Choosing an Analytics Provider

Trackkit supports multiple analytics providers behind one stable API. This guide helps you pick the best fit for your product and constraints.

At-a-glance comparison

Feature	Umami	Plausible	Google Analytics 4
Privacy-first	✅	✅	⚠️ Requires consent (EU)
Cookieless by default	✅	✅	❌ (can limit cookies via Consent Mode)
Open source	✅	✅	❌
Self-hosting	✅	✅	❌
Cost (hosted)	N/A (self-host)	Paid plans	Free tier (limits apply)
User-level tracking	❌	❌	✅
Custom events	✅	✅ (Goals)	✅
Revenue tracking	⚠️ via custom events	✅ via goals (if enabled)	✅
Realtime	✅	Near-realtime (slight delay)	✅
Data retention	Your DB (unlimited if self-host)	Your DB (self-host) / vendor policy (cloud)	Configurable (typ. up to 14 months)
Adapter size (approx.)	~1.5 kB	~2.5 kB	~1 kB

Sizes are Trackkit adapter budgets, not exact byte counts.

Decision guide

Need user-level analytics (user journeys, audiences)?
├─ Yes → Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
└─ No → Is strict privacy & data control a priority?
├─ Yes → Will you self-host?
│   ├─ Yes → Umami
│   └─ No  → Plausible (hosted)
└─ No  → Prefer deeper features/Google Ads integration?
├─ Yes → GA4
└─ No  → Plausible (simplest path)

Provider details

Note: Umami, Plausible, and GA4 all allow for a site field in their initialization options that aliases the providers' corresponding site identifier fields (website, domain, and measurementId respectively).

Umami

Best for: Privacy-conscious sites and SaaS apps that want full control and self-hosting.

Pros

• Full data ownership
• Cookieless by default
• Lightweight script + simple UI
• Realtime metrics

Cons

• You run and maintain the stack
• Fewer built-in marketing features
• No user-level tracking

Trackkit config

createAnalytics({
  provider: 'umami',
  site: 'your-website-id',  // or website: '...'
  host: 'https://analytics.yourdomain.com',  // your Umami host (if not cloud)
  // autoTrack, domains, exclude, etc. as needed
});

Plausible

Best for: Privacy-focused sites that prefer managed hosting (or advanced self-hosting).

Pros

• GDPR-friendly defaults, cookieless
• Goals & (optional) revenue tracking
• Clean, focused UI
• Hosted or self-hosted

Cons

• Hosted plans are paid
• Slight delay on dashboards
• No user-level tracking

Trackkit config

createAnalytics({
  provider: 'plausible',
  site: 'yourdomain.com',  // or domain: '...'
  // host: 'https://plausible.yourdomain.com',  // if self-hosted
  // If your Plausible setup uses revenue goals, send revenue props on events
});

Revenue: If you’ve configured revenue goals in Plausible, send revenue/currency in track() props; the adapter will forward them appropriately. Exact mapping depends on your Plausible goal setup.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Best for: Products needing user journeys, advanced segmentation, Google Ads integration, and ML-powered insights.

Pros

• Rich analysis, audiences, and funnels
• Tight Google Ads/Marketing integration
• Generous free tier
• Realtime

Cons

• Privacy/consent management required (esp. EU)
• Interface complexity & learning curve
• Sampling/limits on free tier

Trackkit config

createAnalytics({
  provider: 'ga4',
  measurementId: 'G-XXXXXXXXXX',  // or measurementId: '...',
  // apiSecret: 'your-measurement-protocol-secret',  // optional (advanced)
  // autoTrack, defaultProps, etc.
});

Trackkit integrates GA4 via Measurement Protocol (no script tag) If you rely on script-based features (e.g., diagnostics, tag manager), you may choose to load gtag.js manually.

GA4 usually sets cookies unless you restrict storage via Consent Mode. Ensure you implement consent correctly for your region.

