Google Tag Manager vs. WordPress

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Tag Manager
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
From 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
WordPress
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Wordpress is an open-source publishing platform popular with bloggers, and a content management system, known for its simplicity and modifiability. Websites may host their own blogging communities, controlling and moderating content from a single dashboard.
$3
per month 6 GB storage
Pricing
Google Tag ManagerWordPress
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Personal
$4
per month 6 GB storage
Premium
$8
per month 13 GB storage
Business
$25
per month 50 GB storage
Commerce
$45
per month 50 GB storage
Enterprise
Contact for pricing
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google Tag ManagerWordPress
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPricing for Business and Commerce plans vary on number of GB.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Google Tag ManagerWordPress
Considered Both Products
Google Tag Manager
Chose Google Tag Manager
Google Tag Manager is a little different than the other software we've used. This not only gives us the means for tracking our websites but it also tells us if we've implemented the tag correctly and how well the website has been performing after the tag has been implemented …
Chose Google Tag Manager
If you are using Google Analytics, then it only makes sense to use Google Tag Manager. GTM has better Event Tracking, data layer handling, and modularity. It is well documented and easy to find solutions and community support for almost any imaginable use-case scenario with …
WordPress

No answer on this topic

Features
Google Tag ManagerWordPress
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Google Tag Manager
8.2
58 Ratings
2% below category average
WordPress
8.1
159 Ratings
1% below category average
Role-based user permissions8.258 Ratings8.1159 Ratings
Tag Management
Comparison of Tag Management features of Product A and Product B
Google Tag Manager
8.5
68 Ratings
5% above category average
WordPress
-
Ratings
Tag library8.763 Ratings00 Ratings
Tag variable mapping8.855 Ratings00 Ratings
Ease of writing custom tags6.767 Ratings00 Ratings
Rules-driven tag execution7.562 Ratings00 Ratings
Tag performance monitoring10.056 Ratings00 Ratings
Page load times8.549 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile app tagging9.434 Ratings00 Ratings
Library of JavaScript extensions8.538 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Management & Integrity
Comparison of Data Management & Integrity features of Product A and Product B
Google Tag Manager
7.5
69 Ratings
8% below category average
WordPress
-
Ratings
Event tracking8.666 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile event tracking8.947 Ratings00 Ratings
Data distribution management8.641 Ratings00 Ratings
Universal data layer8.158 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated error checking3.045 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Google Tag Manager
-
Ratings
WordPress
7.9
134 Ratings
2% above category average
API00 Ratings7.9124 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings7.9103 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Google Tag Manager
-
Ratings
WordPress
8.1
166 Ratings
4% above category average
WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings7.9151 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings7.3152 Ratings
Admin section00 Ratings8.3164 Ratings
Page templates00 Ratings8.7160 Ratings
Library of website themes00 Ratings8.6162 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings8.5161 Ratings
Publishing workflow00 Ratings8.2154 Ratings
Form generator00 Ratings7.1131 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
Google Tag Manager
-
Ratings
WordPress
8.2
164 Ratings
10% above category average
Content taxonomy00 Ratings8.1142 Ratings
SEO support00 Ratings7.9148 Ratings
Bulk management00 Ratings7.5125 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings9.2152 Ratings
Community / comment management00 Ratings8.3152 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Google Tag ManagerWordPress
Small Businesses
Adobe Experience Platform Launch
Adobe Experience Platform Launch
Score 7.8 out of 10
ManageWP
ManageWP
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Adobe Experience Platform Launch
Adobe Experience Platform Launch
Score 7.8 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Tealium Customer Data Hub
Tealium Customer Data Hub
Score 8.4 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google Tag ManagerWordPress
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(71 ratings)
8.6
(203 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.0
(7 ratings)
4.8
(38 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(16 ratings)
8.1
(50 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.5
(3 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
2.0
(12 ratings)
10.0
(11 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.8
(2 ratings)
9.0
(10 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google Tag ManagerWordPress
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.
Read full review
Automattic
Wordpress is a great solution for a website of nearly any type. It may not be as suitable if a fully custom solution or app is needed, and it does have some limitations when it comes to connecting it to external products (especially if the product doesn't have any support from a native system), and it does require a lot of testing. Multiple plugins in one install are common but also increase the risk of conflicts, and when those do occur, it can be exceptionally time-consuming and tedious to identify what is causing the issue. As third parties create many plugins, you're also at risk with each potential security breach, which needs to be kept in mind. I would be cautious to use WordPress to store any sort of sensitive PPI. That said, it's a wonderful, easily customizable solution for many, many different types of websites and can allow even inexperienced client users with low-tech knowledge to update basics.
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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.
Read full review
Automattic
  • Easy to use User Interface
  • Coding / Plugin Implementation is awesome
  • There's always a solution available for the platform
  • Security is easy to use and robust
  • Implementation with 3rd party platforms, such as Google's variety of tools
  • Can download and host on your own server or use their hosted servers
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.
