Matomo is an open-source web analytics platform, based on ethical collection and management of data. It is available in two solutions: Cloud and On-Premise.
It is a tool compliant with the main privacy regulations (GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, PECR). In fact, data is processed in Europe and not transferred to the USA.
Among many paid solutions available on the Web, Matomo is the one most similar to Google Analytics both from a technical point of view (tracking is based on scripts and pixels) and in data collection and analysis (dashboards and sections are very similar to Google Analytics).
What is the difference between Google Analytics 4 and Matomo?
First and foremost, the costs. Google Analytics 4 is free (except for the 360 version), quite the opposite, the cloud version of Matomo is paid. In both cases, there are implementation and management costs. Significant server-side configuration, maintenance, and updating work is required for the on-Premise version of Matomo (free for the platform),
Google Analytics 4 doesn’t allow the import of data from Universal Analytics version, that is outdated and non-GDPR compliant. On the contrary, Matomo allow only a partial import, the aim is to preserve historical data.
Matomo allows you to be the full owner of the collected data, with all the duties and privileges that come with it. On the contrary, when using GA4 the owner of the collected data is Google.
Google Analytics 4 doesn’t allow the import of data from Universal Analytics version, that is outdated and non-GDPR compliant. On the contrary, Matomo allow only a partial import, the aim is to preserve historical data.
Matomo allows you to be the full owner of the collected data, with all the duties and privileges that come with it. On the contrary, when using GA4 the owner of the collected data is Google.
Google Analytics allows a quick and efficient integration with other Google services (e.g. Google Ads, Search Console, and BigQuery), while Matomo appears to have various difficulties in correctly tracking data from external advertising platforms (such as Google Ads or social media).
You can use both platforms for both web and app, but as far as apps, Matomo track fewer data than Google Analytics.
Matomo for Apps: there's still work to do
Much of the aggregated data for apps (such as sessions, users, screen views) are already available in Matomo. However, we recommend configuring the tracking scripts and events and setting up data anonymization options (automatic IP anonymization, raw data removal options, inclusion of opt-out features directly in the app).
Despite the aggregated data, up to now Matomo doesn’t track any data from apps, including acquisition reports from other channels (referrals, search engines, social networks, campaigns), automatic outbound link tracking, downloaded data, keywords used in in-app search, and other features like heatmaps, session recordings, A/B tests, analysis, and multimedia data attribution.
How to switch from Google Universal Analytics to Matomo?
As first step, we recommend migrating all possible data from Universal Analytics to Matomo, thereby you can keep part of your analysis history.
It isn’t possible to import tracking events and raw data on visits, such as unique visitors and weekly/monthly users, right now. Moreover, some funnel reports aren’t supported and you need to install and configure Matomo's GeoIp2 to keep data and reports from Google Analytics' geographic regions/areas.
It isn’t possible to import tracking events and raw data on visits, such as unique visitors and weekly/monthly users, right now. Moreover, some funnel reports aren’t supported and you need to install and configure Matomo's GeoIp2 to keep data and reports from Google Analytics' geographic regions/areas.
If you want to copy existing tracking information, you need to manually create a Matomo project (Matomo calls it "Site") for each Google Analytics property.
To import existing reports and custom dimensions from Google Analytics to Matomo, you can use the Google Analytics Importer plugin and Matomo will automatically create the project. You can also start from scratch and create a new project. Once done, you will need to set up the tracking code: find the Google tracking code and replace it with the installation code for Matomo. If you are not an expert, entrust this task to your trusted webmaster!
After that, you will configure the custom dimensions (up to 5 custom action dimensions) and events using Matomo Tag Manager or Javascript code.
If your web project is an e-commerce, no problem, you can set up e-commerce tracking, a feature included in the tracking package with Matomo.
In this article you can deepen the differences and features of Matomo and Google Analytics.