For our March Event, we had Jason Packer talk about his newly released book Google Analytics Alternatives, 2nd edition.

Jason’s book is an amazing and stunningly comprehensive run-down of 15 of the top analytics tools in the field — an absolute must-read. Coincidentally Jason is also one of the organizers of Columbus Data & Analytics Wednesdays and happens be writing this recap.

While Google Analytics is still by far the most widely deployed tool, Jason believes we’ve entered an era where the challenges of modern data collection mean that for many sites there is a better fit to be found in another tool. That best fit could still be GA4, but thinking of GA as the default tool installed on all sites in all situations is an outdated approach.

Jason pointed out that there isn’t a “best” tool and we shouldn’t think of tool comparison as a competition. His preferred framing is to focus on tool selection (not comparison) and use that selection process as a chance to identify the data questions we’re trying to answer and try to find a tool that can help us do that.

We also talked about how feature comparison lists can be very misleading, and how playing around with live demos or free tiers of these tools can be a good way to learn before committing to a new platform.

Then we held a raffle and gave away 15 copies of the book!

A few links from the event:

• Jason’s book: print edition from Amazon or digital edition from Gumroad.
• Free registration for MeasureCamp NYC March 28.
• Dave Cherry’s Tokyo Marathon fundraiser and raffle.
• OSU’s Sports Analytics Conference (Mar 26-28).