Practical uses
- Measure a site's traffic and conversions.
- Analyse journeys and funnels.
- Connect audience to Google Ads campaigns.
Pros and cons
What Google Analytics does especially well — and the limits to anticipate.
Pros
- Free for most sites.
- De-facto standard, deeply integrated with Google.
- Powerful explorations and audiences.
- AI-assisted insights.
Cons
- GA4 learning curve.
- Privacy and compliance questions depending on usage.
- Enterprise version (360) is very expensive.
Google Analytics: when it makes sense.
GA4 is the free, de-facto standard for web audience measurement; for a privacy-first approach or enterprise governance, an alternative (Plausible, Fathom) or the 360 version is worth considering.
Keep if
You want to measure your site/app audience for free.. You already use the Google ecosystem (Ads, Search Console).
Challenge if
You want cookieless, privacy-first analytics (strict GDPR).. You need enterprise support and governance (360, costly).



