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Google Analytics 4

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Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Google Ireland Limited · marketingplatform.google.com

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Google Analytics 4: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai Google Analytics 4: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Google Analytics 4 at a glance

Vendor
Google Ireland Limited
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 29 Oct 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 29 Oct 2026
Free plan
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 29 Oct 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Google Analytics 4 2.5/5, the mean of 6 judges. Google Analytics 4, from Google Ireland Limited, is strongest on data ownership, the only criterion at a flat 6: a daily BigQuery export covered by an SLA and unsampled total-data reports in the paid tier, and deletion of all remaining customer personal data within a maximum of 180 days after the term. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 29 Oct 2026; evaluated by the panel 30 Oct 2026. all sources

Google Analytics 4 alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Public-Sector Site Owner

Weighted verdict

Web editor for a district administration whose site serves 400,000 residents, from vehicle registration to daycare places. The state data protection authority publishes guidance on analytics, and the council will not show a cookie banner on a public service. Needs to know which pages people search for and where forms are abandoned, with data that stays in Germany or on the municipal data centre's own servers, and a contract the procurement office can sign.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Public-Sector Site Owner

Panel median The Public-Sector Site Owner This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The Public-Sector Site Owner
Traffic, sources & campaign reports 2 of 5 2 of 5
Goals, events, funnels & e-commerce 2.5 of 5 3 of 5
Consent-free operation & data minimisation 2.5 of 5 2 of 5
Data access, export & self-hosting 3 of 5 3 of 5
Installation, integrations & performance 2 of 5 2 of 5
European sovereignty 2 of 5 2 of 5

Traffic, sources & campaign reports

How this is scored

What the standard reports show: page views, visits and visitors, entry and exit pages, referrers, search engines and social networks as sources, campaigns tagged with UTM parameters, countries, devices and browsers, a real-time view, date comparisons, segments and filters, custom dashboards, scheduled email reports, shared or public dashboards, and whether reports are sampled or complete.

0 — Not a web analytics product; website traffic cannot be measured with it.

3 — Page views and visitors over time with top pages and referrers; campaign parameters, segments and report sharing are basic or not described.

5 — A dashboard with pages, referrers, UTM campaigns, countries and devices, a real-time view, date comparison, filters across all reports, email reports, and dashboards shared with clients or colleagues.

8 — Custom segments and saved views, custom dashboards and report builders, channel grouping that can be configured, Search Console or ad platform data shown beside the traffic, unsampled reports stated, several sites and roll-up reporting in one account, and annotations.

10 — Reporting that a whole organisation runs on: custom dimensions and calculated metrics, anomaly alerts, multi-site and multi-brand roll-ups with roles per site, report accuracy and how visitors are counted explained in a published methodology, and every report reproducible from the raw data.

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The Public-Sector Site Owner

The captured pages document cross-device and cross-platform audience analysis, country and city data derived from IP addresses, shareable reports, and in the paid tier unsampled total-data reports with intra-day data within an hour, plus an advertising workspace with cross-channel ROI and attribution reports. We found no public information on the standard reports themselves — top pages, referrers, campaign parameters, a real-time view, date comparisons or scheduled email reports — on the pages captured. 1 2 3 4

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Goals, events, funnels & e-commerce

How this is scored

How the product measures what visitors do: goals for pages and events, custom events with properties, outbound links, downloads, form submissions and scroll depth tracked without code, funnels with drop-off, e-commerce tracking of orders, revenue and products, attribution of conversions to channels and campaigns, cohorts and retention, and conversion data passed back to ad platforms.

0 — Counts page views only; no goals, events or conversions can be defined.

3 — Goals for a page or a custom event; funnels, revenue and attribution are basic or not described.

5 — Goals and custom events with properties, outbound links and file downloads tracked, funnels with drop-off per step, revenue attached to goals or orders, and conversions broken down by source and campaign.

