Google Analytics 4 is not killing analytics, but – sadly – it is killing the idea that analytics should be effortless.
Google Analytics used to be the default ‘weather report’ for a website. Even if we did not spend all our days in it, we knew where to look when someone asked: “Is traffic up?”
Google Analytics 4, released in 2020, has achieved something genuinely rare in marketing software. Almost everyone, from power users to everyday non-experts, seems to dislike it.
GA4 feels like it was built for a different audience than the one that made the original analytics product popular. For everyday users, the complaint is simple: basic questions became harder. The interface is less intuitive and the path from question to answer often feels like a scavenger hunt. A lot of ‘normal’ marketing work is not analysis, it’s just reassurance. GA4 often makes those quick checks feel slower and less certain.
For power users, the frustration is different. It is not that GA4 cannot do sophisticated things. It can. The frustration is that the defaults do not behave like reliable reporting. Power users run into discrepancies, edge cases, and a steady feeling that they need to explain the tool as much as use it. Agency write-ups about GA4 pitfalls, mismatched numbers and misinterpretation risks are numerous.
Then we have the reality of modern privacy baked into the product. GA4 uses privacy features like data thresholds, which can withhold data in reports and explorations to prevent user identification. That is defensible, but it can also make reporting feel unpredictable, especially for smaller sites or when slicing data more finely. It also increasingly blends observed and modeled data when consent is denied, so we are often looking at “what most likely happened”.
We shouldn’t be surprised by all this. Google has rarely designed a product that is easy to use (and it’s designed many). An inability to think like regular, non-geek users is intrinsic to the company.
So, is GA4 killing off website analytics? Not exactly. But it may be killing off casual use. A lot of teams used to check GA because it was there and because it gave a comforting sense of control. If the tool now feels hostile, those checks happen less. Teams that really need measurement will keep measuring, but they need more deliberate investment. Others might look at alternatives.