Google Analytics alternativeChartsy vs Google Analytics

The Google Analytics alternative for SaaS founders who care about paying customers

Google Analytics counts visitors. Chartsy connects every visit to the signup and the subscription, so you see which channels bring MRR, without building GA4 events or reports.

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14-day trial, no card. Google Analytics details checked October 2026.

Short answer

Choose Chartsy if

  • Your question is which channels bring paying customers and MRR
  • You bill through Stripe, Paddle, Polar.sh, Freemius, Creem.io or Lemon Squeezy
  • You want MRR, churn and LTV next to your traffic, with no event setup
  • You want cookieless tracking by default

Choose Google Analytics if

  • You need free, page-level web analytics and deep Google Ads reporting
  • You have someone to set up and maintain GA4 events and reports
  • You need flexible explorations across every part of your site

Google Analytics is free and can measure almost anything if you set it up. Chartsy is for SaaS founders who mainly want to know what brought paying customers, and many run it alongside GA rather than instead of it.

Google Analytics details come from Google's Analytics help centre (data retention, data freshness), checked in October 2026. Disclosure: Chartsy is our product. Both tools get the same fact card and the same “not ideal for” line.

Side by side

Chartsy vs Google Analytics comparison table

FeatureChartsyGoogle Analytics
PriceFrom $9/mo, priced on tracked visits and signupsFree; Analytics 360 is paid, priced through Google sales
Built forSaaS revenue: which channels bring paying customers and MRRGeneral web and app analytics, and Google Ads
Revenue from your billing providerNative: Stripe, Paddle, Polar.sh, Freemius, Creem.io, Lemon SqueezyOnly via ecommerce events you send (for example with the Measurement Protocol)
MRR, churn, LTV, MRR breakdownYesNot built in
MRR by marketing channelYesNot built in
Visit → signup → paid funnelBuilt inPossible with key events and explorations
Traffic sources and UTM campaignsYesYes
AI assistant referrals (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity…)Grouped as AI automaticallyAs individual referrers
Page-level reports, events, explorationsLanding and signup pages onlyYes
Real-time visitorsNot documentedYes
Google Ads integrationNoYes
CookiesCookieless by default; cookie mode optionalUses cookies; Consent Mode adjusts when visitors decline
Data retention3 years on Starter, 5 on Growth2 or 14 months of event data on standard properties
Report freshnessNot documentedIntraday in 2–6 hours; full processing can take 24–48 hours
MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT, CursorRead-only, 19 toolsNot documented
Why founders look elsewhere

Google Analytics knows your visitors. It doesn’t know your MRR.

GA4 is powerful, but for a SaaS founder the weekly question is usually “what brought paying customers?” These are the gaps that lead founders to add or switch to Chartsy.

  • Revenue needs plumbingTo get subscription revenue into GA4 you send purchase events from your server, carry the GA client id through checkout, and keep renewals and refunds from double counting. Chartsy reads your billing provider directly.
  • Revenue isn’t MRREven with purchase events, GA4 has no MRR, churn rate or MRR breakdown. Chartsy calculates them from what each subscription is billed.
  • A signup isn’t a customerChartsy follows each visitor to signup and then to first payment, so a channel that brings signups but no paying customers shows up as exactly that.
  • Cookieless by defaultChartsy’s script doesn’t set cookies unless you turn cookie mode on, which suits sites that would rather not show a banner for analytics.
Fact cards

Google Analytics and Chartsy at a glance

Same fields for both tools, including what each one is not ideal for.

Google Analytics

Best for: Sites that need free, comprehensive web analytics and Google Ads reporting, with the time to configure GA4.

Google Analytics 4 is the default web analytics tool for most sites. It tracks pages, events, traffic sources, campaigns and conversions, integrates deeply with Google Ads, and offers flexible explorations for custom analysis. Revenue appears when you send ecommerce events, from your site or from your server through the Measurement Protocol.

Pricing
Free. Analytics 360, the enterprise version, is paid and priced through Google sales.
Data retention
Standard properties keep user-level and event data for 2 or 14 months; 360 properties can keep event data for up to 50 months.
Freshness
Intraday data in about 2–6 hours on standard properties; Google says processing can take 24–48 hours.
Revenue and subscriptions
Through ecommerce events you send. No native connection to Stripe, Paddle or other billing providers, and no MRR, churn rate or MRR breakdown.
Privacy
Uses cookies to identify visitors; Consent Mode adjusts measurement when visitors decline.
Not ideal for
SaaS founders who want MRR by channel without building and maintaining events, and teams that would rather not run a cookie banner for analytics.

Chartsy

Best for: SaaS founders who want to see which channels bring paying customers and MRR, next to their revenue dashboard.

Chartsy is a revenue and growth dashboard for SaaS. Add one script to your website and connect Stripe, Paddle, Polar.sh, Freemius, Creem.io or Lemon Squeezy, and it follows each customer from first visit to signup to first payment. You see visits, referrers, landing and signup pages, countries, the visit-to-paid funnel and MRR by channel, including AI assistants like ChatGPT.

On the revenue side it shows MRR, ARR, churn, LTV and NRR with an MRR breakdown, all calculated from your billing data.

Pricing
Starter from $9/mo (10k events), Growth from $29/mo. Events are tracked visits (roughly one per session, not per pageview) and signups. (pricing)
Free tier or trial
14-day trial, no card. No free plan.
Data retention
3 years on Starter, 5 years on Growth.
Revenue and subscriptions
Native connections to six billing providers plus a Custom Billing API; MRR, churn, LTV, NRR and MRR by channel built in.
Privacy
Cookieless by default, with an optional cookie mode for longer-term attribution. Bot traffic and localhost aren’t counted.
AI and MCP
In-app chat and a read-only MCP server with 19 tools for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor.
Not ideal for
Sites that need page-level analytics, event explorations, real-time visitors or Google Ads reporting, and anyone who isn’t selling subscriptions.
Pricing

What each costs

Google Analytics is free. Chartsy is a paid subscription priced on tracked visits and signups, not pageviews, so a visitor reading ten pages in one sitting is one event.

