Google Analytics vs Piwik PRO

by Gralio Feb 03, 2025

Google Analytics and Piwik PRO are both web analytics tools, but they cater to different needs. Google Analytics offers a free and accessible solution with strong Google integrations, while Piwik PRO prioritizes data privacy and control for businesses willing to invest in a paid platform.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 2563 reviews and 60 websites, saving 14 hours, 44 minutes of reading.

Google Analytics

Piwik PRO

About

Google Analytics is a free tool that gives you insights into your website and app users. Understand what content is popular, track your marketing campaigns, and see how people behave on your site. Use this data to improve your website, create better content, and make smarter marketing decisions.

Piwik PRO is a suite of data analytics and marketing tools designed for companies concerned about data privacy. It helps you understand customer behavior on your website and apps while complying with data privacy regulations like GDPR. Piwik PRO offers tools for analyzing website traffic, managing marketing tags, collecting user consent, and building a central profile of your customer data. It's a robust alternative to Google Analytics that prioritizes data security and user privacy.

Summary

Main difference

Google Analytics is a free web analytics service offered by Google. Piwik PRO is a paid, privacy-focused analytics platform offering more control over data.

Relative strengths of Google Analytics (compared to Piwik PRO)

Free to use, making it accessible for businesses of all sizes.
Seamless integration with other Google products and services.
User-friendly interface for basic analytics and reporting.

Relative weaknesses of Google Analytics (compared to Piwik PRO)

Concerns about data privacy and compliance with regulations like GDPR.
Limited control over data storage and ownership.
Customer support can be limited and less responsive compared to paid alternatives.

Who should use Google Analytics VS. Piwik PRO

Google Analytics is a free tool providing insights into website and app user behavior. Businesses can track popular content, marketing campaigns, and user journeys to improve website performance and make informed decisions. Users praise detailed reports and seamless Google product integration but find GA4 confusing and customer support lacking.

Piwik PRO is a privacy-focused analytics suite ideal for small to mid-sized businesses in e-commerce, media, or software. Users praise its GDPR compliance and similarity to Google Analytics, making migration easier. However, some find the tag manager less advanced and the e-commerce tracking limited. If data privacy is a top priority, Piwik PRO is a strong choice.

Best for small, mid-sized, and large businesses.
Ideal for various sectors, including e-commerce, retail, and software.

Best fit for small to mid-sized businesses.
Ideal for industries like e-commerce, media, software, and those with a strong focus on data privacy regulations.

Google Analytics and Piwik PRO features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

Advanced Google Analytics reporting

Supported

Google Analytics 4 supports advanced reporting, equipping users with expertise for deeper insights.

Not supported

Piwik PRO does not support advanced Google Analytics reporting.
Data Control

Partially supported

Users can control data retention and consent, but not directly modify or delete specific data.

Partially supported

Piwik PRO offers robust data management and privacy features, but details on user data modification and deletion are unclear.
Tag creation and debugging

Partially supported

Google Analytics uses Google Tag Manager for tag creation, customization, and debugging.

Partially supported

Piwik PRO allows tag creation from templates, testing, and debugging. JavaScript customization is unclear.
Google Analytics integration

Supported

Google Analytics has a wide range of integrations, including integrations with other Google products.

Not supported

Piwik PRO does not offer direct Google Analytics integration for data sharing.
Conversion tracking

Supported

Google Analytics 4 fully supports conversion tracking using events, allowing you to track actions like purchases and newsletter sign-ups.

Supported

Piwik PRO natively supports conversion tracking, including setup and analysis.
User behavior tracking

Supported

Google Analytics offers robust user behavior tracking, including clicks, form submissions, and events. While it doesn\'t inherently track mouse movements, additional configurations or tools can address this.

Supported

Piwik PRO offers comprehensive user behavior tracking, including clicks, form submissions, and more.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

+0.77

Strongly positive sentiment

No data
Customer Service

-0.04

Neutral sentiment

+1

Strongly positive sentiment
Ease of Use

+0.42

Rather positive sentiment

+1

Strongly positive sentiment
Reliability and Performance

+0.27

Neutral sentiment

+1

Strongly positive sentiment
Ease of Implementation

+0.24

Neutral sentiment

+0

Neutral sentiment
Scalability

+0.08

Neutral sentiment

No data

Google Analytics and Piwik PRO Pricing

No data

User sentiment

Strongly positive

+0.77

We couldn't find a pricing page for Google Analytics.

Piwik PRO offers a Core plan which is free and an Enterprise plan with custom pricing based on the number of actions. The Core plan includes 4 modules: Analytics, Tag Manager, Consent Manager & Customer Data Platform, 500,000 monthly actions, 14-month data retention, Cloud hosting with Microsoft Azure in Germany, and support of their community forum. The Enterprise plan includes the same 4 modules, tiers from 2M to 4B monthly actions, data retention starting from 25 months, cloud or private cloud hosting, and dedicated support. Paid add-ons are available for the Core plan to increase the monthly action limit. A 6-month HIPAA trial is available.

