If you've been putting off migrating away from Google Analytics, I get it. I dragged my feet for over a year. But after GDPR enforcement ramped up, cookie banner fatigue set in, and I watched my GA dashboard load times creep past "make coffee" territory, I finally pulled the trigger.

Here's what I learned comparing three privacy-focused analytics tools across multiple projects.

Why Bother Switching?

Let's be honest — Google Analytics works. It's free, it's powerful, and everyone knows it. But there are real reasons developers are leaving:

GDPR/privacy compliance is increasingly painful with GA. You need cookie consent banners, data processing agreements, and to worry about data transfers.

GA4's interface is... a lot. If you just want to know how many people read your blog post, you shouldn't need a PhD in event-based analytics.

Page bloat. The GA script isn't small, and it loads additional resources. Privacy-focused alternatives are typically under 5KB.

Ad blockers kill your GA numbers.…