At the start of July 2023, Universal Analytics (UA) users had to say goodbye to their preferred web analytics tool as Google discontinued it. While some find that Google Analytics 4 (GA4) does the job, others are realising that it doesn’t do everything that UA could. Consequently, they are actively seeking another web analytics tool to address those unmet requirements.
This article looks at ten of the top web analytics tools on the market. We’ll cover key features, pricing, integrations, strengths and common community critiques to help you decide which tool is the right fit for you.
What is a web analytics tool?
A web analytics tool collects and analyses information about a website’s visitors, their behaviour and the site’s technical performance. It compiles, measures and analyses website data to provide the necessary information to improve site performance, boost conversion rates and increase ROI.
These tools are also invaluable for figuring out what visitors do on a website. They utilise tracking codes to gather data, event tracking to record specific actions and conversion tracking to monitor new sales or sign-ups.
For example, consider an online store where many people drop off during checkout. Using an analytics tool to make sense of the data, the company can find exactly where people are dropping off in the process. They can then remove blockages and streamline the checkout process, leading to more sales and a more successful business.
Google Analytics 4: An overview
Despite many users’ dissatisfaction, GA4 isn’t going away anytime soon. It’s still a powerful tool with all the standard features you’d expect. It’s the most popular choice for web analytics for a few other reasons, too, including:
- It’s free to use
- It’s easy to set up and has a convenient mobile app
- It has a wealth of user documentation and technical resources online
- Its machine-learning capabilities can offer insights into user behaviour and how to grow your site
- It integrates easily with other Google tools, like Google Search Console, Google Ads and Google Cloud
That said, it comes with some serious drawbacks. Many users accustomed to UA have reported being unhappy with the differences between it and GA4. Their reasons range from changes to the user interface and bounce rate calculations to Google’s switch from pageview-focused metrics to event-based ones.
GA4 Acquisition Overview dashboard
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Let’s take a look at some common community critiques:
- Lack of privacy, as Google uses data from Google Analytics for advertising purposes.
- Cookie consent banners can frustrate visitors, and with 40-60% of web visitors rejecting consent, relying on them can lead to inaccurate data and an incomplete view of your web traffic and campaign outcomes.
- Users can’t import data from UA to GA4.
- Relies on sampled data.
- Google Analytics 360, the enterprise version, costs $150,000/year.
Now that you know GA4’s pros and cons, it’s time to explore other tools to help fill the gaps.
Top 10 web analytics tools (that aren’t Google)
Whether you’re a marketing manager looking at the ROI of campaigns, a web analyst focused on conversions or simply interested in learning more about web analytics, there’s something for you on this list.
1. Matomo
Matomo is the leading open-source, privacy-focused web analytics software that helps teams make more informed decisions and enhance customer experiences while ensuring GDPR compliance and user privacy.
Matomo’s main web analytics dashboard
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Over a million websites trust Matomo in 190+ countries and 50+ languages. It’s an ethical analytics solution with traditional web and behavioural analytics and other advanced features, including Roll-up Reporting, a Tag Manager and a built-in GDPR Manager.
Key features:
- Heatmaps and Session Recordings show what users are clicking on and how they’re interacting with different page elements
- A/B testing to compare alternate versions of the same content and see which gets better results
- APIs to connect your data to other platforms, like data visualisation or business intelligence tools
Strengths:
- Free, open-source software
- Offers On-Premise and Cloud-hosted options
- Fully compliant with GDPR
- Complete data ownership
Common community critiques:
- On-Premise is free, but that means an additional cost for advanced features (A/B testing, heatmaps, etc.) that are included by default on Matomo Cloud
- Matomo On-Premise requires servers and technical expertise to set up and manage
Mobile app: Free mobile app for iOS and Android
Integrations: Easily integrates with many other tools and platforms, including WordPress, Looker Studio, Magento, Jira, Drupal, Joomla and Cloudflare. More to the point, as open source software, Matomo can theoretically integrate with any other system.
Pricing:
- Varies based on monthly hits
- Matomo On-Premise: free
- Matomo Cloud: starting at €19/month
2. Adobe Analytics
Adobe is a trusted name in software, with tools like Photoshop and Illustrator that have been around for decades. With web design and UX tools Dreamweaver and XD, it makes sense that they’d offer a web analytics platform as well.
