TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    Looker Studio

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/ALooker Studio is a data visualization platform that transforms data into meaningful presentations and dashboards with customized reporting tools.

    $9

    per month per user per project

    Pricing
    Google AnalyticsLooker Studio
    Editions & Modules
    Google Analytics 360
    150,000
    per year
    Google Analytics
    Free
    Looker Studio Pro
    $9
    per month per user per project
    Looker Studio
    No charge
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Google AnalyticsLooker Studio
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Google AnalyticsLooker Studio
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    Chose Google Analytics
    Wix and other website platforms have a built-in analytic tool, but it is not as sufficient as Google Analytics, so I always use GA as the main source of information about sales. Most of the analytic tools on web platforms can't visualize user flows, which is very important when …
    Incentivized
    Chose Google Analytics
    Ease of use: Google Analytics is known for its user-friendly interface and straightforward setup process, making it accessible for beginners. Adobe Analytics has a steeper learning curve and requires more technical expertise.
    Features: Adobe Analytics offers a more comprehensive …
    Incentivized
    Chose Google Analytics
    Google provides a wide suite of products that all tie into Google Analytics. Some that I use most often are Tag Manager, Ads and Datastudio. All of these connect directly with Analytics and allow me to accomplish my goals. For example, Ads will connect and show me what Ads are …
    Incentivized
    Chose Google Analytics
    Handles the basics better with minimal training and investment, but falls short at optimization work. Google Analytics has remained the backbone of our web analytics work for a very long time, so it is a nice "default" option to always have present in our programs even if we …
    Incentivized
    Chose Google Analytics
    Honestly, I don't think any other options really stack up at all but these have a few great features...
    Matomo - planned integrations with Google Ads, Bing Ads, and Facebook Ads.
    Woopra - real-time, on-the-fly things like sending a message to a sales Slack channel right when a …
    Incentivized
    Chose Google Analytics
    Google Analytics is a powerful web-centric analytics platform. We have tested similar products in the past from start-ups to more established web analytics platforms like Adobe and continue to select Google Analytics. More recently with the integration of Google Firebase into …
    Incentivized
    Chose Google Analytics
    Google Analytics, hands-down, provides a greater scope and higher-level of data availability ACROSS multiple platforms. Not only does Google Analytics natively allow for a vast array of data collection, analysis, reporting, and visualization opportunities, but it also affords …
    Incentivized
    Chose Google Analytics
    We never used other products similar to Google Analytics (I'm aware there are some) but I think Google has more experience and features that make it stand out from the other offerings (I'm also aware that there is a big price difference between Google Analytics and other web …
    Incentivized
    Chose Google Analytics
    After using Google Data Studio where I can read sales data much more easily, I prefer to read that daily rather than in Google Analytics.
    Incentivized
    Google
    Chose Looker Studio
    Google Data Studio integrates data into visually appealing reports and can constantly update based on the linked data source (i.e., Google Analytics), a feature that neither of the platforms listed can do. However, sometimes Google Data Studio can't generate graphs based on my …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Google Analytics and Google Data studio work well with each other. They don't necessarily stack against each other, Google Data studio just makes interpreting the data more visual and concise. I recommend both and not one over the other. Both are free tools provided by Google, …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Google Data Studio is an all in one package, like Adobe and Mapp. It is perfect if companies using Google AdWords and Google Analytics. The integrated dashboard is easy to configure and has a really nice visualization.
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Before using Data Studio, I was just pulling reports from Google Analytics and building presentations/dashboards with that data. This took a lot more time and forced me to make manual updates regularly. Data Studio takes on more of that behind-the-scenes work - but it still is …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Data Studio takes Analytics data and just makes it easier to present. I like how much faster I am in that tool. I also love that you can bring in data from other sources since most businesses have multiple data sources to build a big picture. Also there are a lot of layers …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    -Easy to use
    -Self-service
    -Point and click
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    I like Google Data Studio because it pulls in from various sources in a way that's easy for me to use. I haven't tried a ton of dashboards because the cost is prohibitive for small businesses.
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    I would not say any specific tool as this is the tool that we have first opted as a reporting tool.
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Tableau and Domo are MUCH more robust tools than Google Data Studio. We did try to use Tableau before using GDS and we ended up not using Tableau to its full potential since we didn't know what we didn't know.

