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Foresite vs Google Analytics

Google Analytics 4 is free and does far more than Foresite, especially for Google Ads, e-commerce attribution, funnels and audiences. It uses cookies, so in the EU, and usually in the UK, visitors have to agree to them first, and in GA4's basic consent mode the visitors who decline aren't counted. Foresite costs from $4 a month for a one-page dashboard of visitors, sources, campaigns, goals and revenue, with no cookies and nothing stored that identifies a visitor. Pick Google Analytics if you run Google Ads or need user-level analysis; pick Foresite if you want simple, privacy-first stats that don't depend on visitors clicking "Accept".

At a glance

Google Analytics 4 Foresite
Price Free. Analytics 360, the enterprise edition, is sold through Google's sales team; its price isn't published From $4 a month for 10,000 pageviews and events, $39 for 1 million. Unlimited sites, every feature at every price. See pricing
Cookies Yes: _ga and _ga_<container-id>, each kept for 2 years None. Nothing is stored on visitors' devices
Consent banner Needed in the EU, and usually in the UK. Google's EU user consent policy requires you to get consent where the law requires it, and to pass consent signals (Consent Mode v2) to keep using its ads features for EEA visitors No cookies to ask about: nothing is stored on visitors' devices and no IP addresses are kept. Generally not needed in the US, Canada and UK; in the EU it depends on your country's regulator (our guide)
Visitors who decline cookies Basic consent mode: not counted. Advanced: cookieless pings are sent, and GA4 can model the gap once a site has at least 1,000 daily users who consent There's nothing to decline. Every visitor whose browser loads the script is counted, bots aside
What's measured Users across days and devices, sessions, engagement time, scroll depth, site search, video, forms, demographics and interests (with Google signals), item-level e-commerce, funnels, paths, cohorts, attribution models Daily unique visitors, pageviews, visit duration, bounce rate, sources, UTM campaigns, pages and time on page, entry and exit pages, countries and regions, devices, browsers, custom events, goals, revenue. See how we count
Setup Create an account, property and data stream; add the Google tag or Google Tag Manager; mark key events; add a consent banner for EU and UK visitors Add one line to the <head> of your site. See the install guide
Script size About 150 KB compressed, 445 KB uncompressed (gtag.js, measured on a test ID) Under 2 KB, about 1.2 KB compressed
How your data is used Google can use it to improve its own products and services if you leave that data-sharing setting on. IP addresses aren't stored Used only to show your stats. Never sold or shared. IP addresses are never stored
Where it's stored Collected on EU servers for EU visitors, with the IP address discarded after location lookup; then processed by Google, a US company certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework EU (Frankfurt, Germany), on Fly.io and DigitalOcean, which are US companies. See subprocessors
Retention Standard reports aren't affected by the retention setting. Explorations and funnel reports cover the last 2 or 14 months (up to 50 on Analytics 360) All your history, unlimited, while you're subscribed
Sampling and thresholds Reports and explorations can be sampled above 10 million events per query. Rows can be hidden ("thresholding") when demographics are involved or counts are low Neither: every number is an exact count
Learning curve Dozens of reports, a separate Explore workspace, and settings to learn. Powerful once you know it One page. Click any row to filter the whole dashboard by it
Google Ads Built in: import conversions, build remarketing audiences, compare attribution, see Ads cost data Google Ads clicks are recognised by their click ID and shown as Google Ads in Sources, even without UTM tags. No conversion import or audiences. See campaigns
Integrations Search Console, BigQuery export (1 million events a day on the free edition), Looker Studio, Data API None. CSV export of all your stats
Ad blockers google-analytics.com and googletagmanager.com are on EasyPrivacy, the list most ad blockers use. Server-side tagging on your own domain needs a server you run and pay for Ad blockers can block it too. A custom domain serves it from your own subdomain with two DNS records
Team access Multiple users, with roles One login per account. Share read-only links instead
Company Google, running Google Analytics since 2005 Devs Industries, Halifax, Canada, launched October 2026

The hidden cost of "free"

Google Analytics costs nothing, but in the EU it comes with a consent banner, and usually in the UK too. GA4 sets cookies that identify a browser for up to two years, and European privacy rules generally require a visitor's consent before a site stores cookies that aren't strictly necessary. Google's own EU user consent policy makes the same demand of any site using its products for visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland.

That has three costs that don't show up on an invoice:

  • Visitors who decline go uncounted. With GA4's basic consent mode, nothing is sent until a visitor accepts. Everyone who closes the banner or clicks "Reject" is missing from your traffic, sources and conversions. Advanced consent mode sends cookieless pings instead, and GA4 can estimate the missing behaviour with modelling, but only for sites with at least 1,000 events a day from visitors who declined and 1,000 daily users who accepted. Most small sites fall short of that, so for them the gap stays a gap.
  • The banner is something else to run. You need a consent management tool, it has to be set up to block or signal Google's tags correctly, and it has to keep records of consent. Many of these tools charge a monthly fee.
  • Every visitor sees it. A banner is the first thing a new visitor deals with on your site.

