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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Google Tag Manager

    Score9.4 out of 10
    N/AFrom Google, the Google Tag Manager is a tag management application that facilitates creating, embedding, and updating tags across websites and mobile apps. It is a free option, vs. the company's enterprise-tier Google Tag Manager 360.

    $0

    Open Web Analytics

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AOpen Web Analytics is an open source web analytics software product licensed under GPL and provides website owners and developers with ways to add web analytics to their sites using simple Javascript, PHP, or REST based APIs. OWA also comes with support for tracking websites made with content management frameworks such as WordPress and MediaWiki.N/A
    Pricing
    Google Tag ManagerOpen Web Analytics
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Google Tag ManagerOpen Web Analytics
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Google Tag ManagerOpen Web Analytics
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    Open Source
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    93%
    Would buy again
    14 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    14 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    15 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Google Tag ManagerOpen Web Analytics
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Google Tag Manager and Open Web Analytics
    Feature
    Google Tag Manager
    8.9
    58 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Open Web Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Role-based user permissions8.958 Ratings00 Ratings
    Tag Management
    Comparison of Tag Management features of Google Tag Manager and Open Web Analytics
    Feature
    Google Tag Manager
    8.8
    68 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Open Web Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Tag library9.163 Ratings00 Ratings
    Tag variable mapping8.955 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ease of writing custom tags7.267 Ratings00 Ratings
    Rules-driven tag execution8.062 Ratings00 Ratings
    Tag performance monitoring10.056 Ratings00 Ratings
    Page load times8.849 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile app tagging9.334 Ratings00 Ratings
    Library of JavaScript extensions8.838 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Management & Integrity
    Comparison of Data Management & Integrity features of Google Tag Manager and Open Web Analytics
    Feature
    Google Tag Manager
    7.6
    69 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Open Web Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Event tracking8.666 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile event tracking9.347 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data distribution management8.841 Ratings00 Ratings
    Universal data layer8.358 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated error checking3.045 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Google Tag ManagerOpen Web Analytics
    Small Businesses
    Adobe Experience Platform Launch
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Matomo Analytics
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Adobe Experience Platform Launch
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Lead Forensics
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Adobe Dynamic Tag Management (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Chartbeat
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Google Tag ManagerOpen Web Analytics
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.7
    (73 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    7.1
    (18 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Availability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    2.0
    (12 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.8
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Google Tag ManagerOpen Web Analytics
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Google
    I have found Google Tag Manager as the go to solution for managing all of your event and conversion tags for your website. Not only does it make it easy to manage all of your tags in the one place, it is fairly intuitive to use and there is plenty of videos and help documentation online to help set up what ever you need. No scenarios come to mind at the moment on where it is less appropriate to use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    Open Web Analytics is an opportunity for those that like to have skeletons for the start of customized solutions. The package offers several best practices set of features and functions. The possibilities add up to higher performance API for example from Google Analytics. The vast of additional features are of higher value because the market does not have other solutions. There are solutions around Open Web Analytics for example in SAP Design Studio that integrate beyond Content Management systems and attached Shops Systems to Warehousing, Logistics, and Deliverment Management. The market situation are covering all that is possible and has demand. The universality is implemented at the user interface and therefore unmatched and even robust for new kinds of visualization interfaces or input device types. A draw is that against payment system remains a security gap and data security and data safety might be a topic for each customer and user.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Google
    • Selecting elements on a site [object, class, cookie, etc] (to later fire an event, send some data, etc) is very easy with triggers. Want to add an event when someone clicks on a button? Super easy. It was many many DOM selectors and you can even add custom functions if you need to do something more specific
    • In general, firing events in different circumstances is very easy mixing triggers and tags. You can track almost any element of the DOM and do whatever you want with it.
    • Testing is a great functionality. Only you can see what's on the site and you can debug it easily by seeing which events or tags were triggered and all the DOM elements involved (and why they matched the trigger).
    • Working in environments (staging, production) and versioning is easy to do, deploying changes in 2 clicks.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    • High performance track and state-of-the-art analyze the human use of website pages and apps.
    • Combines conventional Google Analytics-like-tracking with heatmap-like-tracking features.
    • Offers JavaScript and PHP based APIs for web analytics page integration of versatile tracking features.
    • Supports best practices established for content management frameworks based on WordPress or MediaWiki.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Google
    • There are several good integrations, but there can always be more. Native tracking for call tracking solutions, analytics providers, non-Google advertisers would be top of my list.
    • Documentation is just dreadful. Luckily there are some awesome folks out there doing crowdsourced tutorials (shout out to Simo Ahava) but by and large the Google Tag Manager instructions are worth what you pay for them.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    • Open Web Analytics can be available for integration for the broad mass in all PHP- and Javascript-based Content Management Frameworks.
    • A shop for custom add-ons of the platform Open Web Analytics may be a big chance.
    • Enhance in documentation, examples, best practices are a great chance to get more users active and a broader audience.
    • Offer a closer integration to the leading tool Google Analytics in so many features and functions. Learn from Matomy for example.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Google
    I haven't found another option for us to use especially one that is free. Down the road we may go a different route but for now GTM is a good option and does what we need it to do. It'd be nice to get more support or more integrations but with the free version there's only so much one can expect to get I suppose.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Google
    No difficult obstacle to overcome but Google Tag Manager can still be difficult for many users to deploy. Sure the basic HTML script can be deployed quite easily, but when you start to require triggers, variables, etc, it can be a little daunting.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Google
    GTM does not provide support. This is one of GTM's biggest issues but it's due to the level of customization for each website. If your team thinks they would heavily rely on the need for a support staff it is probably better to invest in a paid service with a team that can support your needs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Google
    I thought there was a little bit too much emphasis on AdWords stuff, not enough on the generic application of GTM.
    Read full review
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Google
    Planning and communication will help greatly with an in-house implementation. If there are large teams, try to limit the number of people involved to 1-2 developers (back-end dev may be necessary depending on your platform), one analytics marketer and one project manager.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Google
    We moved to GTM from a standard Google Analytics implementation. GTM is much more flexible and easier to make changes, especially as the changes relate to multiple sites and environments. While there is a learning curve when figuring out how to use GTM, I believe the change has been worth it because it helps us understand at a more fundamental level how our tracking works and gives us a lot more control over what we track and how.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    Google Analytics is the market leader for web analytics. The package offers search engine marketing that can be integrated into Open Web Analytics. The features and functions of Open Web Analytics compare close to Matomo Analytics. In terms of market share Google Analytics has all and the other two have very little and their other competitors have almost nothing. That changes in specialized markets. Google Analytics is everywhere and much more influential than other search engines because of that particular service. There had been a dying period for such web analytics software packages. There are three kinds of web analytics software packages. Free/open source like Open Web Analytics and Matomo, Proprietary like Urchin from Google, and hosted/software-as-a-service-packages like the market leader Google Analytics. I consider all as rather different in performance. Those closer to the busiest server are the best for traffic. Heat maps are well placed on the hosting server.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Google
    • GTM is very useful to determine if a particular element on the site is useful (i.e. is it being watched, is it being clicked, does it help customers navigate through more pages). As an SEO person, I can use this information to decide what to optimize for but also to track progress and see improvements in engagement.
    • With the use of Google Tag Manager, I was able to easily inject an A/B testing tool which lead to several improvements in lead generation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Open Source
    • Moderate lifetime operating costs.
    • Enhances the performances of all online business interests enormously.
    • Enables a great customized experience of web analytics.
    • Compatible to web analytics standards and references.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots