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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Gist

    Score9.5 out of 10
    N/AGist is a unified marketing, sales, and support platform. It includes live chat, a help desk, knowledge base, email marketing, marketing automation, opt-in forms, and more.

    $29

    per month

    Google Analytics

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AGoogle Analytics is perhaps the best-known web analytics product and, as a free product, it has massive adoption. Although it lacks some enterprise-level features compared to its competitors in the space, the launch of the paid Google Analytics Premium edition seems likely to close the gap.

    $0

    per month

    Pricing
    GistGoogle Analytics
    Editions & Modules
    Professional
    $29.00
    per month
    Premium
    $99.00
    per month
    Google Analytics 360
    150,000
    per year
    Google Analytics
    Free
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    GistGoogle Analytics
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    GistGoogle Analytics
    Considered Both Products
    Gist
    Chose Gist
    They both seem to have parity with each other with each having their own small advantages. I went with Gist because it was more affordable.

    Infusionsoft customer for almost 5 years and it seemed I was always working more on getting it to work instead of getting work done. Gist …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gist
    Intercom was probably the first tool of this kind, but they're way too expensive; the support doesn't seem as efficient as Gist's support team and they seem to keep changing prices.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gist
    Mailchimp is great but did not offer the chat feature. ActiveCampaign's price point was too high. LiveChat was cool but did not offer the all-in-one platform that Gist gives. I think Gist will catch up to ActiveCampaign in about another year. Mailchimp is just on another level …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gist
    If you take the functions and capabilities of the product and add value, the benefit is obvious. We are pleased with this product.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gist
    All good options from the many we reviewed.but Gist provided best mix of cost and functionality
    Incentivized
    Chose Gist
    I was an early adopter of Center. Center was what lead pages came up with before they bought Drip, then they realized how awful and buggy it was and then scrapped it. So they gave us early adopters zilch and told us "too bad". It was at this point that I knew I will never …
    Incentivized
    Google
    Chose Google Analytics
    It goes well with Google Ads. A powerful analytical tool that requires a detailed initial setup for this, you may need a specialist.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    20 Answers
    96%
    Would buy again
    101 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    19 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    100 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    21 Answers
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    104 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    21 Answers
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    77 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    20 Answers
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    87 Answers
    Features
    GistGoogle Analytics
    Chat Analytics and Reports
    Comparison of Chat Analytics and Reports features of Gist and Google Analytics
    Feature
    Gist
    8.9
    2 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Google Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Chat history and transcripts8.92 Ratings00 Ratings
    Chat reporting8.92 Ratings00 Ratings
    Chat and web analytics8.92 Ratings00 Ratings
    Web Analytics
    Comparison of Web Analytics features of Gist and Google Analytics
    Feature
    Gist
    -
    Ratings
    Google Analytics
    8.4
    11 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Lead Conversion Tracking00 Ratings8.210 Ratings
    Bounce Rate Measurement00 Ratings8.410 Ratings
    Device and Browser Reporting00 Ratings9.311 Ratings
    Pageview Tracking00 Ratings9.111 Ratings
    Event Tracking00 Ratings8.411 Ratings
    Reporting in real-time00 Ratings7.810 Ratings
    Referral Source Tracking00 Ratings8.610 Ratings
    Customizable Dashboards00 Ratings7.910 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    GistGoogle Analytics
    Small Businesses
    Olark
    Score10 out of 10
    Matomo Analytics
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zoho SalesIQ
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Lead Forensics
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Genesys DX (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Chartbeat
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GistGoogle Analytics
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.5
    (112 ratings)
    8.5
    (193 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (51 ratings)
    Usability
    6.7
    (4 ratings)
    7.4
    (19 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.6
    (9 ratings)
    7.0
    (42 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.0
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GistGoogle Analytics
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Gist
    If your marketing model is selling products, services, or SAAS where you are doing inbound marketing and your website will do most of the lead generation and conversion, this is a great product. From live chat, support, event tracking, and automation, you could almost put your entire business on autopilot. If your marketing model is mostly outreach to cold leads and conversion, this software currently does not have any type of sales stages or task generation. I would still use Gist for website inbound but use another software for outreach and cold leads then when they become a lead put them into Gist for marketing automation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    Google Analytics is particularly well suited for tracking and analyzing customer behavior on a grocery e-commerce platform. It provides a wealth of information about customer behavior, including what products are most popular, what pages are visited the most, and where customers are coming from. This information can help the platform optimize its website for better customer engagement and conversion rates. However, Google Analytics may not be the best tool for more advanced, granular analysis of customer behavior, such as tracking individual customer journeys or understanding customer motivations. In these cases, it may be more appropriate to use additional tools or solutions that provide deeper insights into customer behavior.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Gist
    • Customer service via a unified inbox so you dont have to separately monitor your twitter, Facebook or IG account for consumer communication there. Gist unified all into one inbox, better than anyone else I've seen in the market. They archive all communications and tie them back to a single user so you get unified customer history / data.
    • Marketing segmentation and automation: they track user history and behavior across the site and have super detailed segmenting capability, on par with ActiveCampaign's, but better I'd say. Better UI for the marketing admin person, and more unified data than in AC.
    • Live chat and chatbot. Usually it's either one or the other but with Gist you can do both seamlessly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • Multiple reports to see website use and behavior
    • Allows you to customize reports with days, weeks, months, and years
    • You can build out a dashboard to easily view stats from multiple websites in one place
    • You can share analytics reports via the dashboard, automatically emailed PDFs or in other formats
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Gist
    • Plan limits can be confusing. For example, there is a monthly charge for support and a monthly charge for "growth," plus there's a separate charge depending on how many contacts and seats you have. Perhaps this is normal in the industry, but it can make it a little challenging to understand the bill every month.