How many visitors decline varies widely by site, audience and banner design, so we won't quote a number. You can see your own: compare your GA4 visitor counts from EU countries with your server logs, or run Foresite next to GA4 during the trial.

The UK changed its rules in 2025: the Data (Use and Access) Act lets sites set analytics cookies without consent when they're used only to improve the site, visitors are told clearly, and there's a simple way to object. The UK regulator's guidance says that exception doesn't cover a provider that uses the data for its own purposes. Whether your GA4 setup qualifies depends on how it's configured. Talk to your lawyer about your situation.

Is Google Analytics legal in the EU?

In 2022, data protection authorities in Austria (January), France (CNIL, February) and Italy (Garante, June) found that specific websites using Google Analytics broke the GDPR, and ordered them to comply or stop using it. In September, Denmark's Datatilsynet concluded that the tool couldn't be used lawfully without extra safeguards. These decisions were about transfers of personal data to the United States, following the EU Court of Justice's 2020 "Schrems II" judgment, not about cookies: the authorities found that Google's safeguards didn't prevent access by US intelligence agencies.

That changed on 10 July 2023, when the European Commission adopted the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. Transfers to US companies certified under it, which include Google LLC, no longer need extra safeguards. The EU General Court upheld the Framework in September 2025 (Latombe v Commission); an appeal to the Court of Justice is pending.

So as of October 2026, the 2022 transfer rulings no longer stop you using Google Analytics on their own. Two things still apply: the consent rules for cookies above, and the rest of the GDPR. When it reviewed its position in July 2023, Denmark's authority said lawful transfers are only one requirement, and that it hadn't taken a position on whether Google Analytics is lawful overall. Talk to your lawyer about your situation.

Foresite avoids the cookie question by storing nothing on visitors' devices and never storing IP addresses. Its stats are stored in Frankfurt, but its hosting providers are US companies, so if your rules require EU-owned infrastructure, check our subprocessors.

When Google Analytics is the better choice

  • You run Google Ads. GA4 imports conversions into Google Ads, builds remarketing audiences and shows cost alongside results. Foresite shows which visits came from Google Ads, but it can't send conversions back.
  • You need to follow people over time. GA4 recognises returning users across days, and across devices when they're signed in, and has cohorts, retention and lifetime value. Foresite deliberately can't link a visitor's visits on different days.
  • You need deeper analysis. Funnels, path exploration, item-level e-commerce reports, attribution models, scroll depth, site search, demographics and audiences are in GA4 and not in Foresite.
  • You connect analytics to other tools. GA4 has a Data API, BigQuery export, Looker Studio and a Search Console link. Foresite has CSV export only.
  • Several people need their own logins. GA4 has user management with roles. A Foresite account has one login.
  • Your budget is zero. GA4 is free at any traffic level. Foresite's smallest price is $4 a month.
  • You want a long track record. Google Analytics has run since 2005. Foresite launched in October 2026.

When Foresite is the better choice

  • You want to respect your visitors' privacy. Foresite sets no cookies, stores nothing on visitors' devices and can't follow anyone across days or sites, so there are no cookies to ask consent for.
  • You want numbers you can read in a minute. Visitors, sources, campaigns, pages, countries, devices, goals and revenue on one page. Click any row to filter everything by it.
  • You want exact counts. No sampling, no thresholding, no modelled estimates.
  • You want a light script. Under 2 KB, loaded without blocking your page, against about 150 KB compressed for gtag.js.
  • You don't want your visitors' data used for anything else. Foresite only shows you your stats. It never sells or shares data, and it has no ads business.
  • You want all your history in every report. No 2- or 14-month window for detailed analysis; everything is kept while you're subscribed.
  • You run several sites or report to clients. Every price covers unlimited sites, and includes branded share links and email reports under your own logo.
  • You track a few actions, not a whole journey. Custom events, goals and revenue cover signups, bookings and purchases.

Switching from Google Analytics

Foresite has no importer, so your Google Analytics history stays in Google Analytics. Export the reports you want to keep before you remove the GA tag or delete the property.

  1. Start a Foresite trial and add your sites. Seven days, no card.
  2. Add the Foresite Tracking Script next to your Google tag. It's one line in the <head> of your site; the install guide has steps for Webflow, Framer, Squarespace, WordPress, Wix, Shopify and Carrd. Both can run side by side during the trial.
  3. Recreate your key events. Change each gtag('event', 'sign_up') call to foresite('sign_up'). For purchases, pass the amount as revenue, for example foresite('purchase', { revenue: { amount: 49.99, currency: 'USD' } }). Then add your Goals in Settings → Goals. See custom events, goals and revenue. If you used GA4's enhanced measurement for outbound clicks and file downloads, switch on automatic events.
  4. Keep your UTM links as they are. Foresite reads the same five utm_ tags. See campaigns.
  5. Compare the numbers, expecting differences. In the EU and UK, GA4 counts only visitors who accept cookies, and Foresite counts everyone whose browser loads its script. GA4's "Users" are recognised across days; Foresite counts each visitor once per day, so over a month its visitor total is usually higher. See how we count.
  6. Remove the Google tag once you're happy with Foresite. If GA4 was the only reason for your consent banner, check with whoever manages your site's privacy setup before you remove that too.