How do you decide which analytics tool to use?

My framework: 1) Will I actually open it daily? If it's too complex, you won't. 2) Does it replace multiple tools or add to the stack? I was running GA4 + Hotjar + UptimeRobot + Plausible. Now I use Zenovay for all of that in one place, analytics, heatmaps, session replay, error logs, uptime monitoring. 3) Does it respect privacy? Cookie banners cost you 30-40% of your data. Cookie-free tools see everyone.

Hi) I'd like to tell you a little about myself and how I went from building websites for clients to launching my own SaaS service—and why I stopped trusting GA4!

In the end, I started my own company!
Sounds fancy. Reality wasn't. Analytics…
It was:
• Clients asking "why numbers don't match"
• Analytics dashboards nobody trusted
• GDPR emails every few months
• Cookie banners everywhere
• And GA4… always GA4

Every site I launched had the same problem: analytics data never felt real.
Pageviews were lower than expected. Funnels didn't make sense.
Marketing decisions were based on "best guesses."

So I built CheckAnalytic.com—slowly, alone, after client work, without a roadmap slide deck.

What I wanted was simple:
• No cookies
• No consent banners
• No legal anxiety
• Numbers I can trust
• Setup that takes minutes, not hours
Not an "enterprise solution."
Not a “GA4 replacement”.

Just analytics that works for founders who actually ship.

We are using these guys: https://pirsch.io/

It's a German startup with super cool founders. 2 of them are bootstrapping it without any funding.

The design, and functionality is top notch. The price is only 6$ per month. (I told them to raise the prices, but they are quite stubborn)

Well, the new version of Google Analytics is really terrible. I heard from levelsio that he has been using Simpleanalytics for Nomadlist etc.

Currently I am not using it, because it is a paid product, but still, I would take a look. Just because GA is terrible.

I'm using plausible.com for website statistics

And recently combine it with uniqrate.com for getting feedback and analytics my landing and blog. More powerful insights.

I'm boostrapper founder of uniqrate.

Simple. Go with Websense. Its free, has no setup, and shows you everything you need like what is clicked, loading time, how far they scroll and so much more.

https://www.websense.online

I use Umami analytics for small projects and mvps. I look for security and simplicity in matters that are not my main focus. Including other vendors' JavaScript codes on the page may cause vulnerabilities in the future. And don't do it when you don't need it. You can also host this yourself for privacy in the future. It is open source and free. You can try without a host from its site.

i am developing analytics tool so my opinion is biased. You should be clear on what you want from your tool, analytics for marketing is very different from analytics for product.
In case of marketing you are not interested in behavior of individual user just the aggregate data. While the marketing tools can also be used for product analytics support for them would not be to the same level as it is by a tool focusing on product analytics.

1. you can refer to this for decision factors https://easyanalytics.win/en/blog/understanding-web-analytics-and-choosing-right-tool/

2. It depends on what are you looking in terms of scalability, is it the cost effectiveness of tool or the broader feature set that is not applicable to you now but would help you as you grow?

3. You should be able to do the analysis yourself. When you bring analyst they can recommend their own tool based on their familiarity/expertise. Just make sure that the tool you choose gives you the ability to export data out of your tool so you don't get affected if you choose different tool.

4. Yes, i switched from GA to my tool and it was bit painful. I had to waste lot of time in getting the data out and using both the tools while i was transitioning.

If it’s an app then Google Analytics won’t be that helpful. At least not out the box.
Tools like amplitude and posthog are great. Posthog has a good free tier that covers a wide feature set. Even things like screen recordings, a/b tests and surveys.

For catching bugs sentry is very popular. Logrocket with a good name too.

Don’t overthink it. Any tool works fine.

i always start with Google analytics then change it if you really have too.

I'd recommend Full Story. UI based instrumentation (after adding the JS setup snippet). Free 1000 events so if you are small you can grow with it.

Google Analytics could work but it takes lots of digging to instrument events.

Amplitude and Pendo are overly expensive.

Amplitude requires a developer to instrument.

I use mixpanel because it's so easy to implement and learn.
I didn't need any tutorials but just played with the different views.
For me, the most interesting feature is "flow".
From a selected event, it allows you to view all subsequent events as a percentage.
Thanks to this feature, I can see, for example, that 40% of my website visitors are listening to the podcast proposed. And that 20% of those who started the podcast listen to it all the way to the end. And that 50% of people who have listened to a podcast in its entirety listen to a 2nd one and so one.
For me, mixpanel is a musthave that I use in all my projects.

It mainly depends on what kind of analytics you need for your projects. If it's simple analytics for the web like which doesn't consider users at all and just focuses on the website then try web anlaytics tools like pirsch.io or plausible.io or Umami(for self hosting). If you want to chart out user events and actions within your app then you're looking for Product analytics tools like Mixpanel, Amplitude, Full story or Pendo.

But I would suggest to go for self hosting Umami for basic web analytics first then go on to move to others if needed. For most projects, especially side projects. Basic web analytics is fine I guess. ultimately it depends on your choice.

I usually start by thinking about my goals. For me, key factors are ease of use, data privacy, and the level of customization available. If I need deep, customizable insights, I'll go with something like Mixpanel or Amplitude.