Read full review
Automattic
  • WordPress breaks often so you need to have someone who understands how to troubleshoot, which can take time and money.
  • Some plugins are easier to customize than others, for example, some don't require any coding knowledge while others do. This can limit your project if you are not a coder.
  • WordPress can be easily hacked, so you also need someone who can ensure your sites are secure.
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.
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Automattic
The complications we have and the lack of support. Every plugin has a differente team of support in charge and make one plugin work with the other one always affects the website performance. It's a thousand times better to have only one provider with all functionalities included unless you are an expert web developer or have a team dedicated to it
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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.
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Automattic
Extremely easy to use and train users. It took very little time to get everyone trained and onboarded to start using WordPress. Anytime we had any issues, we were able to find an article or video to help out or we were able to contact support. The menu options are well laid out so it is easy to find what you are looking for.
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Reliability and Availability
Google
No answers on this topic
Automattic
Anyone can visit WordPress.org and download a fully functional copy of WordPress free of charge. Additionally, WordPress is offered to users as open-source software, which means that anyone can customize the code to create new applications and make these available to other WordPress users.
Read full review
Performance
Google
No answers on this topic
Automattic
Mostly, any performance issues have to do with using too many plugins and these can sometimes slow down the overall performance of your site. It is very tempting to start adding lots of plugins to your WordPress site, however, as there are thousands of great plugins to choose from and so many of them help you do amazing things on your site. If you begin to notice performance issues with your WordPress site (e.g. pages being slow to load), there are ways to optimize the performance of your site, but this requires learning the process. WordPress users can learn how to optimize their WordPress sites by downloading the WPTrainMe WordPress training plugin (WPTrainMe.com) and going through the detailed step-by-step WordPress optimization tutorials.
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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.
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Automattic
I give this rating, which I believe to be a great rating for a community based support system that's surrounding it. Most platforms and products have their own, and as WordPress does have their own team that help here and there, a lot of it's handled by community involvement with dedicated users who are experts with the system who love to help people.
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In-Person Training
Google
No answers on this topic
Automattic
Varies by the person providing training. High marks as it's incredibly easy to find experienced individuals in your community to provide training on any aspect of WordPress from content marketing, SEO, plugin development, theme design, etc. Less than 10 though as the training is community based and expectations for a session you find may fall short.
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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
Automattic
It is very easy to find online resources to learn how to do just about anything with WordPress.
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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.
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Automattic
WordPress is not a great solution if you have: 1) A larger site with performance / availability requirements. 2) Multiple types of content you want to share - each with its own underlying data structure. 3) Multiple sites you need to manage. For very small sites where these needs are not paramount, WordPress is a decent solution
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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.
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Automattic
WordPress isn't as pretty or easy to use as certain competitors like Jimdo, Squarespace or HubSpot, but it makes up for it with its affordability, familiarity and the ability to find quality outside help easily. The same can't be said for certain competitors, as you might need to find an expert and it could get costly.
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Scalability
Google
No answers on this topic
Automattic
WordPress is completely scalable. You can get started immediately with a very simple "out-of-the box" WordPress installation and then add whatever functionality you need as and when you need it, and continue expanding. Often we will create various WordPress sites on the same domain to handle different aspects of our strategy (e.g. one site for the sales pages, product information and/or a marketing blog, another for delivering products securely through a private membership site, and another for running an affiliate program or other application), and then ties all of these sites together using a common theme and links on each of the site's menus. Additionally, WordPress offers a multisite function that allows organizations and institutions to manage networks of sites managed by separate individual site owners, but centrally administered by the parent organization. You can also expand WordPress into a social networking or community site, forums, etc. The same scalability applies to web design. You can start with a simple design and then scale things up to display sites with amazing visual features, including animations and video effects, sliding images and animated product image galleries, elements that appear and fade from visitor browsers, etc. The scaling possibilities of WordPress are truly endless.
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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.
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Automattic
  • Allowed us to being all websites under a single umbrella, saving costs on similar products.
  • It's increased our website turn time and made us faster and more efficient at launching websites.
  • Edits and tweaks happen much faster as we have a customized environment.
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ScreenShots