Updated

Technology · Analytics

Google Tag Manager

marketingplatform.google.com

Google Tag Manager is a tool for managing the tags on a website, such as analytics and advertising snippets, from one place instead of in the page code. Google offers a free edition and a paid 360 edition.[1]

Google Tag Manager is a powerful and user-friendly tag management system that simplifies the process of adding and updating marketing and analytics tags on websites and mobile apps. It allows marketers and developers to deploy and manage various tracking codes and pixels without needing to modify the website's code directly. With features like version control, user permissions, and built-in templates for popular tags, Google Tag Manager streamlines digital marketing efforts and improves website performance by reducing the need for multiple hardcoded tags.

Google Tag Manager belongs toTag managerscategory.

Price

A free edition, plus a paid 360 edition[1]

Works with

Google and third-party tags[1]

Teamwork

Workspaces and access controls[1]

Templates

Ready-made templates for third-party tags[1]

1,427websites

use it — 55.9% of the 2,555 websites we scanned in the last 12 months

#1of 8

tools in its category seen in our scans (we recognize 13)

580public pages

on UptimeCard — open any of them to see how that site is doing

In short: the default way to add tags without a developer for most sites. Every tag you add still collects data, so review what each one sends.[1]

53.68% of all websites we track run Google Tag Manager▲ 0.08 points since 20 Sep

Should you use Google Tag Manager?

The 10-second version, from the vendor’s own pages and what we see in our scans

Google Tag Manager fits if…

  • Marketing needs to add or update tags without waiting for a developer[1]
  • You run Google Ads and want conversion tracking set up in the same tool[1]

Look elsewhere if…

  • You want an open-source tag manager that you host yourself[2]Matomo describes its Tag Manager as free for On-Premise users.
Tags you add can still collect visitor data, so each one needs its own review[1]

Google Tag Manager next to Matomo Tag Manager

Statements come from each vendor's own page; website counts are ours.

Google Tag ManagerMatomo Tag Manager
What the vendor says
PriceFree editionplus a paid 360 edition[1]Free On-Premiseincluded in the Cloud Business plan[2]
Preview before publishingPreview and debug tools[1]Preview tagsbefore pushing them live[2]
What we see in our scans
Websites running it1,42755.9% of 2,555 scanned sites80.3% of 2,555 scanned sites

Each row shows what the vendor says about itself.

  • Matomo Tag Manager: A tag manager from the Matomo analytics team, aimed at non-technical users[2]

Choose Google Tag Manager if…

  • You want a free, hosted tool that works with Google and third-party tags[1]

Choose Matomo Tag Manager if…

  • You want to run the tag manager yourself and keep data on your own servers[2]

Products

The Tag Manager editions, in Google's own words

Google Tag Manager

This page

A free tool to manage your website tags without editing code[1]

Tag Manager 360

The paid edition for managing all your tags in one place[1]

Server-side Google Tag Manager

Moves measurement tags out of the website or app and into server-side processing on Google Cloud[3]

Support and help for Google Tag Manager

How the vendor says you can reach it, and the public help community

Help community

A help community where members answer questions[3]

Stack Overflow

4,996 questions[4][5]

52% have an upvoted answer. [google-tag-manager] questions

How Google Tag Manager sites protect themselves

Share of the 1,427 sites we scanned that run each protection

HSTS67% · 954 sites

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) informs browsers that the site should only be accessed using HTTPS

reCAPTCHA23% · 334 sites

reCAPTCHA is a free service from Google that helps protect websites from spam and abuse

Cloudflare Bot Management16% · 227 sites

Cloudflare 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 Tag Manager for

An estimate from UptimeCard's technology map of 505 public sites

Runs the marketing site426 sites

2600hz.com · 365retailmarkets.com · abeta.co.uk

Runs the whole site76 sites

activecampaign.com · advapacs.com · affirm.com

Hosts help, docs or support content2 sites

duffelstatus.com · hackeronestatus.com

Runs a shop or catalog1 sites

wwnorton.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 Tag Manager sites scoreout of 100 · hover or tap a score for details

49PerformancePooraverage site: 5089AccessibilityGoodaverage site: 8993Best practicesGoodaverage site: 9392SEOGoodaverage site: 92

Page load time

Loads about as fast as the average site

Google Tag Manager sites
4.4 s
All sites
4.3 s

Most Google Tag Manager sites load in 3.2–6.2 s. Home page weight: 3.4 MB vs 3.3 MB for all sites. 524 public sites measured.

