Google Analytics 4 is the free, powerful default - and for good reason. But it counts sessions and events, needs a cookie-consent banner in the EU, and takes real setup before it tells a store which traffic actually makes money. Clicked comes at analytics from the opposite end: one line of code, no cookies, and revenue and conversion rate by source from the first visit. This is an honest look at where each one wins.
| Clicked | Google Analytics | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue & conversions by source | Yes | Some |
| Free plan | Yes10k/mo free | Yesfree |
| Cookieless · no consent banner | Yes | No |
| Try without signing up | Yes | No |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Built for | Revenue & conversions by source, for stores and anyone buying traffic | Sessions, events and audiences across any site |
Competitor details are our reading of each product at the time of writing, kept to broad, stable facts. Products change - check each vendor's own site for specifics.
You sell something and want revenue, conversions and conversion rate by source in seconds - from one line of code, with no cookie banner and no GA4 configuration.
You need free, highly granular, fully customisable reporting across many goals and audiences, you're comfortable in GA4, and cross-channel session data matters more to you than a fast revenue read.
One line on your site. No cookie banner, no signup to try. Clicked reads the ad pixels and cart you already have and shows revenue, conversions and conversion rate by source - live.
The default analytics tool, used almost everywhere. Free and deep - but GA4 is complex, relies on cookies (so it needs a consent banner in the EU), and is built around sessions and events rather than the revenue each traffic source actually brings in.
Best for: Teams that want a free, do-everything analytics platform with deep custom reporting, and don't mind GA4's learning curve or running a cookie-consent banner.
There's no single best - it depends what you need. For a simple, private pageview dashboard, Plausible or Fathom are excellent. For a full self-hosted GA replacement, Matomo. For seeing which traffic actually makes you money without a cookie banner, Clicked. Match the tool to the job rather than chasing a universal winner.
Yes. Umami is free if you self-host it, Matomo is free self-hosted, and Clicked is free to start with no signup required. Most privacy-first hosted tools like Plausible and Fathom are paid but inexpensive.
The three most common reasons are GA4's steep learning curve and reporting changes, the cookie-consent banner GA requires in the EU, and data-privacy concerns about sending visitor data to Google. Store owners also find GA slow to answer the one question they care about: which source is actually driving revenue.
The cookieless ones - Clicked, Plausible, Fathom, Simple Analytics and Umami - don't require a consent banner because they don't store cookies or persistently identify visitors. Google Analytics does use cookies, so it needs consent in the EU.
Money-first analytics for stores and anyone buying traffic. Know what pays, skip the cookie banner.