Who pays twice?
Free analytics tools come with an impressive range of features. There’s plenty of educational content, extensive documentation, case studies, competitor benchmarks, and even specialist certifications. At first glance, it looks like an incredible act of generosity — you solve a ton of problems for $0.
But is that really the case? What happens when you run the numbers?
The real issues begin when you have simple, reasonable questions, like:
• Why don’t my analytics data match my CRM?
• How can I see today’s data?
• How do I get the same report, but with a different breakdown?
Surprisingly, what seems like a basic expectation actually costs money—and should. Sometimes, it’s the cost of a cloud database. More often, it’s the cost of an analyst (in-house or outsourced). And almost always, it’s the hidden cost of lost revenue due to poor decisions.
“Free” analytics is only free in one way — it doesn’t cost anything to install and set up. But if you understand that analytics isn’t just about collecting data, but about making better decisions, then:
1. Good decisions drive growth—including revenue.
2. The best decisions are worth investing in.
3. That investment is the real cost of your analytics.
Which means the cost is never zero. You’ll either pay an analyst, Google, or your competitors (in lost revenue).
If you work with GA4 to BigQuery exports, be sure to check out my SQL cheat sheet.