    • The vast amount of features means development will never be as fast as you'd like it to be (even though they release updates all the time). This may not actually be a valid concern, and it certainly isn't unique to Gist (who doesn't have a wishlist they're waiting on their favorite SaaS to get to?), but I do believe the likelihood of being stuck without your desired feature being developed goes up a lot as the product gets bigger and bigger.
    • Email deliverability has been less than perfect in the past, but it has improved drastically in the last year.
    Read full review
    Google
    • Data sampling is somewhat inaccurate on the free tier - this is addressed in premium but is expensive.
    • Some of the UI is very similar in naming when presenting different data, some in-situ information might be useful.
    • Gotchas around filtering and data validation.
    • Implementation can be tricky, it can take a lot of time and expertise to get a full, accurate picture of your metrics.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Gist
    Gist is a quite reliable service with a lot of added values. We don't need to pay for different Saas for these important features. If I had an issue the team was super responsive and helpful, that is essential for every business. The email delivery is great, so virtually no email has landed into spam folder
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    We will continue to use Google Analytics for several reasons. It is free, which is a huge selling point. It houses all of our ecommerce stores' data, and though it can't account for refunds or fraud orders, gives us and our clients directional, real time information on individual and group store performance.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Gist
    It’s pretty simple, but it does a lot so there are more complicated features which depend on an individuals ability for software implementation. I am not an IT expert and I’ve managed to implement everything myself, others that are more tech-minded may find everything easier.
    Read full review
    Google
    Google Analytics provides a wealth of data, down to minute levels. That is it's greatest detriment: find the right information when you need it can be a cumbersome task. You are able to create shortcuts, however, so it can mitigate some of this problem. Google is continually refining Analytics, so I do not doubt there will be improvements
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Gist
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    We all know Google is at top when it comes to availability. We have never faced any such instances where I can suggest otherwise. All you need is a Google account, a device and internet connection to use this super powerful tool for reporting and visualising your site data, traffic, events, etc. that too in real time.
    Read full review
    Performance
    Gist
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    This has been a catalyst for improving our site's traffic handling capabilities. We were able to identify exit% from our sites through it and we used recommendations to handle and implement the same in our sites. We have been increasing the usage of Google Analytics in our sites and never had any performance related issues if we used Analytics
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Gist
    Fantastic support. Ask a question, get an answer within 24 hours every time. And sometimes within a few minutes. They've always come through for me, helpful and, even when it's an issue on my end, they point me in the right direction.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    The Google reps respond very quickly. However, sometimes they can overly call you to set up an apportionment. I'm very proficient and sometimes when I talk to reps, they give beginner tutorials and insights that are a waste of time. I wish Google would understand my level of expertise and assign me to a rep (long-term) that doesn't have to walk me through the basics.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Gist
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    love the product and training they provide for businesses of all sizes. The following list of links will help you get started with Google Analytics from setup to understanding what data is being presented by Google Analytics.
    1. How to Use Google Analytics for Beginners – Mahalo’s how-to guide for beginners.
    2. A beginner’s guide to Google Analytics – A free eBook walking you through Google Analytics from setup to understanding what data is being presented.
    3. Getting to Know Your Google Analytics Dashboard – The title says it all! This is a brief post with one goal: to introduce you to the Google Analytics dashboard.
    4. Google Analytics for Beginners: How to Make the Most of Your Traffic Reports– This guide doesn’t cover setup, but it does a great job of helping you to better understand the data being presented.
    5. Google Analytics Video Tutorial 1: Setup – A video presentation that walks you through Google Analytics setup.
    6. Google Analytics Video Tutorial 2: Essential Stats – A video presentation that introduces you to some of the most important data being presented in Google Analytics.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Gist
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    I think my biggest take away from the Google Analytics implementation was that there needs to be a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it before you start. Originally the analytics were added to track visitors, but as we became more savvy with the product, we began adding more and more functionality, and defining guidelines as we went along. While not detrimental to our success, this lack of an overarching goal resulted in some minor setbacks in implementation and the collection of some messy data that is unusable.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Gist
    Gist combines all our previous products into one application and adds many more features that would require more apps. Gist is excellent and a no-brainer all-in-one application when compared to having to manage multiple applications at higher cost. The support from the whole Gist team has been extremely responsive.
    Read full review
    Google
    I have not used Adobe Analytics as much, but I know they offer something called customer journey analytics, which we are evaluating now. I have used Semrush, and I find them much better than Google Analytics. I feel a fairly nontechnical person could learn Semrush in about a month. They also offer features like competitive analysis (on content, keywords, traffic, etc.), which is very useful. If you have to choose one among Semrush and Google Analytics, I would say go for Semrush.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Gist
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    Google Analytics is currently handling the reporting and tracking of near about 80 sites in our project. And I am not talking about the sites from different projects. They may have way more accounts than that. Never ever felt a performance issue from Google's end while generating or customising reports or tracking custom events or creating custom dimensions
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Gist
    • They are perfect for me as a someone who needs a lot of bang for the buck. The chat messenger device on my website alone has brought me new prospects that I did not have to spend money recruiting.
    • I am able to save hours of time with the automated emails that are GDPR compliant.
    • I don't have to pay for a designer to have excellent looking emails either.
    Read full review
    Google
    • It has helped us gain understanding of what is going on on our website.
    • It has helped us determine areas that need fixing (i.e. pages with extremely high bounce rates may need to be redone).
    • It has helped us understand our biggest avenues for bringing traffic to the website and business in general.
    • It has helped guide our website redesign.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Gist Screenshots

    Screenshot of Live ChatScreenshot of Email MarketingScreenshot of Marketing Automation WorkflowsScreenshot of Knowledge BaseScreenshot of Meetings