A Simple Google Analytics Alternative for Small Sites and Side Projects

2026-10-29

Google Analytics 4 is free and very capable. It is also built for marketing teams that live inside Google Ads, build custom reports and model attribution across devices. If you run a docs site, a SaaS landing page or a side project, you probably want answers to a much shorter list of questions.

What most small sites actually need

Traffic: page views, unique visitors and sessions over time.
Sources: which referrers and UTM campaigns send visitors.
Content: top pages, entry pages and exit pages.
Actions: a handful of custom events, such as signup_completed or docs_copied.
A dashboard you can read in a minute, without building reports first.

If that list covers you, a simpler tool is usually a better fit than GA4.

What you give up compared with GA4

Being honest about trade-offs matters more than feature checklists:

Google Ads integration. GA4 connects to Google Ads, Search Ads 360, Display & Video 360 and Search Console. If you buy Google ads and optimise on conversions, that integration is hard to replace.
Cross-device user modelling. GA4 uses first-party cookies (_ga, with a default two-year expiry) to distinguish returning users, according to Google's own documentation (as of Oct 2026). Pulzivo sets no cookies and collects no personal data by default, so it does not try to follow one person across devices.
Price. GA4's standard tier is free of charge (as of Oct 2026). Pulzivo also has a free plan, but higher volumes are paid.

What you get with a simpler tool

Setup in one step. Add a script tag and page views are tracked automatically. Paid plans add automatic click and scroll tracking, sessions, unique visitors and UTM attribution (see pricing for what each plan includes).
No cookies, no personal data collected by default. Pulzivo does not set cookies and collects no personal data by default; signed-in users are only identified if you opt in with IDs you supply.
A small script. The Pulzivo tracker is about 9KB gzipped.
Custom events with one call, from plain HTML or any framework.

Setting up Pulzivo

Create an account, copy your API key from the dashboard, and add the script to your site's <head>:

<script src="https://cdn.pulzivo.com/pulzivo-analytics.min.js"
        data-api-key="YOUR_API_KEY"></script>

Then track the actions you care about:

PulzivoAnalytics('event', 'signup_completed', { plan: 'free' });

It works the same in React, Vue, Angular, Next.js, Svelte or plain HTML because the SDK exposes a global function. See the documentation for configuration options.

Running both side by side

You do not have to switch in one go. Add Pulzivo next to GA4 for a few weeks, check that the numbers tell the same story for your top pages and sources, then decide whether you still need GA4. Expect counts to differ somewhat between any two tools because of ad blockers, bot filtering and different definitions of a session.

Try it

Pulzivo has a free plan (10,000 events/month, 1 website, no credit card). Compare plans on the pricing page or create a free account and add the script tag to your site.