Google Analytics

VersionPrice
Google Analytics 4Free
Analytics 360Paid, through Google sales

Chartsy (monthly)

Monthly eventsStarterGrowth
10,000$9$29
100,000$29$49
500,000$59$109
1,000,000$79$149
  • An early SaaS with a few thousand visits a month fits Chartsy Starter at $9/mo, and can keep GA4 running for free.
  • Chartsy also includes the revenue dashboard (MRR, churn, LTV), so it can replace a separate subscription analytics tool as well.

Rule of thumb: if you only need traffic numbers, GA4 is free and enough. Pay for Chartsy when the question is which channels bring paying customers.

Decide

Which should you choose?

  • You want to know which channels bring paying customers and MRRChartsy.
  • You need page-level analytics, events and explorationsGoogle Analytics.
  • You run Google AdsGoogle Analytics, for the Ads integration. Chartsy still shows which campaigns turn into MRR.
  • You’d rather not set cookies for analyticsChartsy, which is cookieless by default.
  • You want bothRun them side by side: GA4 for site behaviour, Chartsy for revenue. Both are a script on your site.
Other options

Other Google Analytics alternatives

Web analytics tools founders often compare with Google Analytics. Pricing isn’t compared here.

Plausible

Best for: Privacy-first, lightweight web analytics.

Simple dashboards, goals, funnels and revenue events, with an open-source, self-hostable option. Revenue comes from events you send rather than from your billing provider.

DataFast

Best for: Web analytics with revenue attribution for founders.

Connects Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Polar, Paddle and Shopify to show revenue by channel, from $9/mo. No documented MRR or churn metrics. See DataFast alternative.

PostHog

Best for: Product analytics with session replay, feature flags and experiments.

A broad product platform for in-app behaviour, with web analytics included. Not built around MRR or marketing attribution to payments.

Matomo

Best for: Full analytics suite with data ownership.

Self-hosted or cloud, with ecommerce, attribution models, heatmaps and a tag manager. More to set up and maintain than a lightweight tool.

If you stay on GA4

Can you track MRR in Google Analytics?

You can get subscription revenue into GA4, but it takes work. The usual approach is to capture the GA client id in the browser, pass it through checkout, and send a purchase event from a billing webhook through the Measurement Protocol. Each renewal needs its own transaction id (the invoice id works) so GA4 doesn't treat it as a duplicate, and refunds go out as separate events.

Even then, GA4 reports revenue, not MRR. It won't normalize annual plans to a month, remove cancelled subscriptions when access ends, or split growth into new, expansion, contraction and churned MRR. Chartsy does that from your billing data using the rules in How We Calculate MRR at Chartsy, and credits each subscription to the visit that brought the customer.

How we compared

What this page answers, and how

Questions founders ask

  • Is there a Google Analytics alternative built for SaaS?
  • Can GA4 track Stripe or Paddle subscription revenue?
  • Can Chartsy fully replace Google Analytics?
  • Does Chartsy use cookies?
  • How long does each keep my data?
  • Can I run both?

How we compared the tools

  1. The question it answers. Traffic and behaviour versus paying customers and MRR.
  2. Setup. What you have to build before revenue shows up.
  3. Revenue depth. Purchase events versus MRR, churn and the MRR breakdown.
  4. Privacy and retention. Cookies, consent, and how long data is kept.
  5. Price. Free versus paid, and what the paid plan includes.
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is the best Google Analytics alternative for SaaS?

If your main question is which channels bring paying customers and MRR, Chartsy: it connects your website traffic to Stripe, Paddle, Polar.sh, Freemius, Creem.io or Lemon Squeezy. For privacy-first page analytics: Plausible. For product analytics with session replay: PostHog.

Can Google Analytics track Stripe subscription revenue?

Only if you send it. There’s no native Stripe or Paddle connection, so you send purchase events from a billing webhook through the Measurement Protocol, with a unique transaction id per renewal. GA4 then shows revenue, but not MRR, churn rate or an MRR breakdown.

Can Chartsy fully replace Google Analytics?

For many early SaaS sites, yes for the questions that matter most: traffic sources, landing and signup pages, countries, and which channels bring paying customers. Not if you need page-level event analytics, explorations, real-time visitors or Google Ads reporting.

Does Chartsy use cookies?

Not by default. Chartsy’s script runs cookieless and derives a daily visitor id on the server. You can turn on cookie mode for longer-term attribution, in which case you load the script after your consent banner.

How long does Google Analytics keep data?

Standard GA4 properties keep user-level and event data for 2 or 14 months, depending on your setting. Analytics 360 can keep event data for up to 50 months. Chartsy keeps data for 3 years on Starter and 5 years on Growth.

Can I use Chartsy and Google Analytics together?

Yes. Many founders keep GA4 for site behaviour and Google Ads, and use Chartsy for MRR and revenue by channel. Both are a script on your website and don’t interfere with each other.

See your MRR and where it came from.

Connect Stripe, Paddle, Polar.sh, Freemius, Creem.io or Lemon Squeezy in minutes. 14-day trial, no card needed.

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Google Analytics is a trademark of Google LLC. Chartsy is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.

Ministry of Economy and Innovation
Startup Albania

The Chartsy program is realized with the financial support of the Albanian Government through the Ministry of Economy and Innovation, under the Grant 2026 scheme, and is implemented by the Innovation4Albania Agency.