Comparing Google Analytics and Plausible Numbers

A recent blog post claimed 58% of tech-savvy users block Google Analytics. This piqued my interest, as I've relied on Google Analytics since launching this site. While we see annual growth, I suspect ad-blocking and third-party script blocking are masking the true traffic numbers. Could our actual growth be significantly higher than Google Analytics indicates?

The rate of Google Analytics blockage varies widely based on factors like industry, audience, device, and specific website. My previous research showed less than 10% blockage on foodie and lifestyle sites, but over 25% on tech sites.

—Marko Saric

Marko's 58% figure stemmed from a three-day analysis during a period of high traffic from Hacker News and Reddit. Plausible Analytics showed 50.9k unique visitors, while Google Analytics reported only 21.1k ("Users").

To investigate, I installed Plausible (offering a generous 30-day free trial) alongside Google Analytics for a week. The results were inconclusive:

Plausible reported 15% more unique visitors than Google Analytics—a noticeable difference, but not the expected doubling. However, regarding raw traffic (crucial for ad revenue), Plausible showed 5% less traffic than Google Analytics.

Plausible is user-friendly, with easy installation and clear visualizations. Its affordability is also a plus.

Plausible: Still Third-Party JavaScript

While Plausible's lesser-known status might lead to lower blockage rates compared to Google Analytics, it remains third-party JavaScript and susceptible to blocking. It doesn't fundamentally alter traffic measurement methodology.

A more robust solution would be server-side analytics, such as Netlify Analytics, which uses un-blockable server logs. However, this approach has drawbacks, like counting bots. Server-side Google Analytics is another option, but significantly more complex to implement.

The Multi-Analytics Dilemma

Running multiple analytics platforms simultaneously felt cumbersome. Managing custom events across multiple systems would be even more challenging. For client-side solutions, a unified platform like Analytics could simplify things. However, I prefer a single client-side data transmission, with server-side routing for multiple destinations (a concept similar to Segment, albeit potentially expensive). This approach minimizes data transfer and utilizes first-party JavaScript.

The above is the detailed content of Comparing Google Analytics and Plausible Numbers. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!