Order attribution comparisons in Adobe Analytics
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Adobe Analytics offer insight into customer acquisition and retention, ROI and ad campaign performance. Its machine learning (ML) and AI-powered analytics use historical data to predict future customer behaviour.
Key features:
- Multichannel data collection that covers computers, mobile devices and IoT devices
- Adobe Sensei (AI/ML) for marketing attribution and anomaly detection
- Tag management through Adobe Experience Platform Launch simplifies the tag creation and maintenance process to help track how users interact with the site
Strengths:
- When integrated with other Adobe software, it becomes a powerful solution for enterprises
- Saves teams a lot of time with the recommendations and insights automatically generated by Adobe’s AI/ML
Common community critiques:
- Expensive
- Adobe Sensei and tag manager are limited to the premium version
- Steep learning curve
Mobile app: Yes
Integrations: Integrates with Adobe Experience Manager Sites, the company’s CMS, and Adobe Target, a CRO tool included with Adobe’s Marketing Cloud subscription.
Pricing: Available upon request
3. Mixpanel
Mixpanel is geared toward e-commerce companies. Mixpanel tracks these events from the moment a visitor lands on the website until they enter their payment details and complete a transaction.
Mixpanel product analytics dashboard for a ride-sharing app
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Similar to GA4, Mixpanel is an event-focused analytics platform. While it will still track pageviews, its main focus is on the specific actions users take that lead them to purchase. Focusing on this information helps teams identify specific events and reveals how users move through the sales funnel.
Mixpanel recently released its Warehouse Events feature, which simplifies the process of importing data lakes and data warehouses.
Key features:
- Custom alerts and anomaly detection
- Boards, which allow multiple reports and insights to be shared with a team in a range of visual styles
- Detailed segmentation reporting that breaks down data to the individual user, specific event or geographic level
Strengths:
- Boards allow for emojis, gifs, images and videos
- Powerful mobile analytics for iOS and Android apps
- Free promotional credits for eligible startups
Common community critiques:
- Limited features in the free plan
- Premium features are limited to the Enterprise-tier subscription
- Steep learning curve
Mobile app: No
Integrations: Mixpanel integrates with tools including Figma, Google Cloud, Slack, HappyFox, Snowflake, Microsoft Azure, Optimizely, Mailchimp and Tenjin. It also has a WordPress plugin.
Pricing:
- Starter: free plan available
- Growth: $20/month
- Enterprise $833/month
4. HubSpot Marketing
HubSpot is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform with marketing, sales, customer service, content management system (CMS) and operations tools. This greater ecosystem of HubSpot software allows an entire business to be run in one place.
HubSpot’s multi-touch revenue attribution report dashboard
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Even though it isn’t a dedicated web analytics tool, HubSpot Marketing provides the same key metrics as the other tools on this list. It’s worth considering for companies that are already using HubSpot to host their web properties and don’t need more advanced capabilities.
Key features:
- Customer Journey Analytics presents the steps customers take through the sales process in a step-by-step, visual way
- Dashboards for reports, including both fully customisable options for power users and pre-made templates for new users
Strengths:
- Integration with other HubSpot tools, like HubSpot CRM’s free live chat widget
- User-friendly interface with many features being drag-and-drop, like the report dashboard
- 24/7 customer support
Common community critiques:
- Expensive upgrades and add-ons
- Lacking advanced features like heatmaps
- Some users report customer support is unhelpful
Mobile app: Yes
Integrations: The larger HubSpot CRM platform can connect with nearly 1,500 other apps through the HubSpot App Marketplace. These include Slack, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Make, WordPress, SurveyMonkey, Shopify, monday.com, Stripe, WooCommerce and hundreds of others.
Pricing:
- Starter: $20/month ($18/month with annual plan)
- Professional: $890/month ($800/month with annual plan)
- Enterprise: $3,600/month ($43,200 billed annually)
5. Kissmetrics
Kissmetrics is a web analytics tool marketed to SaaS and ecommerce companies. It’s labelled “person-based” because it combines event-based tracking with detailed user profiles of visitors on a site to offer valuable insights into customer behaviour.
Kissmetrics’ executive dashboard
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It allows teams to drill down into user profiles to see how many times someone visited the site, whether they bought anything, and the steps they took before completing a purchase. This gives teams the details they need to cater more to their users and drive growth.