    After using GDS for almost 2 years, we now have a solid …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Tableau is a great tool, but comparing the desktop version (which is the cheapest) with data Studio, the choice was obvious, Data Studio. First, it's free. Second, it updates automatically. With Tableau Desktop, I had to manually update each of the charts, whichewas very …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    So far we have used Excel or the reports that provide the different Google tools. Now we can get reports from a single site that are also friendlier. Another reason for choosing Google Data Studio is that it is a free tool.
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Google Data Studio is basically just a souped up version of GA, which is what we needed.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    96%
    Would buy again
    101 Answers
    95%
    Would buy again
    40 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    100 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    38 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    104 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    40 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    77 Answers
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    87 Answers
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    33 Answers
    Features
    Google AnalyticsLooker Studio
    Web Analytics
    Comparison of Web Analytics features of Google Analytics and Looker Studio
    Feature
    Google Analytics
    8.4
    11 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Looker Studio
    -
    Ratings
    Lead Conversion Tracking8.210 Ratings00 Ratings
    Bounce Rate Measurement8.410 Ratings00 Ratings
    Device and Browser Reporting9.311 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pageview Tracking9.111 Ratings00 Ratings
    Event Tracking8.411 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting in real-time7.810 Ratings00 Ratings
    Referral Source Tracking8.610 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable Dashboards7.910 Ratings00 Ratings
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Google Analytics and Looker Studio
    Feature
    Google Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Looker Studio
    7.0
    62 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings6.643 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards00 Ratings7.361 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings7.259 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Google Analytics and Looker Studio
    Feature
    Google Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Looker Studio
    7.7
    61 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Drill-down analysis00 Ratings6.851 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities00 Ratings7.057 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings7.129 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings9.759 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Google Analytics and Looker Studio
    Feature
    Google Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Looker Studio
    8.1
    60 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Publish to Web00 Ratings8.453 Ratings
    Publish to PDF00 Ratings8.753 Ratings
    Report Versioning00 Ratings8.139 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings7.942 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings7.524 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Google Analytics and Looker Studio
    Feature
    Google Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Looker Studio
    6.6
    60 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings7.160 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings7.757 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics00 Ratings5.330 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings6.36 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Google AnalyticsLooker Studio
    Small Businesses
    Matomo Analytics
    Score9 out of 10
    Chartio (discontinued)
    Score7.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Lead Forensics
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Jet Reports
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Chartbeat
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Kibana
    Score8.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Google AnalyticsLooker Studio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (193 ratings)
    8.3
    (63 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (51 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    7.4
    (19 ratings)
    8.4
    (14 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.0
    (42 ratings)
    6.7
    (10 ratings)
    Online Training
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    6.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Google AnalyticsLooker Studio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    Google
    Visualizing cross-channel campaign performance can blend data from a few different sources to compare performance metrics like spend, clicks, and conversions side-by-side in a single view, which helps in quick budget reallocation decisions. When dealing with massive volumes of data (millions of rows) or highly complex queries, Looker Studio dashboards can become slow, laggy, or even crash. Performance issues are a frequent complaint when working with large datasets, making it unsuitable for enterprise-level companies
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    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
    Google
    • Breath of data - the number of ways to interrogate the data is endless, and the options to view metrics alongside each other make for comprehensive datasets.
    • Data visualisation and customisation - the options for presenting data and separating out across pages allow for clean visuals and segmented information.
    • Easy shareability/usability - a quick and simple tool to introduce colleagues to, and easy to grant access for them to be able to view the data, without having to understand the setup itself.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    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
    Google
    • It needs better handling of complex logic. We often need workarounds to perform complex custom calculations, and it can be really unpleasant at times.
    • Felt it got slow with a larger data set, and in one minor report, we had to set up time filters so that calculations during spikes could be traced more quickly.
    • Compare to competition they need to improve with notification things.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    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
    Google
    It is the simplest and least expensive way for us to automate our reporting at this time. I like the ability to customize literally everything about each report, and the ability to send out reports automatically in emails. The only issue we have been having recently is a technical glitch in the automatic email report. Sadly, there is almost no support for this tool from Google, but is also free, so that is important to take into consideration
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    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
    Google
    Looker Studio is easy to use, and it offers a sufficient variety of predefined visualizations to choose from. It's easy for us, and anyone can set up basic reporting without extensive data visualization skills. The interface layout is easy to understand, and it doesn't take long to get used to.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    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
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    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
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    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
    Google
    I give it a lower support rating because it seems like our Dev team hasn't gotten the support they need to set up our database to connect. Seems like we hit a roadblock and the project got put on pause for dev. That sucks for me because it is harder to get the dev team to focus on it if they don't get the help they need to set it up.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    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
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    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
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    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
    Google
    Looker Studio is far easier to implement, stand up, and learn. The interface is simpler and user-friendly for various levels of data visualization/analysis knowledge and experience. The biggest benefit of Looker Studio, however, is its ease of connection to GA data and speed. Furthermore, since it is an online program/tool, it requires less CPU/battery/storage on the user's device.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    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
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    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
    Google
    • Free, so the only investment is time
    • Because it doesn't have native support of non-Google sources, it can cost more money than Tableau
    • The time spent formatting the templates or building connectors can have a negative impact on ROI
    • As a agency, charging for the reporting service is profitable after the first month or two after building the dashboard.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots