Pulse vs Google Analytics 4
GA4 can answer almost any question — if you can find the report, keep the cookie banner, and accept the sampling. Pulse answers the questions that matter on one page: who came, what converted, and which ad spend paid — without cookies, banners, or a certification course.
| Google Analytics | Pulse | |
|---|---|---|
| Cookie consent banner | Required in the EU | Not needed — no cookies |
| Time to first insight | Hours (GA4 learning curve) | Minutes — one snippet, one page |
| Script weight | ~50+ KB (gtag.js) | < 1 KB |
| Sampling / data thresholds | On some reports | Never — every event counted |
| Data ownership | Google's cloud | Yours — self-host or EU cloud |
| Visitor privacy | User-level identifiers | Daily-rotating hash, no PII stored |
| Cost per conversion from ad spend | Google Ads linking only | ✓ any ad platform, built in |
| ROAS per campaign | Complex setup | ✓ out of the box |
| Weekly Money Report (marketing P&L email) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Money-aware anomaly insights | ✗ | ✓ priced in €, with evidence |
| Historical data | 14 months default retention | Up to 5+ years, you decide |
| Price | Free (you pay in complexity) | Free plan · paid from €12/mo |
Comparison based on public GA4 documentation as of July 2026 — Google's features and policies change; check their docs for current details.
Free up to 10k pageviews a month — forever. Or self-host every feature for free.