8 — Full e-commerce tracking (products, cart, checkout, orders, revenue) with plugins for named shop systems, several attribution models compared, cohorts and retention, user journeys or paths, forms and scroll depth tracked without code, and conversions sent back to Google Ads, Meta or other ad platforms server to server.

10 — Conversion analysis to the level of a product analytics suite: multi-touch attribution explained, funnels and cohorts on any event or property, revenue reconciled with the shop system, predictive or anomaly metrics with their method stated, and every conversion traceable to the raw event.

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The Public-Sector Site Owner

Conversions are documented as key events with Google Ads conversion tracking and remarketing, conversion and behavioural modelling to fill gaps where consent is denied, attribution models to evaluate in the advertising workspace, customer-lifecycle analysis and machine-learning predictions in the paid tier. We found no public information on funnels with drop-off, form submissions, scroll depth or e-commerce tracking, which is the very reporting our forms office would need. 2 3 5

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Data access, export & self-hosting

How this is scored

Whether the data stays the customer's and can leave with them: a reporting API and a raw event export, CSV export of every report, a scheduled export or sync to a data warehouse or BI tool (BigQuery, Snowflake, Looker Studio), no data sampling or limits on history, import of historical data from Google Analytics or another tool, open-source code, and a self-hosted or on-premise edition the customer runs on its own servers.

0 — No export of any kind; the data can only be viewed in the vendor's dashboard.

3 — A CSV export of reports; an API, raw data and history limits are basic or not described.

5 — A documented reporting API, CSV export of all reports, the retention period for raw data stated, and an import of historical data from Google Analytics or a stated migration path.

8 — Raw event data exportable or streamed to a named warehouse or BI tool, an API covering both reporting and data collection, no sampling stated, a self-hosted or on-premise edition with its own documentation, and the data returned or deleted on termination under stated terms.

10 — The customer owns the data end to end: open-source code under a named licence that runs fully self-hosted with feature parity stated, a complete raw export in an open format that another tool can import, and the deletion of every copy on termination documented.

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The Public-Sector Site Owner

The paid tier documents a daily BigQuery export covered by an SLA and unsampled total-data reports, and the data processing terms commit to deleting all customer personal data within a maximum of 180 days after the contract ends. We found no public information on a reporting API, CSV export of reports or a self-hosted edition, which is what our requirement to keep residents' data on the municipal data centre's own servers would rest on. 3 6 9

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Installation, integrations & performance

How this is scored

What it takes to install and run: the size and loading of the tracking script, plugins and documented set-ups for named CMS and shop systems (WordPress, TYPO3, Shopify, Shopware, WooCommerce), single-page apps and mobile SDKs, a tag manager or Google Tag Manager template, server-side tracking and first-party proxying to avoid ad blockers, team roles and permissions, client and agency accounts, single sign-on, and an uptime or status page.

0 — No documented way to install the product on a website or app.

3 — A tracking snippet to paste into the site; plugins, SDKs, server-side options and roles are basic or not described.

5 — A documented snippet with its size stated, plugins or guides for several named CMS and shop systems, support for single-page apps, team members with roles, and an agency or multi-site account.

8 — A lightweight script or server-side collection documented, a first-party proxy or own tracking domain, SDKs for iOS, Android and named frameworks, a tag manager integration, granular roles per site, single sign-on (SAML), and a public status page with uptime history.

10 — Installation that scales across an organisation: server-side and client-side tracking with an equal feature set, an infrastructure-as-code or API-driven site set-up, white-label for agencies, SLA and support terms published, and the performance impact of the script measured and stated.

