At a glance
Google's free web/app analytics platform (GA4) measuring traffic, events, conversions and audiences, with a paid enterprise tier (Analytics 360). Connects to Shopify via GA4 tag / Google Tag Manager.
Who it fits
Best forVirtually all online businesses needing free traffic/conversion analytics; enterprises needing 360 SLAs.
Skip ifTeams needing dedicated attribution/MTA, or those wanting human support on the free tier.
Pros & cons
- Free
- Deep Google ecosystem integration
- BigQuery export
- Steep GA4 learning curve
- Limited support on free tier
- Attribution limitations
Pricing
Starting price
Free
- up to
- —
- Model
- freemium
Pricing source: marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics
Features
Event-based tracking (GA4)
- plan
- Free
Conversion / funnel reporting
- plan
- Free
Audiences / segments
- plan
- Free
Predictive metrics (purchase/churn probability)
AI- plan
- Free / 360
Automated insights
AIBigQuery export
- plan
- Free in GA4
Cross-device / platform tracking
Shopify integration
Works via API (GA4 tag / GTM; Shopify GA4 integration). Free baseline analytics — the default companion to attribution tools (Triple Whale/Polar) rather than a replacement for them.
Integrations
External platforms
- Google Ads
- Google Tag Manager
- BigQuery
- Looker Studio
- Shopify
- Search Console
Rating breakdown
Ease of use
6.0/10
[I] inferred
Features
8.0/10
[I] inferred
Value
10.0/10
[I] inferred
Support
5.0/10
[I] inferred
Our verdict
Google Analytics (GA4) is the free baseline almost every Shopify store should have running — event-based tracking, conversion and funnel reporting, audiences, predictive metrics and free BigQuery export, all wired into the Google ecosystem (Ads, Tag Manager, Search Console). At $0, the value is unmatched; Analytics 360 is the custom enterprise tier (~$50K+/yr historically) for SLAs and higher limits. The honest limits: GA4's learning curve is steep, free-tier data is sampled with no phone support, and attribution is platform-limited — GA4 tells you what happened on-site, not a clean multi-touch picture of which channel drove the sale. Keep GA4 as your free analytics foundation regardless. But if the question you're actually asking is 'which ad channel is profitable,' GA4 alone won't answer it cleanly — Triple Whale is the Shopify-native attribution layer that sits on top, Polar Analytics consolidates store metrics into operator dashboards, and Northbeam covers multi-channel attribution for data-heavy teams. GA4 is the floor, not the whole stack.