Free analytics (GA4) vs paid tools: Worth the investment?

"Why would I pay for analytics when Google Analytics is free?"

This is the question every e-commerce store owner asks when comparing analytics tools. GA4 costs nothing. Dedicated tools cost 300-500 kr per month. On the surface, the choice seems obvious.

But three months later, you've spent 25+ hours trying to make GA4 work for your daily monitoring. You still can't quickly see if sales are up or down without navigating through multiple menus. You've bookmarked three YouTube tutorials. You log in sporadically because it's too much friction.

Meanwhile, the store owner who "spent money" on analytics checks their daily email report every morning in 2 minutes, notices conversion rate trends immediately, and makes data-driven decisions without thinking about it.

Which store owner made the better investment?

"Free" isn't free if it costs you 30 hours of learning time, prevents you from using analytics daily, or causes you to miss revenue opportunities because you're not monitoring consistently.

The real question isn't "free vs paid." It's "What's the total cost, including my time, and what do I actually get for that cost?"

Why "Free" Doesn't Mean Zero Cost

Google Analytics 4 is free to use. There's no monthly subscription, no usage limits for small stores, no credit card required.

But "free to use" doesn't mean "zero cost to your business."

The hidden costs of GA4:

Learning time: 20-40 hours to reach basic daily competency (as covered in previous articles). If your time is worth 300 kr/hour (modest for a business owner), that's 6,000-12,000 kr in opportunity cost.

Ongoing friction: 8-10 minutes per day to log in, navigate to reports, check metrics. Vs. 2 minutes to read an email report. Extra 6-8 minutes daily = 3-4 hours per month = 900-1,200 kr/month in time cost (at 300 kr/hour).

Inconsistent usage: Because GA4 requires logging in and navigating a complex interface, most store owners check it 2-3 times per week instead of daily. Missed opportunities (didn't notice conversion rate drop for 4 days) have real revenue cost.

Decision paralysis: GA4 shows so much data that it's easy to spend 45 minutes exploring instead of making quick decisions. Analysis becomes procrastination.

Paid tools (typically 300-500 kr/month) have obvious costs but hidden savings:

Zero learning time: 30 minutes to first insight (not 40 hours). Your time is worth more than 500 kr/month.

Zero friction: Email reports arrive daily. Reading takes 2 minutes. No "remember to log in." No navigation. Habit forms automatically.

Consistent usage: Daily email = daily monitoring. You notice trends immediately instead of missing them for days.

Focused decisions: Reports show exactly what you need to know (sales, orders, conversion, traffic). No distraction by 200 other metrics.

What Doesn't Work

Choosing based only on monthly price: GA4 = 0 kr/month looks better than Paid tool = 400 kr/month, but this ignores your time cost. If GA4 takes an extra 5 hours/month of your time, it's actually more expensive (5 hrs × 300 kr/hr = 1,500 kr hidden cost).

"I'll just learn GA4 once and use it forever": Learning GA4 isn't one-time. It updates constantly, changes features, deprecates reports. Ongoing learning required. Plus you forget things if you don't use it daily (which is hard because of the friction).

Assuming all paid tools are the same: Paid tools range from 200 kr/month (basic daily reports) to 5,000+ kr/month (enterprise analytics platforms). The expensive ones add features you probably don't need. Simple daily reporting tools (300-500 kr) are usually the sweet spot for small stores.

"I'll use GA4 until I can afford paid tools": This delays building a daily analytics habit. By the time you "can afford" paid tools (which is now, if you value your time correctly), you've lost 6 months of consistent data-driven decision making.

Real Solutions

Here's how to think about free vs paid analytics based on total cost and actual value.

Solution 1: The True Cost Comparison

Let's calculate the real 6-month cost of each approach for a small e-commerce store owner whose time is worth 300 kr/hour (conservative estimate).

GA4 ("Free") — 6 Month Total Cost:

• Subscription cost: 0 kr

• Initial setup & learning: 30 hours × 300 kr/hr = 9,000 kr

• Daily usage time: 10 min/day × 180 days = 30 hours × 300 kr/hr = 9,000 kr

• Inconsistent usage cost (missed opportunities): Conservative estimate 2,000 kr (one missed conversion trend)

• Total 6-month cost: ~20,000 kr

Paid Tool (400 kr/month) — 6 Month Total Cost:

• Subscription cost: 400 kr/month × 6 = 2,400 kr

• Initial setup & learning: 2 hours × 300 kr/hr = 600 kr

• Daily usage time: 2 min/day × 180 days = 6 hours × 300 kr/hr = 1,800 kr

• Inconsistent usage cost: 0 kr (email delivery ensures daily monitoring)

• Total 6-month cost: ~4,800 kr

Savings with paid tool: ~15,000 kr over 6 months

The "free" option costs 4× more when you account for your time.