Where are they hosted?

Mostly Cloudflare and Amazon Web Services

  • Cloudflare31%
  • Amazon Web Services28%
  • Fastly5%
  • Google Cloud4%
  • Other31%
United States 53%Canada 25%Netherlands 3%

Who uses it?

Technology and Software is the biggest group

Technology and Software59%
Business Services13%
Software as a Service (SaaS)6%
Educational Resources5%

Share of 579 classified public sites. “× average” compares with all 961 public sites.

Browser-security check

31% of graded sites pass

49of 157 score B or better

Rates each site’s own security settings, not Google Tag Manager. 157 public sites graded so far.

How Google Tag Manager sites are built

Stacks we see most. Tools that tend to run together with Google Tag Manager on the same websites. The percentage is the share of all 1,427 Google Tag Manager sites that run the whole stack.

18 stacks · swipe, drag or use the arrows
#1

Google Tag Manager + Linkedin Insight Tag + Microsoft Advertising + DoubleClick Floodlight + Piwik PRO Core

4.7%67 of 1,427 sites
#2

Google Tag Manager + Facebook Pixel + Linkedin Insight Tag + Microsoft Advertising + Reddit Ads

3.8%54 of 1,427 sites
#3

Google Tag Manager + Facebook Pixel + Linkedin Insight Tag + HubSpot + DoubleClick Floodlight

3%43 of 1,427 sites
#4

Google Tag Manager + Funding Choices + Prebid

4.8%68 of 1,427 sites
#5

Google Tag Manager + Linkedin Insight Tag + OneTrust

4.3%62 of 1,427 sites
#6

Google Tag Manager + Facebook Pixel + Microsoft Advertising + HubSpot + Piwik PRO Core

2.4%34 of 1,427 sites
#7

Google Tag Manager + Facebook Pixel + DoubleClick Floodlight + Piwik PRO Core + Reddit Ads

2.3%33 of 1,427 sites
#8

Google Tag Manager + OneTrust + Microsoft Advertising

3.6%51 of 1,427 sites
#9

Google Tag Manager + OneTrust + jsDelivr

3.3%47 of 1,427 sites
#10

Google Tag Manager + HubSpot + Yoast SEO

2.9%41 of 1,427 sites
#11

Google Tag Manager + DoubleClick Floodlight + Yoast SEO

2.9%41 of 1,427 sites
#12

Google Tag Manager + OneTrust + cdnjs

2.7%39 of 1,427 sites
#13

Google Tag Manager + HubSpot + Tailwind CSS

2.4%34 of 1,427 sites
#14

Google Tag Manager + Microsoft Clarity + HubSpot Analytics

2.2%32 of 1,427 sites
#15

Google Tag Manager + Microsoft Clarity + Yoast SEO

2.2%31 of 1,427 sites
#16

Google Tag Manager + cdnjs + Google Hosted Libraries

2.2%31 of 1,427 sites
#17

Google Tag Manager + HubSpot Analytics + Linkedin Ads

2.1%30 of 1,427 sites
#18

Google Tag Manager + Microsoft Clarity + Funding Choices

2%29 of 1,427 sites

Usually installed alongside

The bigger the bubble, the more of the 1,427 Google Tag Manager sites also run the tool. Colour shows what the tool does. Hover or tap a bubble for details.

