Updated
Google Analytics shows how people find and use a website. Google offers free tools for businesses of every size and a paid edition for enterprises.[1]
A powerful, free web analytics service by Google that provides comprehensive insights into website traffic and user behavior. Google Analytics offers real-time data, customizable reports, and integration with other Google services, enabling businesses to track key metrics, understand audience demographics, and make data-driven decisions to improve their online presence.
Google Analytics belongs toAnalyticscategory.
1,368websites
use it — 53.5% of the 2,555 websites we scanned in the last 12 months
#1of 132
tools in its category seen in our scans (we recognize 429)
489public pages
on UptimeCard — open any of them to see how that site is doing
57.72% of all websites we track run Google Analytics▲ 0.04 points since 20 Sep
Should you use Google Analytics?
The 10-second version, from the vendor’s own pages and what we see in our scans
Google Analytics fits if…
Look elsewhere if…
- You want a tool that says it needs no cookie banner[3]Plausible states this on its home page.
- You want open-source analytics you can run yourself[4]Matomo lists itself as open source and offers a free download.
- You need service level agreements and higher limits[2][5]Google sells these with Analytics 360, by contract.
Google Analytics next to two alternatives
Other analytics tools a site could pick instead. Statements come from each vendor's own page; website counts are ours.
| Google Analytics |  Plausible |  Matomo Analytics | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the vendor says | |||
| Price | Freefor businesses of every size[1] | Not stated on its home page | Free downloadplus a hosted cloud option[4] |
| Cookie banner | Not stated on its home page | Not requiredas the vendor states it[3] | Consent-free trackinglisted as a feature[4] |
| Open source | Not stated on its home page | Yes[3] | Yes[4] |
| What we see in our scans | |||
| Websites running it | 1,36853.5% of 2,555 scanned sites | 291.1% of 2,555 scanned sites | 411.6% of 2,555 scanned sites |
| Typical page load time | 4.4 s440 public sites | 3.3 s✓9 public sites | — |
| Typical page weight | 3.5 MB✓typical home page | 4.6 MBtypical home page | — |
Privacy rows show what each vendor says about itself. They are not legal advice and not a measurement.
Products
Google sells Analytics next to other Marketing Platform products
Google Analytics
This pageFree tools to understand the customer journey[1]
Analytics 360
The enterprise edition of Analytics[1]
Manage tags without editing code[1]
Tag Manager 360
Tag management for enterprises[1]
Campaign Manager 360
A view of all your digital media campaigns[1]
Display & Video 360
Digital advertising for reaching audiences[1]
Search Ads 360
Data and insights for search campaigns[1]
Support and help for Google Analytics
How the vendor says you can reach it, and the public help community
Help centers
Help centers for Analytics and for Tag Manager[9]
Analytics Academy
Free lessons from experts, with certificates[9]
Partners
Marketing Platform Partners for single projects or long-term work[9]
Enterprise support
Analytics 360 comes with enterprise-level support and service level agreements[5]
Standard and enterprise limits
Google lists higher limits for its enterprise edition
| Limit | Standard | Enterprise edition |
|---|---|---|
| Data retention | Up to 14 months | Up to 50 months |
| Key events per property | 30 | 50 |
| Audiences per property | 100 | 400 |
| Saved comparisons | 50 | 200 |
| BigQuery daily export | 1 million events | Billions of events |
| API tokens per day | 200,000 | 2M |
The limits table Google publishes for its current property type. Limits can change.[2]
What it connects to
Exports and Google product links named by Google
How Google Analytics sites protect themselves
Share of the 1,368 sites we scanned that run each protection
HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) informs browsers that the site should only be accessed using HTTPS
reCAPTCHA23% · 313 sitesreCAPTCHA is a free service from Google that helps protect websites from spam and abuse
Cloudflare Bot Management14% · 186 sitesCloudflare bot management solution identifies and mitigates automated traffic to protect websites from bad bots
Protections add up, they do not replace each other: a site can run all of them.
What sites use Google Analytics for
An estimate from UptimeCard's technology map of 432 public sites
365retailmarkets.com · abeta.co.uk · accredible.com
2600hz.com · acquia.com · aegisys.com
articulatestatus.com · duffelstatus.com · equinixmetal.com
pbs.com.bd · uniflowonline.com
Rough guide, not a measurement: each description is written automatically from the site’s technology stack and the site has not confirmed it. A site is counted once, in the first group its description fits (shop, help and docs, blog, marketing site; otherwise the whole site). Descriptions that only guess (“likely”, “may”) are left out.
At a glance
UptimeCard's own scans and tests of 2,555 websites · refreshed weekly
How Google Analytics sites scoreout of 100 · hover or tap a score for details
Page load time
Loads about as fast as the average site
Most Google Analytics sites load in 3.3–6.2 s. Home page weight: 3.5 MB vs 3.3 MB for all sites. 440 public sites measured.
Where are they hosted?
Mostly Cloudflare and Amazon Web Services
- Cloudflare32%
- Amazon Web Services27%
- Fastly6%
- Google Cloud4%
- Other31%
Who uses it?
Technology and Software is the biggest group
Share of 488 classified public sites. “× average” compares with all 961 public sites.
Browser-security check
29% of graded sites pass
39of 136 score B or better
Rates each site’s own security settings, not Google Analytics. 136 public sites graded so far.
How Google Analytics sites are built
Stacks we see most. Tools that tend to run together with Google Analytics on the same websites. The percentage is the share of all 1,368 Google Analytics sites that run the whole stack.