This changes if:

• Your time is worth less than 300 kr/hour (but as a business owner, it's probably worth more)

• You already know GA4 well (reduces learning time to near-zero)

• You genuinely enjoy learning complex tools (time becomes pleasure, not cost)

• You need GA4's advanced features anyway (then the learning pays off)

Solution 2: Feature Value Comparison

"But GA4 has 200+ reports and advanced features! Paid tools only show 8 metrics!"

True. But do you need 200 reports for daily e-commerce monitoring?

What small stores actually need daily:

• Sales (revenue)

• Orders (transaction count)

• Conversion rate

• Average order value

• Sessions (traffic)

• Top products

• Top traffic sources

• Comparisons (vs yesterday, last week, last year)

What GA4 offers:

• Everything above (after configuration)

• Plus: User flow analysis, cohort analysis, predictive metrics, advanced segmentation, cross-device tracking, funnel analysis, audience building, etc.

What dedicated tools offer:

• Everything in the "actually need daily" list

• Pre-configured (no setup required)

• Delivered via email (zero friction)

• Usually NOT: Advanced features like funnels, cohorts, predictions

Question: How often do you need advanced features?

• Daily monitoring: Simple metrics (sales, orders, conversion, traffic)

• Weekly analysis: Maybe some segmentation (new vs returning customers)

• Monthly deep-dive: Funnels, user flow, advanced analysis

If 90% of your analytics use is daily monitoring (simple metrics), paying for a tool optimized for that makes sense. Use GA4 for the 10% when you need deep analysis.

Peasy connects to Shopify, WooCommerce, and Google Analytics 4—delivering daily email reports with sales, orders, conversion rate, average order value, sessions, top products, top pages, and top channels—with comparisons showing today vs yesterday, this week vs last week, this month vs last month, and same periods last year. Try free for 14 days.

Solution 3: The "Daily Driver" Decision Framework

Think about analytics tools like cars:

GA4 = Sports car with manual transmission

• Powerful, flexible, fun if you enjoy driving

• Steep learning curve (how to drive stick shift)

• Requires active engagement (not ideal for daily commute)

• Great for weekend drives (deep analysis when you have time)

Paid tool = Automatic sedan with GPS

• Easy to drive, reliable, gets you where you need to go

• Minimal learning curve

• Perfect for daily commute (daily monitoring)

• Limited customization but that's fine for 90% of trips

Most people use automatic cars for daily driving and rent a sports car when they want one. Similarly: Use paid tool for daily monitoring, use GA4 when you need deep analysis.

Trying to use GA4 for daily monitoring is like commuting in a manual sports car—technically possible, but more friction than necessary.

Solution 4: When "Free" Makes Sense

GA4 is the right choice (despite the learning curve) when:

You're analytical and enjoy complex tools:

• Learning GA4 is interesting to you, not tedious

• You like exploring data and building custom reports

• Time spent learning feels productive, not frustrating

You need advanced features regularly:

• Multi-channel attribution (which touchpoint drove the sale?)

• Funnel analysis (where exactly do users drop off?)

• Cohort analysis (how do customer groups behave over time?)

• Custom event tracking (track specific user actions beyond purchases)

You already know GA4:

• If you learned it at a previous job or already use it for another site, learning cost is zero

• Your setup time is 2-3 hours instead of 30 hours

• Makes GA4 genuinely "free" for you

Budget is genuinely tight:

• If 400 kr/month is a significant expense (very early stage), GA4 is acceptable

• Invest the time instead of money

• Plan to add paid tool later when revenue grows

Solution 5: When Paid Makes Sense

Paid tools are the right choice when:

Your time is valuable:

• You value your time at 300+ kr/hour

• Saving 20-30 hours of learning time is worth 400 kr/month

• You'd rather spend time on marketing, product development, customer service

You want daily monitoring without friction:

• Email reports arrive automatically—no "remember to check"

• Reading takes 2-3 minutes

• Habit forms naturally (vs forcing yourself to log into GA4)

You're not naturally analytical:

• GA4 feels overwhelming and confusing

• You tried GA4 and abandoned it after 2 weeks

• Simple, clear reports are more valuable to you than deep customization

You run a small store (under 5M kr annual revenue):

• Daily monitoring is more valuable than deep analysis

• The 8 core metrics (sales, orders, conversion, AOV, traffic, top products, sources) answer 90% of your questions

• Advanced GA4 features would rarely be used

Solution 6: The Hybrid Approach (Best of Both)

Many successful stores use both:

Paid tool (300-500 kr/month): Daily monitoring

• Email reports every morning

• Quick check (2-3 minutes)

• Immediate answers to: "Are sales up or down? What's selling? Where's traffic coming from?"

