Google Analytics

Google's free web analytics platform — the universal standard for understanding website traffic, user behavior, and conversions.

Best for: Any business with a website — from personal blogs to enterprise e-commerce. GA4 is the baseline analytics foundation that every other digital marketing measurement builds on top of

Free plan

4.5/5Editorial score 85/100analytics.google.com

Entry plan

Free

Get started free

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Editorial score85/100

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The editorial note

What to know about Google Analytics

Google Analytics Universal Analytics was Google's web analytics platform used by over 30 million websites before being sunset in 2023 in favor of Google Analytics 4. UA tracked sessions, pageviews, bounce rate, and goal completions using a cookie-based, session-centric data model. While now sunset, many organizations still reference UA reports and are migrating historical data to GA4 or alternative platforms.

Is it right for you?

Who Google Analytics suits

Choose it if

Any business with a website — from personal blogs to enterprise e-commerce. GA4 is the baseline analytics foundation that every other digital marketing measurement builds on top of

Look elsewhere if

Any new analytics implementation — Universal Analytics is sunset. Use Google Analytics 4 or a privacy-first alternative like Plausible or Fathom Analytics

What you get

Key features

Session-based web analytics (sunset 2023)
Goal and funnel tracking
Audience reports with demographics
Acquisition channel attribution
Behavior flow reports
E-commerce tracking
Custom dimensions and metrics
Google Ads integration

Works with

Integrations8

Google Ads Google Search ConsoleGoogle Tag ManagerLooker Studio Salesforce HubSpot BigQuery Zapier

What it costs

Pricing

Google Analytics pricing plans
Plan	Price	What it includes
Free	FreeBilled monthly	Website and app analytics with standard reports and insights
Google Analytics 360	Contact salesBilled annually	Enterprise tier with higher event limits, BigQuery export, and SLA

Prices are recorded from the vendor's public pricing page and can change. Check before you buy.

The trade-off

Pros and cons

Pros

Historical UA data remains accessible for many organizations for reference
Familiar interface for analytics professionals trained on UA over many years
Extensive documentation and third-party guides available for the UA data model
Session-based model was intuitive for measuring website engagement
Deep historical data for year-over-year comparison before the GA4 migration

Cons

Universal Analytics was officially sunset in July 2023 — no longer collecting new data
Cookie-based tracking is blocked by iOS, Safari ITP, and privacy regulations
Does not comply with modern GDPR/CCPA requirements without additional configuration
Google recommends full migration to GA4 for all active analytics needs

Quick read

At a glance

Category: Marketing & SEO
Pricing model: Freemium
Entry plan: Free
Free plan: Available
Free trial: Not listed
Website: analytics.google.com

The verdict

Our take on Google Analytics

Google Analytics 4 is non-negotiable as a free web analytics foundation — every business with a website should have it installed. The transition from Universal Analytics is painful but necessary. For teams that find GA4 too complex or who need consent-compliant analytics, Plausible or Fathom offer clean, privacy-first alternatives. For product analytics beyond marketing, Mixpanel or Amplitude go far deeper on user behavior.

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Editorial review

From the journal

Editorial review of Google Analytics

By TopToolsPick Editorial

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