Google Analytics 4: pricing, pros and cons
GA4 is free below volumes most sites never reach and includes raw event export to BigQuery, which nothing else free offers. It requires a cookie banner, and consent refusals gut the data.
- Price
- Freeestimate
- At 50 people
- Depends on usage
- Free tier
- YesFree below roughly 10 million events a month.
- Website
- analytics.google.com
NoteGA360, the paid tier, starts around $50,000 a year.
Specification
What Google Analytics 4 supports
The dimensions every analytics tool in our catalogue is compared on.
- Data model
- Events
- Works without cookie consent
- No
- Session replay
- No
- Funnels and retention
- Yes
- Real-time reporting
- Yes
- Default retention
- 14 months
- Raw data export
- Yes
- SAML single sign-on
- Yes
- SOC 2
- Yes
- EU data residency
- No
- Self-hostable
- No
- Open source
- No
- Public API
- Yes
- Native mobile apps
- Yes
The honest assessment
Google Analytics 4: pros and cons
Free and powerful, in exchange for a cookie banner, a hard interface and Google holding your data.
What it does well
- Free at volumes most sites will never exceed
- Raw event export to BigQuery is included, which no other free tool offers
- Integrates with Google Ads and Search Console without configuration
What it costs you
- Requires a cookie banner, and consent refusals silently gut your data
- GA4 discarded most of Universal Analytics’ mental model and reporting
- Data thresholding hides rows without telling you which ones
Fit
Who Google Analytics 4 suits
Choose it if
- Companies already running Google Ads who need the integration
- Teams with a data function who will use the BigQuery export
Look elsewhere if
- Sites where a cookie banner materially damages data quality
- Teams who want a report anyone can read without training
Head to head
Google Analytics 4 compared
Direct comparisons against every other analytics tool we cover.
4 alternatives
Other analytics tools worth a look
Everything else we cover in product & web analytics, cheapest first.
Questions
Google Analytics 4, answered
What is Google Analytics 4 best for?
Companies already running Google Ads who need the integration. Teams with a data function who will use the BigQuery export. In short: the free default, now event-based, with BigQuery export and a steep relearning curve.
What are the downsides of Google Analytics 4?
Requires a cookie banner, and consent refusals silently gut your data. GA4 discarded most of Universal Analytics’ mental model and reporting. Data thresholding hides rows without telling you which ones. The trade-off in one line: Free and powerful, in exchange for a cookie banner, a hard interface and Google holding your data.
How much does Google Analytics 4 cost?
Google Analytics 4 is not priced per seat — it is free, or bundled with a licence you may already hold, so what you pay depends on volume rather than how many people log in. GA360, the paid tier, starts around $50,000 a year. Model it against your own numbers before comparing vendors.
What are the best Google Analytics 4 alternatives?
In product & web analytics the credible alternatives are Fathom Analytics, Matomo, Plausible, PostHog. Which fits depends on your team size, budget and non-negotiables — our questionnaire ranks all of them against your answers in about three minutes.
Is Google Analytics 4 worth switching away from?
Only if one of its real drawbacks is costing you something concrete. Free and powerful, in exchange for a cookie banner, a hard interface and Google holding your data. If none of the downsides above describe your situation, staying is almost always cheaper than moving — a migration costs weeks, and a tool that merely annoys you is not worth them.
Prices are unverified estimates — useful for comparing orders of magnitude, not for budgeting. Confirm the current figure with the vendor before you commit to anything.
Is Google Analytics 4 still the right call for your team?
Answer about a dozen questions and we will rank Google Analytics 4 against every alternative in product & web analytics — with the reasoning shown, and the cost of switching at your actual seat count.