GA4 (free): Deep analysis when needed

• Used weekly or monthly

• Investigate specific questions ("Why did conversion rate drop?")

• Analyze campaigns, funnels, user behavior

• No pressure to use it daily (so friction doesn't matter)

Total cost: 400 kr/month + occasional GA4 usage

Value: Daily habit (paid tool) + deep insights when needed (GA4)

Best for: Stores that want both simplicity (daily) and power (occasionally)

This costs more than GA4 alone but is still cheaper than paying for enterprise analytics platforms (2,000-10,000+ kr/month).

FAQ

Q: What about other free alternatives like Shopify Analytics or WooCommerce Reports?

Shopify Analytics (built-in): Good for basic monitoring if you're disciplined about logging in daily. Shows sales, orders, traffic, conversion. Free for Shopify users. Limitations: No email reports (must log in), limited year-over-year comparisons, no cross-platform view if you use multiple sales channels. Better than GA4 for simplicity, worse than dedicated tools for daily habit formation.

WooCommerce Reports (built-in): Similar to Shopify Analytics but less polished. Basic sales and order data. Must log in to WordPress admin. No email delivery. Works for bare minimum monitoring.

Both are viable "free" options if you're already on those platforms and disciplined about daily logins. But dedicated tools still win on habit formation (email delivery).

Q: Are expensive analytics tools (1,000-5,000 kr/month) worth it?

For small stores (under 10M kr annual revenue): Probably not. Expensive tools (Glew, Daasity, Littledata Premium tiers) add features like inventory forecasting, customer lifetime value modeling, advanced attribution, multi-store dashboards—useful for larger operations but overkill for small stores. The 300-500 kr/month tools (focused on daily monitoring) deliver 90% of the value for 20% of the cost.

Q: If I start with a paid tool, can I cancel and switch to GA4 later?

Yes, easily. Analytics tools don't lock you in. Your data lives in Shopify/WooCommerce/GA4—the paid tool just reports on it. You can cancel anytime. Many stores do the opposite: Start with paid tool (immediate value), keep using it because it works well. GA4 is always available if you decide you need deeper analysis later.

Q: What's the ROI of paying for analytics?

Hard to measure directly, but consider: If daily monitoring helps you notice and fix ONE conversion rate issue per year (e.g., broken checkout flow that cost you 2% conversion for a week), the revenue recovered likely far exceeds 400 kr/month × 12 = 4,800 kr annual cost. Store doing 100,000 kr/month × 2% conversion loss × 1 week = 5,000 kr recovered. Tool pays for itself in one catch. Plus ongoing benefits of data-driven decisions (better inventory planning, smarter ad spend, etc.).

Q: Is there a free trial so I can test before paying?

Most paid analytics tools offer 14-30 day free trials. Use this to test if email reports actually form a daily habit for you. If you read the daily report every morning for 14 days, the tool is working. If you forget to check it (even though it arrives via email), you probably won't use any analytics tool consistently—in which case, save the money and use Shopify/WooCommerce built-in reports when you remember.

Q: What if my store is very small (under 50,000 kr/month revenue)—is paid analytics worth it?

300-500 kr/month is 0.6-1% of your monthly revenue. If daily monitoring helps you make even slightly better decisions (adjust ad spend, optimize best-selling products, fix issues faster), it pays for itself. But at this stage, your time is probably better spent on growth activities (marketing, product development) than deep analytics. Consider: Start with free Shopify/WooCommerce reports, add paid tool when you hit 100,000 kr/month and need more consistent monitoring.

Peasy connects to Shopify, WooCommerce, and Google Analytics 4—delivering daily email reports with sales, orders, conversion rate, average order value, sessions, top products, top pages, and top channels—with comparisons showing today vs yesterday, this week vs last week, this month vs last month, and same periods last year. Try free for 14 days.