Why I'm Quitting Google Analytics

roman_abacaus.png

I’ve worked with Google Analytics for quite a while. So long in fact I remember the “U” in “UA” actually means “Urchin” and not “Universal.”

Back then it seemed wonderful that a paid for service like Urchin was made free instantly on acquisition by a forward looking company like Google.

In the subsequent 15 years I’ve added Google Analytics to hundreds of websites and apps.

Always with the same feeling: “did they move something in the interface?”

The service has its limitations and quirks but hey it’s free so we should be grateful; after all we don’t have to pay the eye-watering prices of Adobe and do you remember how bad server log analytics are?

But my gratitude is drying up. What was advanced 15 years ago is no longer.

  • Sampled data reports are useless.

  • Attribution doesn’t work.

  • Client IDs don’t unify to a single user.

  • You have to hack to get your data out.

  • The time to learn GA4 isn’t worth what extra it does.

So, I can’t recommend Google Analytics to clients again.

But, thank you.

Paul NewnesWeb analytics, Attribution modeling