Alternative to Google Analytics
Is there a viable alternative to Google Analytics?
Yes, Fathom Analytics is a more than capable alternative to Google Analytics and is from a small independent team in Canada.
Like most people who build websites I have been using Google Analytics for many years. The change to GA4 this year though is significant. Having used GA4 for over a year I can attest that it is OK - difficult to understand to begin with but that's because it uses a different data model that the outgoing Universal Google Analytics. GA4 is very customisable, which is great, and I have been able to put together several dashboards for SEO related data. However there is one big issue looming on the horizon.
How far back can I look at my Google Analytics data?
16 months is all you will be able to review making seasonal comparisons much more difficult. Google Universal Analytics will sunset on July 1st 2023 and currently the data will be available for 12 months and then it gets deleted, forever.
Seasonal comparisons are important but we have not really had a normal year since 2019 8so only being able to compare traffic data from last year doesn't hold any comfort for me.
I had heard about Fathom Analytics some years ago and liked the idea but it is not free like Google Analytics but it is inexpensive. The big factor for me though is that they have just launched the ability to pull your data from Google Analytics into Fathom.
This left me with a data gap though as I had switched my Analytics from GA Universal to GA4 in February but I was able to then import my GA4 data from February to today using the date feature! So I have combined all the available data and ported into Fathom!
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