When it comes to free web analytics, it might feel like Google has cornered the market, but there are other options available, and Google's platform certainly doesn't have to be the only choice. In fact, its size can be a big disadvantage.

Here at StatCrab, we've built a simple, fast, and most importantly, privacy-focused web analytics platform that you can use for free right now. It allows you to gather the most important data you might need on your website visitors without going overboard.

But why do we think a platform like ours is needed? Here are the reasons we think it's worth a try over Google Analytics.

1. Even though GA is free, you're paying

Remember the saying there's no such thing as a free lunch?

Google is always getting something out of its free services. In this case, it's able to collect a lot of data about your business and your customers. That, in turn, helps Google to serve them better adverts on Google. But how does any of that help you or your customers?

It's important to remember that Google is a massive, faceless tech company. Do you really want be contributing your customers details and your business to making them grow even larger?

2. It's overkill for most users

How many of the features of GA do you use every day? And how often do you just spend on the overview pages, or having to make custom dashboards that show you the data you need?

Most people with a website want to see a few key stats relating to growth and referrals. Google Analytics is a powerful platform, but it's bloated, and getting to the data you need can take more time than it's worth. After all, there's a reason that many companies offer full-time courses on using it.

This complexity can also affect things like your site load speed. The Google Analytics script is far from lightweight, and every second counts when it comes to how fast your page will load.

3. You'll need to track cookies...

We mentioned above that Google tracks vast amounts of data most it that you probably don't need to see and much of it for Google's use, not your own.

Maybe you don't mind this happening behind the scenes, but you can't use Google Analytics without a tracking cookie and therefore, you'll need to put the fact you track your customers front and center on your website to be GDPR and CCPA compliant.

4. Your customers care about privacy

On the subject of asking about cookies. Do you really want "We're tracking your information, is that OK?" to be the first interaction your customers have with your brand?

For some sites it's unavoidable, but if you're running a more simple site, Google Analytics could be the only reason you're compromising your users privacy.

Web privacy has become a hot topic in the last few years, and with recent privacy-focused analytics changes being made by Apple, whose latest version of iOS asks users to opt-in to advert analytics tracking, more and more people are becoming conscious about how their data is tracked and used on websites.

Using a lightweight alternative to Google Analytics means that you can demonstrate your commitment to privacy, and build customer trust. It can be especially helpful if your brand or website has an ethical component, but being on the side of your customers rather than Google is always a popular business decision.

5. GA is really nothing special

Once you strip away the more complex and difficult-to-use elements of Google, its actual visitor tracking is no better than any other analytics platform, and can often be significantly less accurate.

Because of its size, Google is often targetted by plugins and other tools designed to stop its scripts from working. This isn't just small third-party software either - even major browsers like Safari no longer allow cross-site tracking from Google anymore.

Google's size also makes it a target for referral spam, where people try to use your own analytics to build their traffic by spamming you with fake links.

Why not try a Google Analytics Alternative?

We built StatCrab because we needed a basic and fast web analytics platform for our businesses, and were tired of giving our customer's details and private information to a big tech company.

We want to create an alternative to Google Analytics that provides you with information on the performance of your website without flooding you with needless information, and needing to bug your customers in order to do so.

You can create a free account and check us out, too. There's no free trials or limited periods, you can just create an account today and start tracking website visitors without all the downsides of Google Analytics.