Google Analytics + Linkedin Insight Tag + Microsoft Advertising + DoubleClick Floodlight + Piwik PRO Core
Google Analytics + Facebook Pixel + Linkedin Insight Tag + Microsoft Advertising + Reddit Ads
Google Analytics + Facebook Pixel + Linkedin Insight Tag + DoubleClick Floodlight + HubSpot
Google Analytics + Facebook Pixel + Microsoft Advertising + HubSpot + Piwik PRO Core
Google Analytics + Facebook Pixel + DoubleClick Floodlight + Piwik PRO Core + Reddit Ads
Google Analytics + WordPress + DoubleClick Floodlight + Yoast SEO
Google Analytics + WordPress + jsDelivr
Google Analytics + Linkedin Insight Tag + jsDelivr + Google Hosted Libraries
Google Analytics + WordPress + Google Ads
Google Analytics + WordPress + Google Ads Conversion Tracking
Google Analytics + Microsoft Advertising + cdnjs
Google Analytics + jsDelivr + Hotjar
Google Analytics + cdnjs + Google Hosted Libraries
Google Analytics + Microsoft Clarity + HubSpot Analytics
Google Analytics + jsDelivr + Google Ads
Google Analytics + HubSpot + cdnjs
Google Analytics + Microsoft Clarity + Funding Choices
Google Analytics + HubSpot + Google Hosted Libraries
Usually installed alongside
The bigger the bubble, the more of the 1,368 Google Analytics sites also run the tool. Colour shows what the tool does. Hover or tap a bubble for details.
Facebook Pixel32%Linkedin Insight Tag26%Microsoft Clarity16%Microsoft Advertising22%DoubleClick Floodlight17%HubSpot16%
OneTrust15%Yoast SEO13%Similar tools in its category
Analytics: 429 tools known, 132 seen in our scans
Cloudflare Browser Insights218 sitesAlternativePiwik PRO Core181 sitesAlternative
Datadog87 sitesAlternative
Adobe Analytics73 sitesAlternative
VWO64 sitesAlternative
comScore55 sitesAlternative
Snowplow Analytics42 sitesAlternativeMatomo Analytics41 sitesAlternativeFacebook Pixel468 sitesUsed togetherLinkedin Insight Tag435 sitesUsed togetherMicrosoft Clarity234 sitesUsed togetherHubSpot Analytics166 sitesUsed togetherHow websites combine Google Analytics with other tools
Relationships found on the websites that use it, from the same map status pages show.
Who is behind Google Analytics
From its own pages and public records, with sources
Its story
2005
Google launched Google Analytics as a free web analytics service integrated with AdWords. The launch opened the service previously called Urchin from Google to businesses across the web.[13]
2011
Google announced Google Analytics Premium, a paid option for its largest customers. It added more data collection, unsampled reports, attribution modeling, dedicated support and service level agreements, while the free product continued.[14]
2012
Universal Analytics began rolling out to enterprise and API users. It let customers integrate their own datasets and tailor measurement around more of the marketing funnel.[15]
2016
Google introduced the Analytics 360 suite for enterprise marketers. Integrated analytics and marketing products brought reporting, data sharing and related tools into a shared measurement platform.[16]
2019
Google announced the App + Web beta. A shared event model let teams measure app and website interactions together instead of treating the platforms as separate reporting silos.[17]
2020
Google Analytics 4 became the default experience for new properties. It built on App + Web and shifted reporting toward customer journeys across devices and platforms.[18]
2022
Google announced it would sunset Universal Analytics: standard properties would stop new hits in 2023 and 360 properties in 2024. It said Google Analytics 4 works across platforms, uses an event-based model and no longer stores IP addresses.[8]
2023
Standard Universal Analytics properties stopped processing new hits starting in July. Existing reports remained available during the transition, while ongoing measurement moved to Google Analytics 4.[19]
2024
The full Universal Analytics shutdown began in July, ending access to reports and APIs for most users. Exported historical data became the way to retain those older records.[19]
2026
Google released Dashboards in Google Analytics, a flexible way to see a business's KPIs together on a single report, with drag-and-drop building of visualizations.[20]
Questions about Google Analytics
- Is Google Analytics free?
- Google offers free analytics tools for businesses of every size, and a paid edition, Analytics 360, for enterprises.[1]
- What is Tag Manager?
- A companion product from Google that lets you manage all your tags without editing code.[1]
- Do I need a cookie banner for analytics?
- That depends on the tool and on the rules that apply to your visitors. Some vendors state that they need none; for example Plausible says: No cookie banner required.[3]
- How long does Google Analytics keep my data?
- On standard properties you choose 2 months or 14 months for user-level and event data. Analytics 360 properties can keep data up to 50 months.[7][2]
- What does the enterprise edition add?
- Higher limits, such as 400 audiences instead of 100, and service level agreements. Standard properties export up to 1M events a day to BigQuery; 360 allows billions.[2][5]
- What happened to Universal Analytics?
- Google Analytics 4 replaced it. Google said standard Universal Analytics properties would stop processing new hits on July 1, 2023, and 360 properties on July 1, 2024.[8]
- How many websites use Google Analytics?
- We found Google Analytics on 1,368 of the 2,555 websites we scanned in the last 12 months (53.5%). 489 of them have a public status page.
- What is Google Analytics often used with?
- Among the websites we scan, Google Analytics is often found alongside Google Tag Manager (80.6% of its sites), Facebook Pixel (31.5% of its sites), Linkedin Insight Tag (25.8% of its sites).
- What are the alternatives to Google Analytics?
- Other analytics tools we recognize include Facebook Pixel, Linkedin Insight Tag, Microsoft Clarity, Cloudflare Browser Insights.
Is your website built with Google Analytics?
UptimeCard checks it around the clock, tells you the minute it stops answering, and gives your visitors a status page.