Google Tag Manager vs Google Analytics

by Gralio Feb 27, 2025

Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics are complementary tools. Tag Manager simplifies the technical implementation of tracking, while Analytics provides the data analysis. For businesses focused on customer service and value, Tag Manager's free functionality and streamlined tag management are strong advantages, while Analytics offers the crucial insights needed to understand and improve customer experience.

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 2916 reviews and 60 websites, saving 16 hours, 42 minutes of reading.

Google Tag Manager

Website LinkedIn Twitter

Google Analytics

Website LinkedIn Twitter

About

Google Tag Manager is a free tool that simplifies how you manage website and app tags. This means you can track conversions, understand user behavior, and improve marketing effectiveness, all without needing a developer for every little change. It's designed to work seamlessly with other Google products and supports tags from many third-party vendors, giving you flexibility and control over your data.

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.

Summary

Main difference

Google Tag Manager is best for managing and deploying marketing tags without coding, while Google Analytics focuses on analyzing website traffic and user behavior. Tag Manager streamlines tag implementation, while Analytics provides the insights to improve website performance and marketing campaigns.

Relative strengths of Google Tag Manager (compared to Google Analytics)

Simplifies tag management and deployment without coding, improving website speed and marketing agility.
Integrates seamlessly with Google Analytics and other marketing platforms for comprehensive data collection.
Offers a free version suitable for most businesses, making it a cost-effective solution for tag management.

Relative weaknesses of Google Tag Manager (compared to Google Analytics)

Can be complex to troubleshoot for advanced configurations and requires some technical understanding.
Limited customer support compared to paid tag management solutions.
Debugging and testing can be challenging, requiring careful planning and execution.

Who is using Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics?

Connor Gillivan

SEO expert; 7x Founder (Exit in 2019)

Brendan Hufford

SaaS Marketing - Growth through Content, Community & SEO

Connor Gillivan

SEO expert; 7x Founder (Exit in 2019)

Rob Timmerman

Founder of a 20-year-old full-service digital agency

Who should use Google Tag Manager VS. Google Analytics

Google Tag Manager is a free tool simplifying website and app tag management. Users love its easy-to-use interface and seamless Google product integration, especially for conversion tracking. However, some find troubleshooting complex issues and the lack of support challenging. Ideal for businesses wanting to improve marketing effectiveness without coding.

Google Analytics is a free tool providing insights into website and app user behavior. Businesses can track popular content, marketing campaigns, and user interactions to improve their website, content, and marketing decisions. Users praise the detailed reports and integration with other Google products but find GA4 less intuitive than the previous version and dislike the limited customer support. It's ideal for businesses wanting to leverage data for enhanced performance.

Ideal for businesses of all sizes seeking improved tag management.
Highly beneficial for Marketing & Advertising, Software/IT, and E-commerce.

Ideal for businesses of all sizes seeking to understand user behavior and improve website/app performance.
Highly suitable for e-commerce, retail, consumer goods, manufacturing, and various other industries.

Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics 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

Partially supported

Google Tag Manager facilitates setup but doesn't directly offer advanced reporting features. These reside within Google Analytics itself.

Supported

Google Analytics, especially GA4, supports advanced reporting, custom reports, and API integration.
Google Analytics integration

Supported

Google Tag Manager integrates with Google Analytics, allowing for streamlined data tracking and tag management.

Supported

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

Supported

Google Tag Manager supports conversion tracking with dynamic values and integrates with other tools.

Supported

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

Supported

Google Tag Manager supports tracking clicks, scrolls, mouse movements, and form submissions.

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.
Website traffic

Partially supported

Google Tag Manager indirectly supports viewing website visit counts via Google Analytics integration.

Supported

Google Analytics provides comprehensive tools to track and analyze website traffic, including the total number of visits.
Event tracking

Supported

Google Tag Manager supports tracking events like button clicks and form submissions.

Supported

Google Analytics offers extensive event tracking capabilities. It allows tracking actions like button clicks, form submissions, file downloads, and more. You can categorize and customize these events using Google Tag Manager or gtag.js. This detailed tracking provides insights into user behavior and interaction.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

+0.33

Rather positive sentiment

+0.77

Strongly positive sentiment
Customer Service

-1

Strongly negative sentiment

-0.04

Neutral sentiment
Ease of Use

+0.81

Strongly positive sentiment

+0.42

Rather positive sentiment
Reliability and Performance

+0.54

Rather positive sentiment

+0.27

Neutral sentiment
Ease of Implementation

+0.69

Rather positive sentiment

+0.24

Neutral sentiment
Scalability

No data

+0.08

Neutral sentiment

Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics Pricing

No data

User sentiment

Rather positive

+0.33

We couldn't find a pricing page for Google Tag Manager.

