leadmaps vs Google Analytics
How we stack up against GA4. Honest, sourced, no trash talk. Google Analytics is free and everywhere. We pick a different fight: residency, clean data, and ownership.
Liever in het Nederlands? Lees het Google Analytics alternatief uit de EU.
Quick verdict
Pick leadmaps when
- EU residency and GDPR defensibility are non-negotiable.
- You want unsampled counts, not modeled or thresholded numbers.
- You want product analytics without the ad-graph entanglement.
- You want to own your first-party data, not feed an ads platform.
- You want spend-to-revenue ROAS per channel, compared across attribution models.
Pick Google Analytics when
- You want ad conversions and spend auto-synced from Google Ads with no manual import.
- You need free analytics at very high volume above all else.
- Your team already knows GA and wants the ubiquitous standard.
- You want free raw export into BigQuery and the Google Cloud stack.
Feature comparison
A glyph means yes. A dash means no. A tilde means partial, with a line explaining the partial. Footnoted rows link to a source at the bottom of the page.
Core analytics
Both measure traffic and behavior. GA4 is event-based and free; leadmaps is event-based and EU-resident.
| Feature | leadmaps | GA4 |
|---|---|---|
| Pageviews and sessions | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: Yes |
| Custom events and properties | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: Yes |
| Funnels | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: Yes |
| Retention (week and month grain) | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: PartialCohort exploration exists, but it is one of the harder GA4 reports to read. |
| Sankey user journeys[1] | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: PartialPath exploration shows paths, not a true Sankey. |
| Unsampled reports at volume[2] | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: NoGA4 applies sampling and thresholding on large or detailed queries. |
| Real-page click and scroll heatmaps | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: No |
| Multi-touch attribution and ad-spend ROAS | leadmaps: YesSix models side by side; bring spend in by hand or CSV. | GA4: YesNative Google Ads sync, but tied to the ad graph and sampled at volume. |
Privacy and residency
This is the whole reason teams move off GA. Several EU regulators have ruled standard Google Analytics setups unlawful under GDPR.
| Feature | leadmaps | GA4 |
|---|---|---|
| EU residency by default[3] | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: NoData is processed in Google infrastructure with US transfer exposure. |
| Consent enforced server-side at the collector[4] | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: PartialGA Consent Mode runs in the browser and can model gaps. |
| No advertising-graph entanglement | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: NoGA4 is built to feed Google Ads and audiences. |
| GDPR Art. 17 vault with collector erasure | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: Partial |
| Coverage transparency (observed, blocked, consent, bots) | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: No |
| First-party proxy templates | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: Partial |
Data and retention
Where the data lives, how long it stays, and whether you can get it back out.
| Feature | leadmaps | GA4 |
|---|---|---|
| Raw event export | leadmaps: YesCSV, JSON, Parquet. | GA4: YesFree BigQuery export inside the Google Cloud ecosystem. |
| Long event-level retention[5] | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: PartialGA4 free caps event-level data at 14 months. |
| You own the first-party data | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: Partial |
| Lightweight SDK (~5 kB core) | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: Nogtag.js is materially heavier. |
Enterprise and ops
SSO, audit, residency, and export on one set of tiers, no 360 contract.
| Feature | leadmaps | GA4 |
|---|---|---|
| SAML 2.0 SSO | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: PartialGoogle identity, not arbitrary SAML on the free product. |
| Audit-log streaming to Datadog, Splunk, webhook | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: No |
| Workspace IP allowlist | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: No |
| EU data residency | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: Partial |
| Predictable flat pricing | leadmaps: Yes | GA4: PartialFree, or enterprise GA360 with a large minimum. |
Pricing at a glance
GA4 is free, so the question is what you get for what leadmaps charges: residency, no sampling, and clean ownership.
leadmaps
Flat tiers. Hobby at €19 monthly, Pro at €90 monthly, Business at €399 monthly, with a 30 day free trial on Pro.
Google Analytics
Free at almost any volume, monetized through the Google Ads ecosystem. Enterprise needs GA360 with a large minimum.
| Volume | leadmaps | Google Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| 100 thousand events / monthGA4 is free at almost any volume. That is its biggest advantage. | €19 / mo (Hobby) | Free |
| 1 million events / monthYou pay leadmaps for residency, no sampling, and clean ownership, not for the data itself. | €90 / mo (Pro) | Free |
| 10 million events / monthPast free limits, the GA path is GA360 with an enterprise minimum. | €399 / mo (Business) | Free / GA360 |
Coming from Google Analytics? Run both first.
Install the SDK alongside GA
Add @syntarie/tracking next to gtag.js and send to both. Nothing breaks, and you start building EU-resident history from day one.
Reconcile the numbers
Compare sessions and key funnels. Where they differ you usually find GA sampling or bot traffic leadmaps filtered at the collector.
Cut over when ready
Flip the primary tool to leadmaps, keep GA alongside for its native Google Ads sync if you want it. There is no big-bang switch.
Sources
Footnote markers in the table above link here. Last reviewed 2026-05-25. Got a fact wrong? Email hello@leadmaps.nl and we will fix it.