. especially if you use several of their tools. This can be a hindrance for smaller companies or startups, as well as if you are expanding later, as it can add up quickly.
Another drawback is the flexibility the tool gives you. The flexibility is limited compared to more technical solutions like Snowplow. This means you may not be able to perform all the custom analysis you would like.
Shopify Analytics: specifically for e-commerce

Shopify Analytics is designed with e-commerce in mind and offers highly relevant insights when you have a Shopify webshop. Shopify's analytics is completely focused on the system and on e-commerce. You can easily see data such as conversion rates, average order value and customer retention. So if you have a Shopify webshop, this can be valuable, mainly because the interface is so easy to use. Not only Shopify itself is easy to use, so is the analytics tool. You can quickly see at a glance how your website is doing.
What is a very big disadvantage of Shopify Analytics is that the flexibility you have is very limited. You can only use the dashboards they offer within the tool with the "normal" versions. In addition, it's not very useful to use if you don't have a dedicated ecommerce business. This is because it is really designed specifically for web shops. If you have a business that additionally offers some other kind of service, Shopify is usually not the best choice.
Furthermore, custom dashboarding is only possible within Shopify analytics if you have purchased a more expensive subscription, such as "Advanced Shopify." This costs $399 per month.
Adobe Analytics: advanced and robust analytics

Adobe Analytics is a powerful tool that provides advanced analytics capabilities and is often used by large companies. It is known for its powerful segmentation tools that allow you to perform detailed analysis on specific target groups.
The tool provides very high functionality and very advanced analytics capabilities, including machine learning and nowadays AI-driven insights. Furthermore, you can intergrate Adobe Analytics well with other Adobe tools such as the Adobe Marketing Cloud. Intergration of these works well, if you are in the ecosystem and have a good understanding of how the tool works.
It is difficult to learn how the tool works if you do not have a data analytics background. Furthermore, the cost can be staggering for the average company the cost will be around $25,000 per year. For large enterprises, it can go up to the $100,000 per year range.
SimilarWeb: Competitive analysis and market research

SimilarWeb gives you comprehensive insights into competitors' traffic and strategies, as well as detailed data on market trends and user behavior.
What SimilarWeb does very well is that you have comprehensive insights into competitors' traffic and strategies, which allows you to optimize your own strategies and stay competitive. In addition, the tool is great to use if you want to do market research. The platform provides detailed data on market trends and user behavior, which helps you better understand the broader context within your industry.
In addition, the tool is user-friendly and easy to use, even for people who do not have much technical knowledge.
One disadvantage of SimilarWeb is the price, especially for access to the more advanced features that are really useful. This can be a hurdle for smaller companies or startups and put them off. Another disadvantage is that you are also fairly limited in doing custom analytics or setting up dashboards. So if you have specific requirements, it is difficult to set up the tool accordingly.
Dashboarding from NXTLI

Looking at all the tools we have just discussed, they all have one major drawback. Namely, it is not possible to take many different data streams together and have them in a dashboard. We saw this desire from clients in different industries, which is why we developed our own dashboard functionality with our data team.
Our tool allows you to see different data streams in 1 dashboard. Google analytics data, social media data from Facebook or Linkedin, Spotify streams and much more. The possibilities are endless. Because we can set up a dashboard in such detail, this has the advantage that it can be made exactly to your wishes, with all the data sources you would like to see.
From different data sources it is also possible to easily draw conclusions, as you can see connections between platforms and use our conversion monitor to map out exactly where improvement is needed.
In addition, we always found Google Analytics alternatives to be very high priced, hence our tool is readily accessible in terms of pricing to many different types of businesses.
What is the best choice
So, in short, there are numerous alternatives to Google Analytics, each with its own unique advantages and disadvantages. Whether you're looking for flexibility and customization, integration with marketing and sales tools, or like to do advanced competitive analysis, one of these aforementioned tools will suit every business.
Do you want a total dashboarding solution that is easy to use? Then we would be happy to help you. Please contact us.
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