No data

User sentiment

Strongly positive

+0.77

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

Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics review insights

2916 reviews analysed from

Users love

Easy-to-use interface, particularly for conversion tracking.
Seamless integration with other Google products (GA4, GSC).
Keeps website source code clean, improving load times.
Flexible and customizable, allowing for a wide range of tracking options.
Centralized platform for managing multiple marketing and analytics tags (JS scripts).

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.

Users dislike

Difficult to understand and troubleshoot, especially complex issues.
Lack of customer support.
Old Chrome plugin extension discontinued, new process is lengthy.
Testing and debugging can be challenging.
Server-side tag manager requires additional cost.

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.

Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics Ratings

G2

4.6/5

(410)
Glassdoor

3.5/5

(2)

G2

4.5/5

(2516)
Glassdoor

3.5/5

(2)

Company health

Employee growth

No data

Web traffic

No data

Financing

No data

How do Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics differ in tracking user behavior?

Google Tag Manager focuses on *managing and deploying* tracking tags, which collect the raw data about user interactions. Google Analytics focuses on *processing and reporting* that data to provide insights into user behavior. Tag Manager acts as the intermediary, sending data to Analytics (and other tools) but doesn't analyze it itself. Essentially, Tag Manager handles the "how" of data collection, while Analytics handles the "what" it means.

Which product best facilitates managing third-party marketing tags on my website?

Google Tag Manager (Product A) is the better product for managing third-party marketing tags on a website. Its core function is to provide a centralized platform for adding, editing, and removing tags without directly modifying website code. While Google Analytics (Product B) provides valuable data and insights into website traffic and user behavior, it doesn't offer the same tag management capabilities. Google Analytics is primarily an analytics tool, whereas Google Tag Manager is specifically designed for tag management.

What are the advantages of Google Tag Manager?

Google Tag Manager's primary advantage is its ability to manage and deploy marketing tags without constant developer intervention. This streamlines marketing efforts, allowing quicker implementation of tracking codes and website updates. Its tight integration with other Google products, especially Google Analytics, further simplifies data collection and analysis. Additionally, Tag Manager helps maintain clean website code, potentially improving site performance.

What are the disadvantages of Google Tag Manager?

Google Tag Manager can be difficult to troubleshoot, especially with complex implementations. Lack of robust customer support can exacerbate this issue. The process for replacing the discontinued Chrome plugin is cumbersome. Testing and debugging tags can be challenging, and leveraging server-side tagging incurs additional costs.

Alternatives to Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics

Tagmate

Tagmate is a software tool that simplifies how you manage marketing and analytics "tags" on your website. Instead of relying on your IT department to wrangle code, Tagmate provides a central platform to easily add, adjust, or remove tags without any programming knowledge. This helps you launch campaigns faster, improve data accuracy from tools like Google Analytics, and keep your website running smoothly.

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.

Monsido

Monsido, by Acquia, helps you create a user-friendly and inclusive website. It scans your website for issues like broken links, misspellings, and accessibility problems, and provides easy-to-understand reports. This helps you improve your website's search engine ranking, ensure it's accessible to everyone, and keep your content consistent with your brand. Monsido offers various tools, including website monitoring, SEO analysis, and a browser extension for real-time issue detection.

Swetrix

Swetrix is a privacy-focused website analytics tool designed for businesses of all sizes. It provides easy-to-understand data on website traffic, user behavior, and marketing campaign performance without using cookies. Swetrix stands out with its commitment to user privacy, open-source nature, and simple pricing based on website traffic. You can track metrics like website speed, user journeys, and even e-commerce data. Swetrix is a transparent alternative to traditional analytics platforms.

Matomo (Formerly Piwik)

Matomo is a web analytics platform that helps you understand your website traffic. Unlike some competitors, Matomo emphasizes data privacy and gives you complete control over your data. It offers features like heatmaps, session recordings, and conversion tracking to analyze visitor behavior. Available as a cloud-based service or a self-hosted platform, Matomo caters to various needs and budgets. You can import data from Google Analytics, making it a viable alternative. Matomo is a popular choice globally, trusted by organizations of all sizes, including government agencies and Fortune 500 companies.

Hotjar | by Contentsquare

Hotjar | by Contentsquare helps you understand user behavior on your website. It provides visual heatmaps showing where users click, scroll, and move their mouse. This helps identify popular content, areas of interest, and potential usability issues. By understanding how visitors interact with your website, you can optimize design, content, and user experience to improve conversions and achieve business goals.

Page co-authored by

Michal Kaczor

CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

Tymon Terlikiewicz

CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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