In 2021, I feel there are many more alternatives to Google Analytics that ever before.

And I also encourage any blog author, and not only, to reconsider their choice. To understand that they don't really need GA on their website. Most likely, they are not even using the full power of it.

So why should you remove Google Analytics from your website?

• Your website will load faster (most of the alternatives are seriously light);
• Fewer cookies and possibly even getting rid of the cookie notification banner;
• Less data to/for Google.

Basically, you are respecting your users more.

What options do you have? Like I said, they are plenty to choose from, but I will narrow your choices down to a couple.

First, there are two different types. Similar SaaS services just like GA and self-hosted options.

SaaS alternatives to Google Analytics:

• Microanalytics — starts with a generous free plan
• Cloudflare Web Analytics — free but data retention is limited

Self-hosted alternatives to Google Analytics:

• Matomo
• Plausible

There are the ones that I've used so far. Actually this blog used Cloudflare Web Analytics for a while as well. But it got replaced with the self-hosted version of Plausible.

What do I recommend? Based on your specific needs, if you are:

• more of a power-user, need more data and more options, I would probably choose Matomo. So far it's the closest to Google Analytics.
• looking for the most private and fast option then I would recommend Plausible. The script is lightweight and you own your data. Can't beat that.
• looking for a no-headache easy way to install analytics on your website, then I would recommend Microanalytics. And if you really go over their free limit, their paid plan are worth it. If you are already considering (small) paid plans, the SaaS version of Plausible can be taken into consideration as well at this point.