A Google Analytics alternative that shows which traffic pays

Last checked: 28 October 2026. Google Analytics facts come from Google's own help and developer docs on that date and can change; the sources are listed at the end. "Unconfirmed" means the fact wasn't on those pages that day. It doesn't mean the feature is missing. See all comparisons, including Fathom Analytics.

In short#

• Setup. One script tag in your site's head, then connect your payment provider in Settings → Revenue. Revenue doesn't need a tag manager or an event schema.
• Revenue. GA4 records revenue from purchase and refund events your site or server sends. traffic.cx syncs payments, refunds and subscription renewals from the provider.
• Privacy default. GA4 sets first-party cookies (_ga, 2-year default expiry). traffic.cx sets no visitor cookie by default. Cookie mode is optional.
• Where GA4 is stronger. Data-driven attribution, BigQuery export, the Google Analytics history you already have, and a free product with no monthly event cap.

Why people look for a Google Analytics alternative#

GA4 can tell you a purchase happened. You have to send it#

GA4 measures revenue through purchase and refund events that you add to your site or send from your server with a transaction ID (Google). For a SaaS whose payments happen in Stripe or another provider, that means writing and maintaining that bridge yourself, including subscription renewals.

Cookies and consent#

GA4's tag sets first-party cookies with a two-year default expiry (Google). If you use a consent banner, GA4 can model the visitors who decline, but only after your property reaches minimum data volumes (Google). Smaller sites may not qualify.

Reports that need learning#

GA4 is built for many use cases: apps, ads, audiences, explorations. If you mainly want sources, pages, campaigns and revenue, that breadth can get in the way.

Where traffic.cx is different#

Revenue comes from your payment provider#

Connect Stripe, Dodo Payments, Lemon Squeezy or Polar in Settings → Revenue. Payments arrive from the provider. Your checkout passes one extra value, the pageview ID, so each payment can be matched to its visit (how it works). Using another checkout? Send payments with the Payments API or report them from the tracking script.

Renewals keep their source. Refunds are netted. Gaps stay visible#

A renewal for a known customer inherits the attribution of that customer's first payment. Refunds are subtracted on the day they happen and credited to the payment they refund. A payment that can't be linked to a visit stays in your totals as "Unattributed", instead of being given to a guessed source (definitions).

Two attribution models you can say in a sentence#

The Revenue page toggles between last non-direct (the default) and first touch, with a lookback of 90 days by default (7 to 365 days). GA4's default reporting model is data-driven, which uses machine learning across paths (Google).

One honest caveat. In the default cookieless mode, a pageview ID links a payment to the visit where checkout started. Visitor IDs rotate daily, so traffic.cx can't connect a purchase to a campaign visit on an earlier day unless you turn on the optional cookie mode (same browser only) or the customer has paid before. See cookieless mode versus cookie mode.

No visitor cookie by default#

The default tracker sets no visitor cookie. It uses a daily visitor identifier whose secret is deleted after 48 hours (privacy notice). Whether you need consent still depends on your setup and the rules that apply to you, because revenue attribution links payments to visits. traffic.cx offers a DPA with Standard Contractual Clauses and a public sub-processor list.

Websites and server-side events#

traffic.cx tracks websites and server-side events: the browser script, the Events API and the Payments API. There is no Google Ads integration and no ad-spend import. Visits that carry a Google click ID (gclid, gbraid or wbraid) are labelled paid search.

The rest of the basics, on the Free plan#

Realtime visitors, goals and funnels, shared read-only dashboards, a bot traffic report and Google Search Console data with estimated revenue per search term are on every plan, Free included (pricing).

Where Google Analytics is the better choice#

• Data-driven attribution. If you want a machine-learned model across many touchpoints, GA4 has one. traffic.cx offers last non-direct and first touch only.
• Raw data in a warehouse. GA4 exports events to BigQuery. traffic.cx exports report tables to CSV (up to 1,000 rows each) and has a Stats API on paid plans. It does not export raw events.
• Free at high volume. GA4 is free of charge. traffic.cx's Free plan covers one site and 3,000 events a month.
• Your history. traffic.cx can't import Google Analytics, Fathom or Plausible data, so your history starts when you install it.
• Google Ads. traffic.cx has no Google Ads integration. It labels visits that carry a Google click ID as paid search. It doesn't import ad spend.

Pricing#

Sign up with Google or email and start on the Free plan: every feature on one site, no card and no trial clock. The Free plan is $0, forever: every feature on one site, 3,000 events a month, the last 30 days. Paid plans add more events, more sites, your full history, the API and teams. See pricing for the volume tiers.

Google Analytics 4 standard is free of charge (Google Marketing Platform), as of 28 October 2026.

Migrating from Google Analytics#

These steps come from the install guide, the revenue docs and the Stripe guide.

1. Sign up and add your site. Sign up with Google or email, select your team and add the website with its real domain. Copy the snippet from the site's Settings → Tracking.

2. Install the script once. Put this in the shared head, using the full ID from your dashboard (it starts with tcx_). Don't add a second copy through a tag manager, and don't add manual pageview calls on route changes. The tracker follows history.pushState and back/forward navigation. Hash routes need the hash-routing option in Tracking settings.

   html

   <script defer src="https://traffic.cx/js/YOUR_SITE_ID.js"></script>

3. Verify your first visit on your published domain. Localhost and iframes are ignored by default. If a Content-Security-Policy blocks the script, allow https://traffic.cx in script-src and connect-src.

4. Recreate your key events as goals. Send custom events with window.trafficcx?.('signup_started') and create a matching custom-event goal in the dashboard. Avoid personal data in event properties.

5. Connect payments. In Settings → Revenue, connect Stripe, Dodo Payments, Lemon Squeezy or Polar. For Stripe, create a restricted key with read access to Checkout Sessions, Invoices, PaymentIntents and Refunds, and write access to Webhook Endpoints. traffic.cx creates the webhook. Connecting Stripe imports the last 90 days of payments. Those older payments will mostly be Unattributed.

6. Pass the pageview ID into checkout. Read trafficcx.pageviewId() in the browser when checkout starts and add it to your checkout metadata, and to the subscription's metadata so renewals carry it. Then run a test payment in your provider's test mode, on a separate traffic.cx test site.

7. Run both while you compare. The script is safe to run alongside the GA4 tag. It keeps to its own window.trafficcx global and tcx_ storage, and it adds to the browser's page-change handling instead of replacing it. There is no Google Analytics import, so keep GA4 until you've exported what you need. While it still runs, check that its own retention setting covers the period you'll want later (Google).

Sources#

traffic.cx facts come from pricing, the home page, install (updated 14 Oct 2026), how revenue attribution works (updated 14 Oct 2026), revenue attribution, the Stripe guide, plans, the docs index, Search Console, the privacy notice, the DPA and the sub-processor list, checked 28 Oct 2026. The Free plan numbers come from the same plan catalogue as pricing.

Google Analytics facts come from these pages, as of 28 Oct 2026:

• Google Marketing Platform: Analytics ("free of charge")
• Analytics 360 feature limits (360 price not published on the pages checked)
• Cookies and tag options
• Consent mode and consent settings
• Behavioural modelling
• Ecommerce events and purchase events
• Measurement Protocol
• Attribution models, channel groups and attribution settings
• Data retention and explorations retention
• Data thresholds