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Google Analytics vs Segment comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Google Analytics
Ranking in Web Analytics
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Segment
Ranking in Web Analytics
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (24th), Customer Data Platforms (CDP) (1st)
 

Featured Reviews

OP
Aug 13, 2019
Provides information to help identify, understand, and make use of our visitor traffic
Through Google Analytics we can see the activity that each visitor exercises within our website and makes up the fundamental basis for the projects we execute in order to constantly improve our website. With Google Analytics, in addition to knowing how many visitors came to our website, we can also…
VikasAgarwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 12, 2024
Simplify data management and analysis and offers built-in integrations for many data sources and destinations, reducing effort required for custom integrations
The main challenge is that the SDKs are pretty similar across programming languages, and they're not super flexible. They might not support certain use cases. It has a set of functions that work well if they fit your needs, but if you need something custom, you can't rely on the SDKs and have to use recipes. And using those recipes extensively isn't ideal. For example, we were getting leads from the D2C application, sending them to Segment, and then from Segment to HubSpot. If Segment could mimic HubSpot's API, we could leverage HubSpot's SDK capabilities even through Segment. But Segment's API is generic, so it doesn't do anything tailored to HubSpot. As a product designer, I know that would be hard to accomplish anyway. It's not a criticism, because I would probably design it the same way. But as a consumer, I don't care how it's designed; I care if it fits my use case. If not, how much effort will it take to make it work? That was the challenging part. It took a lot of time to integrate Segment and make it communicate with HubSpot in a certain way. So, the challenge is the lack of flexibility in the SDKs, given the capabilities of the destinations. From my experience, it's mostly fine. It could benefit from more customization capabilities. The product itself is good, but it would be awesome if it allowed you to write your own extensions to augment the CDP's capabilities. And another suggestion. It's not about a missing feature, but rather something Segment is doing that I personally don't think a CDP should do. It's like a mobile phone you use for watching videos, listening to music, and making calls. But to be a good mobile phone, you need to be the best at making and receiving calls, and texting. Everything else is a distraction. Instead of optimizing for those distractions, you should solidify the basics. To illustrate this, Segment has many capabilities that overlap with things like CRMs, campaign management systems, tracking systems, and so on. These capabilities can give a small startup a real kick-start, but as you scale, the capabilities other than the core CDP features don't scale as well. For example, it does campaign management, but it's not really a full-fledged campaign management system. When you're starting out, it's fine, it's great, it fits almost all your use cases. But as you grow from a two-person organization to a 300-person organization, you'll have to deal with more complexity. You'll likely need to look for a dedicated campaign management system and integrate it with Segment. Now, if you've been using Segment's campaign management for a long time, moving that part to a different system will be a roadblock.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The User Explorer is a definite favorite because it allows us to pinpoint a user and check their entire journey through our website including all the events triggered and the pages visited."
"With Google Analytics, we obtain different metrics from all of the clients that enter our web environment."
"As an SEO and digital marketing professional, the two features I have found the most valuable about Google Analytics are the Acquisition tracking and the Goal tracking."
"Our organization has improved because we have solid data that we can use to analyze the impact of our public policies."
"It is packed with many of the same reports you'll find in high-priced solutions, especially concerning data relating to real-time visitor tracking."
"I like the straightforward way of connecting with various data sources and destinations. That's the most valuable feature. It has built-in integrations for a lot of them, so the overall effort required for integrations is relatively low."
 

Cons

"Sometimes, the statistics are not updated in real-time and it takes a little time. There are pages where it updates faster than others."
"They can improve their Android app."
"The sampling of data is definitely a pain point since we don't have an actual understanding of the data."
"If you do not use JavaScript, you will be invisible to Google Analytics. If you have the option of JavaScript disabled in your browsers, you will be invisible to the data, since the tool will not be able to register you."
"Beginner users access the live help section a lot, because of how confusing it is, so it would not be bad if the function was located within the administration section."
"An area where I would like to see improvement in Google Analytics is the auto-syncing of functions in Google Tag Manager into Goal tracking."
"The challenge is the lack of flexibility in the SDKs, given the capabilities of the destinations."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The installation cost is really low and does not require a team with a super performance to run."
"The pricing was on the higher side but it wasn't excessively high."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
17%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
13%
Insurance Company
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Retailer
8%
Real Estate/Law Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about Segment?
I like the straightforward way of connecting with various data sources and destinations. That's the most valuable feature. It has built-in integrations for a lot of them, so the overall effort requ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Segment?
The pricing was on the higher side but it wasn't excessively high. It's definitely not tailored for the smallest businesses, but it's well-suited for setups that anticipate significant growth.
What needs improvement with Segment?
The main challenge is that the SDKs are pretty similar across programming languages, and they're not super flexible. They might not support certain use cases. It has a set of functions that work we...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Segment.io
 

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Air Show Buzz, AlfaStrakhovanie, Amari, Global Tech LED, Klarna, La Tienda, Nissan Motor Company, Rasmussen College, Shoes of Prey, Twiddy
Nokia, rdio, Bonobos, LiveNation, Atlassian
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Analytics vs. Segment and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.