Key features:
- Person Profiles that give granular information about individual users and their activities on your site
- Campaigns, an engagement messenger application, automates emails when triggered by specific events
- Detailed reporting tools
Strengths:
- No third-party cookies
- No data sampling
- APIs for Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, Python and PHP
Common community critiques:
- Difficult installation
- Advanced reporting features are limited to the most expensive plan
- Slow loading times
- Requires custom JavaScript code to tack single-page applications
- Doesn’t track demographic data, bounce rate, exits, session length or time on page
Mobile app: No
Integrations: Kissmetrics integrates with HubSpot, Appcues, Slack, Mailchimp, Shopify, WooCommerce, Recurly and a dozen others. It also has a Kissmetrics WordPress plugin.
Pricing:
- Silver: $299/month (small businesses)
- Gold: $499/month (medium)
- Platinum: custom pricing (enterprises)
6. Hotjar
Like all web analytics tools, Hotjar helps businesses understand users’ website behaviour. It also allows them to identify pain points or usability issues causing high bounce rates.
Hotjar movement heatmap shows where visitors move their mouse
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It combines heatmaps, forms, session recordings, funnels, polls, and surveys to reveal how visitors engage with a website. These tools offer critical insight and feedback on a website’s performance and user experience. They are also helpful for streamlining usability testing of new or relaunched websites.
Key features:
- Heatmaps to visualise user interaction
- Session recordings for in-depth user journey analysis
- Feedback polls and surveys to collect user opinions
- Conversion funnels to track drop-off points
Strengths:
- User-friendly interface
- Easy to set up
Common community critiques:
- Limited data retention for free users
- Limited reporting capabilities compared to other tools
Mobile app: Yes
Integrations: Hotjar integrates with platforms like Shopify, WordPress, HubSpot, Zapier and more, making it easy to connect with your existing tools.
Pricing:
- Basic: Free (limited features)
- Plus: $39/month (small businesses)
- Business: $99/month (growing teams)
- Scale: Custom pricing from $213/month (larger enterprises)
7. Chartbeat
Some web analytics tools are designed to solve specific problems particular industries encounter. We saw this earlier with Mixpanel and e-commerce. Chartbeat is another of those. It was developed specifically for content creators, publishers and marketers.
Chartbeat’s dashboard shows active readers, scroll depth and traffic sources.
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Chartbeat focuses on immediate data, allowing users to see how their audience engages with content as it happens. This immediacy helps teams make informed decisions on the fly, whether they’re adjusting headlines, promoting articles, or timing social media posts. Chartbeat’s dashboard provides live insights into active readers, scroll depth, and traffic sources, enabling a deeper understanding of audience behaviour.
Key features:
- Live analytics that show engagement metrics
- Content optimisation tools that suggest improvements based on audience interaction
- Alerts for significant traffic changes or engagement drops
Strengths:
- Intuitive interface that’s easy to navigate
- Strong focus on immediate data
- Integrates easily with various content management systems
Common community critiques:
- Limited historical data storage in lower-tier plans
- Pricing may be steep for smaller publishers
- Some users report occasional glitches in data reporting
Mobile app: Yes
Integrations: Chartbeat integrates with platforms like WordPress, Google Analytics, and social media networks for enhanced tracking.
Pricing: The Starter plan is free and provides enough functionality to give a taste. Pricing for the more advanced plans is only available from the company.
8. Similarweb
Similarweb is a market intelligence platform that offers valuable insights into website performance and competitive analysis. It collects website data in the form of traffic and engagement metrics, SEO and PPC keywords and data on brand preferences, audience interests, traffic sources and popular pages.
Similarweb’s incoming traffic dashboard
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Similarweb estimates total traffic and breaks it down by channel. This allows effective comparison and benchmarking against any competitor, anywhere in the world. It also makes it possible to compare brand-specific data to understand why some are more popular.
Key features:
- Total traffic analytics that break down visitor numbers by source
- Competitor benchmarking to compare a site against others in the industry
- Audience insights to understand user demographics and interests
- SEO tools to enhance search visibility
Strengths:
- User-friendly interface
- In-depth competitive analysis
- Mobile app available for on-the-go access
Common community critiques:
- Premium features can be costly
- Some data may be less accurate for smaller websites
- Limited customisation options for reports
Mobile app: No
Integrations: Similarweb integrates with Google Analytics, HubSpot, and other marketing tools to streamline data analysis.
Pricing: Similarweb does not offer a free version but does offer a 7-day free trial. Individual contract pricing has two tiers:
- Starter ($125/month)
- Professional ($333/month).