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The Public-Sector Site Owner

Installation runs through gtag.js, Google Tag Manager with community templates for the listed consent platforms, and a Firebase SDK for apps, with the required tracking domains published for content security policy configuration. We found no public information on script size, plugins or guides for named CMS systems, single sign-on, team roles or a public status page. 3 4 5

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where visitor data is collected, stored and processed, and who the subprocessors are (script CDN, collection endpoint, hosting, email reports, support and payment tools). Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; visitor data is personal data under European rulings, so the whole chain counts, not only the database. A self-hosted or open-source edition the customer runs on its own European servers counts as the customer's chain, whatever the vendor's seat.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated, subprocessors unnamed, and no data processing agreement offered.

3 — A privacy policy and a data processing agreement exist, but hosting location is unstated or non-EU and the subprocessors are not listed.

5 — EU hosting available and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, but parts of the chain (CDN, collection endpoint, email, support, payment) run through non-EU providers without a stated safeguard, or EU processing relies on a proxy in front of a non-EU service.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, subprocessors listed with their locations, a data processing agreement published, and security certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2) stated — or a self-hosted edition documented that keeps every visitor record on the customer's own servers.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, hosting and every subprocessor, or a self-hosted open-source edition with no call home, data export and deletion documented, and certifications published with their scope rather than implied.

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The Public-Sector Site Owner

Google Ireland Limited in Dublin is the named provider with a published register number, a data processing agreement, ISO 27001 certification and a subprocessor list, and EU visitors' measurement data is collected through EU domains and servers with IP addresses deleted there. However, the terms allow processing of customer data in any country where Google or its subprocessors maintain facilities, the privacy policy describes servers worldwide, and the parent company sits in the USA with US Cloud Act exposure; we found no public information on a self-hosted edition or on any commitment to store our residents' data in Germany or the EU. 4 6 8 9

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Pricing transparency not rated — the vendor publishes no price

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual cost from public pages alone: price per tier by monthly page views or events, what happens when traffic exceeds the tier, the number of sites and users included, which features (e-commerce, funnels, raw export, API, SSO, longer retention) cost extra, the free tier and its limits, the self-hosted edition and its support, minimum term and setup.

0 — No public prices at all; every customer is a sales call.

3 — A starting price or a free tier exists, but how cost scales with traffic, sites or features is unclear.

5 — Tiers are public with their price per traffic band and main inclusions, but at least one commonly needed piece (overage, extra sites, raw export, SSO, longer retention) is unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every tier priced publicly with its scaling rule (page views, events, sites, users), overage handling stated, add-ons priced, the self-hosted edition's cost or licence stated, minimum term and VAT treatment stated.

10 — Complete price computability: annual cost derivable for a given traffic volume, site count and feature set, with every add-on, setup, support and overage fee and the cancellation and data-return terms published.

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The Public-Sector Site Owner

The product family comprises a free Google Analytics 4 and a paid Analytics 360 positioned for large enterprises with enterprise-level support and SLAs. We found no public information on any price for the paid tier, on traffic bands, included sites and users, or on minimum term and setup conditions, so the procurement office cannot compute an annual cost from the captured pages. 1 3

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 6 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Hosting location Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Hosting options Not determined — uncited Report an error
Open source Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data processing agreement Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Transfer impact assessment Not determined — uncited Report an error

Questions about Google Analytics 4

Is Google Analytics 4 European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies Google Analytics 4 as Rest of world.

Where does Google Analytics 4 store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 29 Oct 2026.

Does Google Analytics 4 have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 29 Oct 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Google Analytics 4?

As of 4 Nov 2026, the panel rates Matomo (4/5), Piwik PRO Analytics Suite (3.5/5) and Pirsch Analytics (3.5/5) highest among the other 17 Web Analytics products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is Piwik PRO Analytics Suite (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Google Analytics 4 alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

Sources (9)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor homepage marketingplatform.google.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Features page marketingplatform.google.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Features page (Analytics 360) marketingplatform.google.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Documentation (EU data and privacy) support.google.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Documentation (consent mode) support.google.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Data processing agreement (dpa) business.safety.google Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Subprocessor list business.safety.google Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Legal notice www.google.de Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Privacy policy policies.google.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →