GA4 vs Universal Analytics: What’s the Difference?

When you are treading on the uncharted waters of the web for your business, it goes unsaid that you look for all the ways you can make the best of what it has to offer. Using analytics tools, you are able to website owners and managers collect, measure, analyze, and interpret data about the behavior of visitors to their websites. Using web analytics tools, website owners can gain valuable insights into how visitors interact with their website, what content is most popular, how visitors find the website, and much more. This information can be used to optimize the website’s design and content, improve user engagement, increase conversions, and drive more traffic to the site. Lately, GA4 and Universal Analytics have emerged as the most popular web analytics tools used for making data-driven decisions to improve the website’s performance, increase engagement, and drive more traffic to the site. Perceived synonymous, there lie key differences between the two, which we shall delve deeper into, in this blog. 

What is Universal Analytics?

Universal Analytics is a web analytics tool developed by Google that was first launched in 2012. It allows website owners to track and analyze user behaviour on their websites and gain insights into user demographics, interests, behavior flow, and more. Universal Analytics uses a session-based model to track user interactions, where each session is defined as a period of user activity on a website. The data collected by Universal Analytics can be used to optimize website content, improve user experience, and make data-driven business decisions. Universal Analytics also offers a range of tracking features, including the ability to track conversions, track e-commerce transactions, and set up custom dimensions and metrics. However, it has been replaced by Google Analytics‘ new version GA4, which uses a new data model that is event-based and incorporates machine learning into its analysis.

What is GA4?

GA4 or Google Analytics 4 is the latest version of the Google Analytics tool in the Gsuit, which was launched in October 2020. It uses a new data model that is event-based, allowing for more granular analysis of user behavior. GA4 also incorporates machine learning into its analysis, which allows for more accurate and personalized insights. It also allows for cross-device tracking and user identification, even when users are not signed in. GA4 requires the use of the gtag.js tracking code, which is different from the tracking code used in Universal Analytics. 

Universal Analytics v. Google Analytics 4

While GA4 (Google Analytics 4) and Universal Analytics are both web analytics tools developed by Google, there are some key differences between the two:

1. Data Model: GA4 uses a new data model that is event-based, whereas Universal Analytics uses a session-based model. In the GA4 data model, all user interactions on a website are captured as events, which are then categorized and analyzed. This allows for more granular analysis of user behaviour.
2. User Identification: GA4 allows for cross-device tracking and user identification, even when users are not signed in. Universal Analytics relies on cookies to track users across devices, which can lead to inaccurate data when users clear their cookies or switch devices.
3. Machine Learning: GA4 incorporates machine learning into its analysis, which allows for more accurate and personalized insights. Universal Analytics lacks this capability.
4. Data Collection: GA4 requires the use of the gtag.js tracking code, which is different from the tracking code used in Universal Analytics. This means that websites will need to update their tracking code in order to use GA4.
5. Reporting: GA4 has a new interface and different reporting options compared to Universal Analytics. Some reports that were available in Universal Analytics are not available in GA4, and vice versa.

Overall, GA4 is a more advanced and modern web analytics tool compared to Universal Analytics. 

Bottomline

Both Universal Analytics and GA4 track and analyze user behaviour on websites or mobile apps. Both tools provide valuable insights into user demographics, interests, behaviour flow, and more, which can be used to optimize website content, improve user experience, and make data-driven business decisions.

Universal Analytics uses a session-based model to track user interactions, where each session is defined as a period of user activity on a website. It allows website owners to track user behaviour across multiple devices, set up goals and funnels, and track e-commerce transactions.

GA4, on the other hand, uses a new data model that is event-based and incorporates machine learning into its analysis. It allows website owners to track user behaviour more granularly by capturing all user interactions as events. GA4 also provides cross-device tracking and user identification, even when users are not signed in, which allows for a more accurate understanding of user behaviour.

Overall, both Universal Analytics and GA4 can be used to gain insights into user behaviour and optimize the website content to improve user experience and achieve business goals. However, because GA4 is still relatively new, there may be a learning curve for users who are used to Universal Analytics. The choice of which tool to use depends on the specific needs of the business and the type of data analysis required.