Plans

See full Pricing page

Google Analytics and Piwik PRO review insights

2563 reviews analysed from and

Users love

Detailed and comprehensive website traffic data and reports.
Seamless integration with other Google products like Google Ads and Search Console.
User-friendly interface for basic analytics.
Wide range of metrics and customization options for creating reports.

Privacy-focused approach to data collection and storage, especially valuable for GDPR compliance.
Offers a similar interface and data model to Google Analytics, making migration easier.
Provides detailed website traffic analysis, including user behavior and engagement metrics.
Offers customizable reports and dashboards to suit different business needs.
Good customer support and documentation available for users.

Users dislike

GA4 is very confusing to use and less intuitive compared to the previous version.
Real-time data is often delayed or inaccurate.
The transition from Universal Analytics to GA4 is difficult, with data discrepancies and loss of historical information.
Customer support is limited and unhelpful, often with slow response times.

Piwik PRO’s Tag Manager is less advanced than Google Tag Manager (GTM).
Limited e-commerce tracking capabilities, lacking features like product impressions, checkout steps, and wishlist tracking.
The user interface can feel outdated compared to newer analytics platforms.
Limited integrations with third-party platforms compared to competitors.
Pricing plans can be expensive for businesses with high traffic volume.

Google Analytics and Piwik PRO Ratings

G2

4.5/5

(2508)

G2

4.6/5

(35)
Capterra

4.8/5

(20)

Company health

Employee growth

No data

9% increase in the last year

Web traffic

No data

14% decrease in the last quarter

Financing

No data

December 2016 - $2M

How do Google Analytics' and Piwik PRO's data privacy features compare?

Piwik PRO is specifically designed for data privacy, offering features like granular consent management and data anonymization options, making it suitable for organizations with strict compliance needs like GDPR. While Google Analytics offers some data privacy controls, its primary focus is not privacy by design, and it has faced scrutiny regarding data collection practices. Therefore, Piwik PRO generally offers stronger data privacy features compared to Google Analytics.

Which product offers a smoother transition from Universal Analytics?

Piwik PRO offers a smoother transition from Universal Analytics. Users specifically praise its similar interface and data model, which eases the migration process. Conversely, Google Analytics users complain about the difficult transition to GA4, citing data discrepancies and loss of historical information.

What are the advantages of Google Analytics?

Google Analytics' main advantages are its free access, comprehensive website traffic analysis, seamless integration with other Google products, and user-friendly interface for basic analytics. It offers a wide range of metrics and customization options for reporting, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes seeking to understand user behavior and improve website performance.

What are the disadvantages of Google Analytics?

Google Analytics's transition to GA4 has caused confusion and difficulty for some users, with some reporting data discrepancies and loss of historical data. The customer support has also been criticized as limited and unhelpful, with slow response times. Real-time data accuracy and delays have also been cited as issues. Finally, some users find the interface less intuitive than the previous version.

Alternatives to Google Analytics and Piwik PRO

Semrush

Semrush is an online visibility and marketing platform that helps businesses improve their online presence. It offers a wide range of tools for SEO, content marketing, competitor analysis, social media management, and paid advertising. With a massive database, Semrush provides insights into keywords, backlinks, website traffic, and competitor strategies, enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions to enhance their online visibility and achieve marketing goals. Many Fortune 500 companies utilize Semrush's comprehensive suite of digital marketing tools.

Toucan

Toucan is a cloud-based platform designed to help businesses communicate data insights effectively, particularly to their customers. Toucan simplifies data analysis and presentation, enabling users to create interactive dashboards and reports without needing coding skills. The platform connects to various data sources, prepares data for analysis, and offers customizable visualizations to tell compelling data stories. Toucan emphasizes user-friendliness, making it easy to share insights across different devices. Security and user management features are built-in, ensuring controlled access and data governance.

Heap | by Contentsquare

Heap | by Contentsquare is a digital insights platform that helps businesses understand their customers' online journeys. It provides data on customer behavior, such as where users struggle or abandon their experience. Heap offers session replay, allowing you to see exactly what your customers see, and helps identify areas for improvement. This data-driven approach helps businesses optimize their websites and apps to enhance customer experience, improve conversion rates, and make better product decisions. Heap caters to a range of businesses, from SaaS companies to e-commerce and financial institutions.

Gemius Prism is a digital analytics tool that helps you understand how users interact with your website or app. It provides data on user behavior, such as which pages are most popular, where users come from, and how they navigate your site. This information helps you improve your website's performance, optimize user experience, and make better marketing decisions. Gemius Prism is a product of Gemius, a global research and technology company with over 20 years of experience in online data analysis.

Borlabs Cookie is a tool that helps your company's website comply with data privacy regulations, like GDPR. It controls how your website uses cookies, which are small pieces of data websites use to track visitors. Borlabs Cookie lets visitors choose which cookies they allow, ensuring you collect data responsibly. It integrates with popular tools like Google Analytics and Adwords, helping you respect user privacy without disrupting your marketing efforts.

Contlo

Contlo is an AI-powered marketing platform designed for online stores. It helps you engage customers with personalized messages across email, text, WhatsApp, and social media. Think automated messages that adapt to each shopper's actions. Contlo also provides insights into customer behavior and campaign performance. Basically, it's like having an extra marketing team focused on using data to improve your results.

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