Running Multiple Providers

You can run multiple providers at once by creating multiple instances and mirroring the events you care about:

import { createAnalytics } from 'trackkit';

// Privacy baseline for all users
const baseline = createAnalytics({
  provider: 'plausible',
  site: 'example.com',
});

// Marketing provider (created lazily once consent is granted)
let ga: ReturnType<typeof createAnalytics> | null = null;

export function onMarketingConsent(status: 'pending' | 'granted' | 'denied') {
  if (status === 'granted' && !ga) {
    ga = createAnalytics({
      provider: 'ga4',
      site: 'G-XXXXXXXXXX',
    });
  }

  // optional: drop the GA4 instance (or just leave it dormant)
  if (status === 'denied') {
    ga4 = null;
  }
}

// Helper that mirrors important events into both providers
export function trackSignupCompleted(plan: string) {
  const payload = { plan } as const;

  baseline.track('signup_completed', payload);
  ga?.track('signup_completed', payload);
}

Prefer the singleton helpers? You can mirror in a similar way by calling init twice (once per provider) and writing a wrapper trackSignupCompleted that calls the global track for each config. For anything non-trivial, per-provider instances are easier to reason about.

You can't run more than one provider in a single instance or singleton; instead you compose multiple instances at the app level.

Other patterns:

• Server-side fan-out: Send events to your backend and relay to multiple vendors.
• Feature flags / experiments: Randomize the provider per user in dev/stage to compare behavior.

Migration notes

From Universal Analytics → GA4

• GA4’s data model is event-based; expect renaming/remapping.
• Measurement IDs use the G- prefix.
• Some metrics differ; historical UA data won’t carry over.

From GA4 → privacy-first (Plausible / Umami)

• Lower user counts (no user-level tracking)
• Simpler reports, faster load
• Easier consent story

Testing

// A/B test providers (dev/stage only)
const provider = Math.random() > 0.5 ? 'plausible' : 'umami';
createAnalytics({ provider, site: 'your-site' });

Recommendations by use case

• E-commerce → GA4:

  • Enhanced e-commerce
  • Audiences
  • Ads integration
  • Attribution

• Blogs / Marketing sites → Plausible:

  • Clean metrics
  • Privacy-first
  • Managed hosting option

• SaaS / Internal tools (self-hosted) → Umami:

  • Data control
  • Cookieless analytics
  • Simple dashboard

• Landing pages / Campaigns → Plausible:

  • Quick setup
  • Lightweight
  • Goal-centric

Performance

Approximate added payload (gzipped) when the provider is initialized:

• GA4: ~1 kB
• Umami: ~1.5 kB
• Plausible: ~2.5 kB

Trackkit lazy-loads only the selected provider.

Privacy & compliance

• Umami / Plausible: Cookieless by default; many teams operate without a consent banner (verify with your legal counsel).
• GA4: Typically requires consent in the EU. Implement consent mode and disclose data collection in your privacy policy.

CCPA example

import { createAnalytics } from 'trackkit';

const analytics = createAnalytics({
  provider: 'your-choice',
  consent: {
    // Treat CCPA opt-out as "denied" from the start
    initialStatus: userIsCalifornia && userOptedOut ? 'denied' : 'pending',
    requireExplicit: false,
  },
});

You can also handle this imperatively:

const analytics = createAnalytics({ provider: 'your-choice' });

if (userIsCalifornia && userOptedOut) {
  analytics.denyConsent();
}

Practical configuration examples

Domains & excludes

createAnalytics({
  provider: 'plausible',
  site: 'example.com',
  domains: ['example.com', 'www.example.com'],     // allowlist
  exclude: ['/admin', '/preview'],                 // drop matches
  autoTrack: true,                                 // SPA nav
  includeHash: false,                              // strip #hash
});

GA4 with consent

const analytics = createAnalytics({
  provider: 'ga4',
  measurementId: 'G-XXXX',
  // Respect browser DNT by default; override only if your policy allows:
  doNotTrack: true,
});

// later, when user consents:
analytics.grantConsent();