Should I use Google Analytics ?

You could check out alternates to see if any of them are better for you. You could try Cloudflare, or go with an open source analytics platform like Plausible.

Take a look at Plausible. Selfhosted and open source

https://github.com/contropist/Plausible-Analytics

GA4, the latest version of Google Analytics, is attempting to improve its respect for user privacy. However, the main issue, cookie-based tracking, is still months away from being rolled out. And the method Google has developed to replace it is not without criticism.

GA4 is also quite difficult to use. It has not been fully UX-tested, and lacks a lot of simple quality-of-life features that the previous version had (like percentages on table data, easier filtering, easier segmentation, etc).

There are lots of alternatives. I would only consider GA4 currently if you are reliant on its broader ecosystem of connections, like Google Ads, Merchant Centre, etc. If you need these systems and the event tracking GA4 empowers them with then you're probably stuck with Google.

If not, try the alternatives, there's a lot of them now and it'd be great to see some get more support so that can properly compete with Google.

I'm self-hosting GoatCounter and using it across all my websites.

Apart from controlling my data, I also have more accurate visitor statistics, as it doesn't get picked up by script blockers, unlike GA.

https://github.com/arp242/goatcounter

https://www.goatcounter.com

I compared alternative analytics things a few months ago and ended up going with Clicky. It's pretty good. But, I don't check it often, talking to users is definitely more useful than analytics to me.

Matomo is a mature and widely used GDPR-compliant and open-source analytics platform. You can either host it yourself or use Matomo’s hosted version. https://matomo.org/

Don’t use GA if you respect your visitors.

Please don't use GA / GA4 or any analytics tools if you respect your customer's privacy, if you must do tracking then use backend server logs (nginx logs) which are good enough for most use cases.

There is an ethical website [0].

The EU has created an alternatives website [1], which is tech from EU.

Note there is some overlap.

[0] https://ethical.net/resources/?resource-category=analytics

[1] https://european-alternatives.eu/category/web-analytics-serv...

There is almost no real business reason to use analytics, it's more of a cargo cult. If you want to check your sales channels, you make separate promo codes for each channel and see what codes are being used by paying customers. Because paying customers is the only metrics that matter if you're selling products online.

If you're curios about site visitors, you can use Clicky.com or Beamanalytics.io to get some basic stats that are enough to satisfy your curiosity, without spying on people.

No, don't send your data or your visitors' data to big corporations.

You can use a self-hosted analytics platform like UXWizz [0] and keep all your data private, plus you get a simpler to use interface.

[0]: https://uxwizz.com

Have you looked at Fathom[0] or GoatCounter?

[0] https://usefathom.com/

[1] https://www.goatcounter.com/

Absolutely, using Google Analytics can be highly beneficial for gaining insights into your website's performance. It provides valuable data on user behavior, traffic sources, and content engagement.

However, it's essential to consider your specific needs and goals. If you're concerned about user privacy, explore privacy-focused analytics alternatives like Matomo or Fathom Analytics. Additionally, ensure compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR. Ultimately, the choice depends on your priorities and the level of data you want to collect while respecting user privacy.

Wide Angle Analytics

Matomo

Piwik

Simple Analytics

Plenty of choices for ethical and strong privacy web analytics.

But read terms of service and privacy policy. Some web analytics will claim compliance but then you will see they prohibit you from processing certain data, or they will use support platform or internal email that makes taking about customers tricky.