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Google Analytics alternatives in 2026: what are you actually using?
Posted by on May 9, 2026 at 5:21 amI stopped using Google Analytics ages ago. GA4 feels like opening a cockpit when all I want to know is "which traffic made money?"
The 2023 thread on this sub is pretty outdated now, so I figured I'd start a fresh one. The space has changed a lot, we have revenue analytics, AI session replays, and a bunch of new players.
Here's my current shortlist for 2026:
Revenue / Founder analytics
- DataFast – connects Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, etc with traffic so you see revenue per source, not just visitors. This is the one I open first now.
- PostHog – product analytics, funnels, replay, feature flags. Overkill for a blog, perfect for SaaS.
Privacy-first / simple
- Plausible – cookieless, clean, readable before coffee
- Simple Analytics – intentionally limited (the limitation is the feature)
- Fathom – agency-friendly, multi-site
- Rybbit – newer, "Plausible plus funnels and replay"
Self-hosted / open source
- Matomo – the grown-up GA replacement, enterprise-friendly
- Umami – lightweight, devs love it
Free / supplementary
- Cloudflare Web Analytics – free baseline if you're already on Cloudflare
- Microsoft Clarity – heatmaps + session recordings, free, great alongside another tool
My personal stack:
- DataFast for revenue + traffic
- PostHog for product events
- Plausible for marketing sites
- Clarity when I need heatmaps
The way I think about it now: pick the tool that answers your real question.
- "How many visited?" → Plausible / Fathom
- "What did users do?" → PostHog / Rybbit
- "What made money?" → DataFast
That last one is usually the one that actually matters.
What are you running in 2026? Anyone still on GA4 by choice?
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1 Reply
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I agree, or agreed until I foind ga4 is great if you have Claude or codex!
Just ask the agent and get whatever report you want in 1 minute that would have taken 1 day.
(You can still charge for 1 day 🙂
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Clarity makes sites heavier most of the times
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Why not have Looker Studio reports that use GSC and GA4 as data sources?
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I’m using self hosted Matomo
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I use pirsch.io, very happy with it
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