# Google Analytics

14 Hacker News commenters recommended Google Analytics and 44 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free, widely used site traffic data; critics say it sends visitor data to Google and GA4 is confusing.

## Why people recommend it

- Free to use (2 comments): "It's awful service in many ways, but because they're free and can afford to be free, they captured 80-90% of web analytics." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47076862)) "great to add free Google services that enhanced my site/shared revenue" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46541880))

## What people warn about

- Shares visitor data with Google (9 comments): "Not great, and Google uses the data in all sorts of ways that they don't make obvious." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48123971)) "it constitutes a complete record of UK citizen interactions with their own government, handed over to a US company on a silver platter." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47071068)) "people who work for the government to handle medical data still don't know or don't care that google analytics sends data to google" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48123489))
- Misattributes traffic as Direct (3 comments): "GA4 creates a black box around 'Direct' traffic and struggles with the new wave of AI referrals" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46712354)) "Google Analytics dumping 40% of my traffic into "Direct" and claiming credit for every sale" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46712321)) "GA4 categorizes them as "(not set)" or "Direct" which completely breaks attribution" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47006184))
- Confusing, enterprise-focused dashboards (2 comments): "the GA4 version is too confusing and I miss it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49625453)) "The dashboard and insights they offer are built for enterprise (who has analysts) and not for most of the users." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45918953))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Plausible](https://hackerapproved.com/p/plausible-analytics.md): 18 recommend
- [Matomo](https://hackerapproved.com/p/matomo.md): 8 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Google Analytics", https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-analytics/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).