Matomo vs GA4: Choosing the Right Analytics Platform for Your Business in 2025

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With Google Universal Analytics now officially retired, businesses are left with a big decision: stick with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) or switch to an alternative like Matomo?

Both platforms offer powerful tracking and insights, but each has its own strengths. At Trackify we work with both tools and help businesses choose what’s best for their needs. In this post, we’ll take a close look at GA4 and Matomo, so you can make an informed decision about which platform aligns with your goals.

Why Does This Matter for Your Business?

Choosing the right analytics tool goes beyond just data tracking. With privacy laws tightening around the world, organisations must consider how their data is handled.

This is about more than just collecting data - it's about how you collect it, where it’s stored, and how you use it to inform business decisions. As a marketing or digital professional, getting this right can give your business a competitive edge, particularly when it comes to trust and transparency with your customers.

Key Differences Between GA4 and Matomo

1. Data Ownership & Privacy

  • GA4 stores your data on Google’s servers. While it’s compliant with many global standards, the data is still processed and stored in Google’s ecosystem, which means it’s subject to US-based data privacy laws.

  • Matomo, on the other hand, gives you control. You can either host it on your own servers or use a cloud-hosted option (with servers in the EU). This flexibility is a big draw for businesses that need to control their data storage and ensure compliance with local laws.

2. Google Ecosystem

  • GA4 works seamlessly with Google’s suite of tools: Ads, Search Console, Looker Studio, etc. If your business uses a lot of Google products, GA4 will integrate without much effort, giving you a unified view of your marketing campaigns.

  • Matomo offers an integration to Google Ads via their Google Ads Conversion Importer. This allows you to still track the performance of Google Campaigns without using 3rd Party Cookies.

3. Privacy Compliance

  • GA4 provides features like cookie consent modes and IP anonymisation, which help with privacy compliance. However, because your data is stored by Google, there’s always the concern of how that data is used beyond your control.

  • Matomo is built with privacy first in mind. It supports cookie-less tracking and IP anonymisation. It's also designed to be fully GDPR-compliant, which is increasingly important for businesses working with European customers.

Which Tool Is Right For Your Business?

In New Zealand we’ve seen a few common patterns with businesses transitioning to GA4 or Matomo:

  • Privacy-conscious organisations (healthcare, education, local government) prefer Matomo for its full control over data and compliance-friendly features.

  • Digital marketing teams looking for deep integration with Google products and AI-driven insights are sticking with GA4.

  • Many businesses are running both platforms simultaneously for a while to test the waters and compare data before making a long-term decision.

Let’s Talk

If you're not sure which platform is the right fit, or if you're ready to make the switch, Trackify is here to help. Whether it’s a smooth GA4 migration, a full Matomo deployment, or running both side-by-side, we’ve got you covered. Let’s chat about which platform is right for your business.