Analytics in Ghost: Ghostboard vs Google Analytics
In the evolving digital analytics landscape, finding the right tool to monitor your Ghost blog performance and user interactions is crucial. Let's compare Ghostboard and Google Analytics, two of the most-used software to get analytics in Ghost and make your decision with more information.
Google Analytics has long been the go-to solution for many. However, it's not without its drawbacks, particularly when it comes to GDPR compliance and the burden of cookies on user experience.
Enter Ghostboard, a SaaS analytics platform designed specifically for Ghost blogs. Ghostboard is GDPR-compliant out of the box, cookie-free, partially open-source, and claims to be ten times lighter than Google Analytics.
Comparison Table
| Feature | Ghostboard.io | Google Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Script size | 2.0 KB ⚡️ 10 times lighter | 21 KB |
| Real-time analytics | ✅ | ✅ |
| GDPR compliant | ✅ | ⚠️ Extra work required |
| NoScript/NoJS support * | ✅ | ⚠️ Extra work required |
| Bot filtering * | ✅ | ⚠️ Extra work required |
| Cookie-free | ✅ | ❌ |
| Authors analytics | ✅ | ❌ |
| Tags analytics | ✅ | ❌ |
| Post & Pages analytics | ✅ | ❌ |
| SEO analytics | ✅ | ❌ |
| Click analytics | ✅ | ❌ |
| Newsletter analytics | ✅ | ❌ |
| Broken link checker | ✅ | ❌ |
| Uptime monitor | ✅ | ❌ |
| Downtime alerts | ✅ | ❌ |
| Partially open-source | ✅ | ❌ |
To make Google Analytics GDPR compliant, you need to:
- Add an annoying cookie banner
- Only track if the user opts in
- Lose data if the user opts out
- Turn on IP anonymization
9 Differences: What Ghostboard does not do like Google Analytics
| Feature | Google Analytics | Ghostboard.io |
|---|---|---|
| Slows down your blog, affecting SEO/SEM | ✅ | ❌ |
| Uses cookies | ✅ | ❌ |
| Requires opt-in banner | ✅ | ❌ |
| Loses data if opt-out | ✅ | ❌ |
| Identifies & tracks your audience | ✅ | ❌ |
| Free, making money from your data | ✅ | ❌ |
| Loses data due to cookie blockers | ✅ | ❌ |
| Loses data due to non-Javascript support * | ✅ | ❌ |
| May have misleading data due to bots * | ✅ | ❌ |
* You can do additional work to support non-JavaScript with GA and manually filter each bot periodically in GA. You can save all this work automatically; it's included out-of-the-box in Ghostboard.
You know, cookies are sweet and enjoyed by many, but they might not be what you need or what's best for you.
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