Annual and month-to-month rates are also available, and custom pricing applies to teams and enterprises.
9. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is primarily an SEO and content marketing tool. It’s also known for its backlink analysis and site auditing capabilities, which allow any website’s performance to be analysed in great detail.
Ahrefs’ Site Explorer dashboard extracts and reveals a competitor’s organic search traffic and backlink portfolio
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Using its database of 12 billion keywords, it provides estimates of organic traffic, keyword rankings and competitor strategies. However, these estimates are based on available data and may not always be 100% accurate.
Key features:
- Comprehensive site audit tool that highlights SEO issues
- Keyword explorer with data on search volume and difficulty
- Content explorer to discover top-performing content in any niche
Strengths:
- Rich database that frequently updates
- User-friendly interface
- Excellent customer support (Average rating of around 4.8 out of 5 on G2 and Trustpilot)
Common community critiques:
- Expensive compared to some competitors
- Limited access to certain features in the lower-tier plans
- Steep learning curve
Mobile app: No
Integrations: Ahrefs integrates with various tools, including Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Pricing: Ahrefs has a Lite plan for $129/month, suitable for individuals and small teams. It scales up through Standard and Advanced plans to the Enterprise plan, which costs $1,499/month.
10. Google Search Console
Google Search Console was initially designed as Google’s technical SEO tool. But it’s now a useful free tool that helps website owners understand and optimise their site’s positioning in search engine results.
Google Search Console dashboard with SEO performance and marketing campaign data
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It also tracks website performance and helps web property owners and managers diagnose issues. However, it is limited if a complete view of traffic is needed — it can’t offer insight into how users behave on a website.
Key features
- Performance reports that show clicks, impressions, and average position for your pages
- URL Inspection tool for checking indexing status and mobile usability
- Coverage reports that highlight issues preventing your pages from appearing in search results
Strengths:
- Free to use
- Direct SEO insights and recommendations from Google
- Instant access to indexing reports
Common community critiques:
- Overwhelming for beginners
- Limited historical data
- Lacks detailed demographic information
Mobile app: Yes, available for both Android and iOS
Integrations: Works seamlessly with Google Analytics and other Google services
Pricing: Google Search Console is free to use.
Key considerations for choosing analytics tools
Searching for the right web analytics tool can be overwhelming, especially with so many options available — G2 lists over 2000 tools in its web analytics category. It’s important to think carefully about how it’ll mesh with current systems and processes and how easy it is for people to use.
After all, the goal is to make sense of the data without getting lost in complicated features. Here are two key considerations to keep in mind when selecting a tool to ensure it can meet your business’s needs.
Integration capabilities with existing systems and processes
It may seem obvious, but many people overlook this factor. It’s critical to seriously consider how well any new tool will integrate with what’s already in place.
Many marketers rely on different tools for tasks like tracking sales, managing email campaigns, and monitoring social media. If the analytics tool doesn’t work well with these systems, it can create gaps in the data and make the job harder.
For example, if a business uses a customer relationship management (CRM) application like Salesforce, choosing an analytics platform that connects with it can help see how marketing efforts impact customer interactions.
This means it’s possible to track which emails lead to purchases and to understand customer behaviour more deeply. Picking a tool that doesn’t integrate well, means a business may miss out on valuable insights and end up with a lot of extra work.
User experience and ease of use
User experience is another critical factor when selecting an analytics tool. If the software is difficult to use, it can be frustrating and lead to wasted time. Select one that’s easy to navigate to find information quickly and easily.
Look for features like simple dashboards and easy-to-understand reports. For example, Google Analytics 4 offers a user-friendly interface that reveals how many people visit a website, where they come from, and what they do there.
When a tool is straightforward and well-supported, less time is spent trying to figure it out, and more time is available to drive the business forward. Resources like product tutorials, community forums, and customer support can shorten the learning curve.
Ultimately, choosing a web analytics tool that integrates well with current systems and is easy to use can significantly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of data analysis efforts.
Conclusion
In this article, you learned about popular web analytics tools to better inform you of your options. Despite all of GA4’s shortcomings, it remains a great starting point. By complementing it with another web analytics tool, teams can gain more valuable insights into their website traffic and enhance their overall analytics capabilities.
If you want an option that delivers powerful insights while keeping privacy, security and compliance at the forefront, you should try Matomo. It’ll close many gaps that GA4 left behind, and if you go for the on-premise option, it’s also free.
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