GhostStat vs Google Analytics 4: an honest comparison

Google Analytics 4 is the default choice for most websites: it is free, it connects to Google Ads and it can answer almost any question you can phrase as a report. It also depends on cookies, needs a consent banner for European visitors and quietly holds back or models data when it cannot measure it. This comparison sets GhostStat next to Google Analytics 4 point by point, links every claim about GA4 to Google’s own documentation, and is clear about the cases where GA4 is still the right tool.

Last checked: 11 October 2026. Product details change; if you spot something out of date, tell us and we will correct it.

Google Analytics 4 vs GhostStat at a glance

Cookies and consent: the biggest difference

Google Analytics 4 identifies browsers with first-party cookies. According to Google’s cookie usage page, _ga is “used to distinguish users” and, together with _ga_<container-id>, it is set for two years by default. In the EU, the EEA and the UK, setting non-essential cookies needs the visitor’s consent, which is why GA4 sites show a cookie banner and connect it to Consent Mode.

GhostStat sets no cookies at all and does not use localStorage, sessionStorage or fingerprinting. Visitors are counted with an identifier that is salted per site and rotates daily, and the IP address is only used in memory to look up country, region, city and network before it is dropped. It is never written to the database or to logs. GhostStat’s data is stored in Dronten, the Netherlands, inside the EU. Our privacy policy spells out exactly what is and is not collected. Because nothing is stored on the visitor’s device, sites that run GhostStat do not need a consent banner for GhostStat’s analytics. (If you run other tools that do set cookies, you still need consent for those.)

Missing data: thresholds and modelling in Google Analytics 4

A consent banner has a cost: visitors who decline are not measured the normal way. Google fills part of that gap with behavioural modelling, but only when a property qualifies. Google’s Consent Mode documentation says modelling needs at least 1,000 events per day with consent denied for at least 7 days, and at least 1,000 daily users with consent granted on at least 7 of the previous 28 days. Smaller sites do not reach those numbers, so their reports simply under-count.

Google Analytics 4 can also apply data thresholds, withholding rows from a report when the numbers are small enough that an individual might be identified, for example with demographics or low search-query counts. That protects privacy, but it means some rows disappear from your reports.

GhostStat measures every visit the same way, because there is nothing for a visitor to decline. The numbers you see are counted, not modelled.

Data retention and history

In Google Analytics 4, the retention setting controls how long user-level and event-level data stays available for explorations and funnel reports. For standard properties you can choose 2 months or 14 months; Analytics 360 properties can go up to 50 months. Google notes that this setting does not affect standard aggregated reports, which keep their history.

In GhostStat, raw events are kept for the retention window of your plan and rolled up into daily aggregates, so your long-term charts stay intact. The current window per plan is on the pricing page, which reads it live from our billing system.

Features: what each tool is built for

Google Analytics 4 is an event-based measurement platform with deep links into the Google marketing stack: Google Ads audiences and conversions, Search Console, BigQuery export and audience building. If your budget is spent on Google Ads, that integration is hard to replace.

GhostStat is built around what happens on your own site. Next to the core dashboard (pages, referrers, campaigns, countries, devices and real-time visitors) it ships a library of plugins, and every plugin is available on every plan, including Free:

• Heatmaps and session recordings — features GA4 does not include.
• Funnels, goals and form analytics to see where people drop out.
• A/B tests and UX experiments.
• Ecommerce, cohorts and retention reports.
• Visitor intelligence: intent, friction and attention scored per visit from behaviour, not from a cookie.
• Public stats pages and counters, so you can share your numbers openly.

On the Free plan each plugin has a monthly view allowance; paid plans remove it. The live allowance is listed on the pricing page.

Speed and script weight

GhostStat’s core tracker is a single small script, about 3 KB once compressed, that batches events and queues them offline. Plugins you switch on add their own code only to the sites that use them. A lighter script means less work for the browser on every page view, which helps Core Web Vitals.

The legal background in Europe

In early 2022, the Austrian and French data protection authorities ruled that specific uses of Google Analytics broke the GDPR because of data transfers to the United States, and the European Data Protection Supervisor reached a similar conclusion for an EU institution; this summary by Lewis Brisbois lists the decisions. In July 2023 the European Commission adopted the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, which once again allows transfers to certified US companies. Its predecessor, Privacy Shield, was struck down by the EU Court of Justice in 2020, so many organisations prefer analytics that do not depend on it. This is background, not legal advice: ask your own counsel about your situation.

When Google Analytics 4 is the better choice

Choose Google Analytics 4 if you run significant Google Ads campaigns and rely on its audiences and conversion imports, if your team needs raw event data in BigQuery, or if you need a free tool with very deep custom reporting and you already run a consent banner. GA4 is a capable product; its trade-offs are cookies, consent and the data you lose when visitors say no.

When GhostStat is the better choice

Choose GhostStat if you want complete numbers without a cookie banner, if you would rather not send visitor data into an advertising company’s systems, or if you want heatmaps, recordings, funnels and visitor intelligence in the same dashboard instead of three separate tools. You can also run both while you decide: add the GhostStat snippet next to GA4 and compare the counts for a month.

Comparing more options? Read the best Google Analytics alternatives, or see how GhostStat compares with Matomo and Plausible.

Sources

• Google: Google Analytics cookie usage on websites
• Google: Data retention
• Google: Data thresholds
• Google: Consent Mode and behavioural modelling
• European Commission: Adequacy decision for the EU–US Data Privacy Framework
• Lewis Brisbois: EU regulators and Google Analytics