Google Analytics 4 is free, powerful, and built for a different job than most small-to-medium sites actually need done. It's designed for large marketing teams running cross-platform attribution across web, app, and ad spend, with an interface and event model to match. If you just want to know how many people visited, where they came from, and whether they converted, GA4 asks you to configure a lot to get a simple answer.
The core differences
Setup. GA4 uses a custom event model where you define events, parameters, and conversions yourself, often through Tag Manager. A simpler alternative usually works from one script tag, with page views, sessions and basic conversions tracked automatically.
Cookies and consent. GA4 sets first-party cookies to identify returning visitors and stitch sessions together, which is exactly the kind of thing that triggers a cookie consent requirement under GDPR. A tool that doesn't rely on persistent cookies for tracking sidesteps that requirement for most sites (see our post on whether you need a cookie banner).
Data ownership and processing. GA4 data is processed by Google, and historically that's raised questions in the EU about where the data ends up. A smaller, independent provider is a simpler answer to "where does my visitor data go".
Interface. GA4's reporting UI has a learning curve, most people's actual question ("how's the site doing this week, and where are people dropping off") takes several clicks to answer. A simpler tool tends to put that on one screen.
What you give up
GA4 is genuinely more powerful for advanced use cases: cross-device attribution, deep e-commerce funnels, BigQuery exports, integration with Google Ads bidding. If that's what you actually need, GA4 (or a similarly heavy tool) is the right call. Most sites don't need that depth, they need to know their traffic, their top pages, their conversion rate, and where visitors are dropping off, without a configuration project first.
Trying it side by side
The fastest way to judge this for your own site is to actually look at a dashboard. Our live demo shows a full 30 days of sample data, no signup required, and the installation guide shows exactly what setup on your own site looks like.