Snowplow vs. Google Analytics (GA4, Universal & GA360 Analytics)
How does Snowplow Digital Analytics stack up against Google’s controversial analytics offering GA4 from Universal Analytics?
Data Ownership and Privacy
Snowplow was created warehouse-first from the ground up, ensuring full data ownership and privacy. Unlike GA, which stores data on Google's servers, Snowplow allows you to deploy in your own cloud environment, keeping all customer data under your control and compliant with privacy regulations.
Real-time Data Processing
Snowplow delivers data to your storage destination in real-time, making it AI- and BI-ready immediately. Google Analytics, particularly GA4, has been criticized for its latency issues and inability to provide real-time data, hindering the ability to make timely business decisions.
Advanced Analytics Capabilities
Snowplow offers 130+ out-of-the-box properties captured with every event, providing richer and more detailed data for advanced analytics. Google Analytics, in contrast, often struggles with data limitations and does not support the same level of detail and customization, making it less suitable for complex analytics needs.
"Google Analytics 4 has bugs, cardinality issues, thresholding problems, confusing delineation between client-side and vendor-side processing, a clumsy BigQuery export schema, misleading advocates, an opaque approach to privacy, and a huge identity problem. […] Don’t let absurd limitations bully you into submission."
Simo Ahava, Thought Leader
Avoid GA's Limitations
Event-based pricing offers more fairness and predictability than Google Analytics' MTU-based pricing, which can be unpredictable and punitive. Snowplow’s event-based pricing scales with user value, ensuring cost efficiency and avoiding inflated costs due to browser restrictions.
Composable CDPs are Replacing Traditional CDPs
By implementing best-in-class products at each layer of a Composable CDP, organizations achieve a more extensible and customizable CDP solution, avoiding vendor lock-in and addressing specific business needs effectively.
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