How is Netlify Analytics different than Google Analytics?

I’m trying to understand the difference between Netlify Analytics vs Google Analytics? If the $9 per month is worth it?

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hi Almog!

Happy to give you my take on this question - and if you need more specific info, let me know.

As you know, Jamstack + Netlify is all about improving speed by reducing the amount of moving parts to an application, and our approach to Analytics is the same. Instead of loading in a 3rd party scrip, for example with google analytics, that may slow down your application, we aim to get you the numbers directly from the server itself - less client side loading means faster loading apps.

Additionally, JS can be blocked by adblockers and other extensions, which means no data for you. Because we’re running our analytics tooling directly on Netlify, it can’t be blocked - either by an extension OR if someone has JS switched off. (not that common these days, but it does happen)

Because of how GA works, (script is loaded tracking activity) it also can’t really do a great job of tracking 404 pages, but again because Netlify analytics runs on the server, it can give you data on those too.

Is that helpful at all?

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Yes, very much so, I do think there should be a basic free option.

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that’s good feedback! Do know that if you sign up for analytics, you are not locked into a contract. You can sign up through the UI on netlify.com any time.

Hi! With GA I need to display a cookie consent popup with all its management to load GA scripts and cookies. With Netlify Analytics can I avoid it? From this link Netlify Analytics I think yes, but I’m not sure.

Thank you,
Mattia

Hey @Mattia_Ducci,

Netlify Analytics doesn’t rely on cookies. So, if cookies is all that you’re concerned about, then you don’t need to include any warning.

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