You don't need Google Analytics (and it might be slowing you down)

I was about to put Google Analytics on all my clients' websites by default. This week I was going to start. Then I sat down to check if it actually made sense in each case, because I'd been reading weird things about GA4 and GDPR. Here's where I landed.

The problem isn't that GA4 is bad

It's that for most small-business websites, it's overkill. And it brings its own mess:

GDPR concerns. Several European data protection authorities (France, Austria, Italy) have warned that using GA without extra measures breaks the regulation, because data flies to Google servers in the US. To run it cleanly you need a proper cookie banner, explicit consent and sometimes a proxy. More work for the client.

It slows the site. The script is heavy and fires off requests. On a well-built Next.js site, which should fly, GA4 is one of the heaviest things you can add. And speed is one of the factors Google uses to rank. So you add a Google script that penalises you on Google.

The dashboard is a mess for a normal person. If your client opens GA4 looking for "how many people saw my site", they get lost in reports, explorations and dimensions. Many open it twice and never come back.

What a small business actually needs to know

Honestly, almost none of my clients need more than this:

• How many visits this month
• Where they come from (Google, social, direct, other sites)
• Which pages get seen most
• How many fill in the contact form

You don't need a spaceship for that. In fact, the simpler it is, the more likely the owner will actually open it.

Alternatives that make sense

Cloudflare Web Analytics: free, no cookies, no banner. Switch it on from the Cloudflare dashboard if you already use their CDN. Basic but solid data.

Umami: free if you self-host, or cheap in the cloud. Minimalist dashboard, GDPR-friendly, understandable at a glance.

Plausible: paid (about €9/month for several sites). Nicer looking, email reports, attentive support. For anyone who wants something serious without paying GA360 prices.

How I see it depending on the client

It depends a lot on the business. A small restaurant in Irun does want to know if the site is bringing in people. On the other hand, an engineering company I've worked with has its site more as a business card, forgotten: no need for analytics, and I tell them straight.

I always ask before delivery. If the client wants to see the data themselves, I set it up, leave the dashboard ready and show them how to read it in five minutes. That's extra effort, so I charge a small fee — nothing pricey, but something, because time is time.

For a small business, straight to free and easy. For a larger company that needs something more complete and polished, then yes, we look at Plausible or another paid option. But the default rule: simple, no cost for the client, no complications.

My advice if you already have Google Analytics installed

Remove it. Now. It's costing your site speed and that shows up in rankings, which is what ultimately matters. If you need to know about your visits, put any of the others — they work just fine for what you do. But Google, that Google, out.