Facebook Pixel28%Linkedin Insight Tag26%Microsoft Clarity14%OneTrust22%Microsoft Advertising19%DoubleClick Floodlight16%HubSpot16%Yoast SEO13%
AnalyticsCookie consentAdvertisingMarketingSearch visibility

Similar tools in its category

Tag managers: 13 tools known, 8 seen in our scans

Adobe Experience Platform Launch109 sitesAlternativeTealium40 sitesAlternativeEnsighten12 sitesAlternativeCommanders Act TagCommander6 sitesAlternativeAdobe DTM1 sitesAlternativeAddingwell SST1 sitesAlternativeSignal0 sitesAlternativeYottaa0 sitesAlternativeMatomo Tag Manager8 sitesUsed together

How websites combine Google Tag Manager with other tools

Relationships found on the websites that use it, from the same map status pages show.

Integrates with another 801Needs another tool 207Complements another tool 70Overlaps with another 20Built on a platform 13

Websites using Google Tag Manager

1,427 websites use Google Tag Manager: 55.9% of the 2,555 websites we scanned in the last 12 months. A selection is shown below.

Scores are out of 100: P Performance · A Accessibility · B Best practices · S SEO. Green 80+, yellow 65–79, orange 50–64, red below 50. The dot shows whether our last scan found the site failing (red) or not (green); Red, amber or blue: an active incident on the site's status page (outage, degraded, maintenance) or a failing scan; amber also means a certificate ending within 30 days. Hover the dot for details.

Who is behind Google Tag Manager

From its own pages and public records, with sources

Operated by

Google LLC[6]

Its story

  1. 2016

    Workspaces launched in August 2016. Several people could work on separate changes to a container at the same time, with a new Edit access level for those who should not publish.[3]

  2. 2016

    A container type for AMP pages arrived in October 2016, with tag templates for AMP. Sites built on AMP could manage tags without custom code.[3]

  3. 2017

    In April 2017 Tag Manager changed its publishing flow, and Workspace approvals became available for Tag Manager 360 customers. Larger teams could require review before a change went live.[3]

  4. 2018

    Zones launched in March 2018 for 360 customers. Linked containers could fire tags on a site, so several teams or agencies could manage their own tags.[3]

  5. 2019

    Custom templates launched in May 2019, and a Community Template Gallery followed in October. Teams could build and share tag templates instead of pasting custom HTML.[3]

  6. 2020

    Server-side Google Tag Manager launched in June 2020. Measurement tags could move out of the website or app into server-side processing on Google Cloud.[3]

  7. 2020

    Consent mode arrived in beta in August 2020. Google's tags could adjust how they behave based on whether visitors had granted consent for Analytics and Ads cookies.[3]

  8. 2025

    From April 2025, containers with Google Ads and Floodlight tags load a Google tag first, before sending events. The change aimed to make Google Ads tracking more reliable.[3]

  9. 2025

    In May 2025 first-party mode became the Google tag gateway for advertisers, available to everyone. It supports both client-side and server-side tags, so measurement can run through your own domain.[3]

  10. 2026

    In October 2026 Tag Manager containers gained the ability to send data directly to Google measurement products. Google says this speeds up pages and makes diagnostics more consistent.[3]

Questions about Google Tag Manager

Is Google Tag Manager free?
Google offers a free edition, and a paid edition called Tag Manager 360.[1]
Do I need a developer to add tags?
Google says the tool lets you add and update website tags without editing code.[1]
Which tags does it support?
Google says it supports and integrates with all Google and third-party tags.[1]
How many websites use Google Tag Manager?
We found Google Tag Manager on 1,427 of the 2,555 websites we scanned in the last 12 months (55.9%). 580 of them have a public status page.
What is Google Tag Manager often used with?
Among the websites we scan, Google Tag Manager is often found alongside Google Analytics (77.3% of its sites), Facebook Pixel (28.3% of its sites), Linkedin Insight Tag (25.7% of its sites).
What are the alternatives to Google Tag Manager?
Other tag managers tools we recognize include Adobe Experience Platform Launch, Tealium, Ensighten, Matomo Tag Manager.

Is your website built with Google Tag Manager?

UptimeCard checks it around the clock, tells you the minute it stops answering, and gives your visitors a status page.

Monitor my site freeCreate a status page