Chartbeat vs Google Analytics (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Chartbeat if

• Fits if you run a news site and want to see live what readers are reading
• Works for editors who test headlines and images

Look elsewhere if

• Not for you if you want product analytics, as it's aimed at publishers
• Skip it if you need a price: sales quotes it
• Tight if you want to try first, since there's no free plan or trial
• Watch out: single sign-on is Enterprise only, the highest of four tiers

Pick Google Analytics if

• Fits if you run Google Ads and want to see which campaigns bring in sales
• Works for small businesses that want free traffic reports with raw data in BigQuery

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want to watch recordings of visits, which it doesn't do
• Not for you if you need more than 14 months of user-level history without paying for 360
• Tight if you need data within the hour, as intraday freshness is a 360 feature
• Watch out: Analytics 360 has no published price, and sub-properties and roll-up reports are 360 only
• Watch out: Google Ads data in reports covers a rolling 36 months, and Google signals data is kept 26 at most

Chartbeat

• No prices are published; plans are quoted by sales and based on website and native app pageviews.
• Plans come in four tiers (Essentials, Plus, Premium, Enterprise); Plus and above add a choice of performance suites.
• Single sign-on is listed only on the Enterprise tier.
• It is aimed at publishers and content teams rather than general product analytics.

Google Analytics

• Analytics 360 has no published price; it is quoted through Google's sales team.
• In the free version, user- and event-level data is kept for 2 or 14 months; 26, 38 and 50 months are 360 only.
• Intraday data freshness, sub-properties, roll-up reporting and higher limits on custom dimensions and audiences are 360 only.
• Google Ads data in reports is limited to a rolling 36 months, and Google signals data is kept no more than 26 months.

Chartbeat

Real-time dashboard

Concurrent pageviews, unique visitors and recirculation for every page, plus a Heads Up Display with scroll depth and placement ranking.

Historical reporting

13 months of trends in engaged time, traffic and topics, with reports that can be scheduled and exported as CSV.

Headline and image testing

Tests variants on a homepage with reader data, including AI-suggested headline variants. Part of the Testing suite.

Benchmarking

Compares your site with other publishers in Chartbeat's network using Cohorts, plus social video benchmarks via Tubular Viewpoint.

Reader Experience suite

Content recommendations for readers and conversion data that ties articles to registrations, subscriptions and donations.

Analytics Pro

Datastream integration for pushing real-time data into your own systems, and Data Lab for custom dashboards inside the app.

Google Analytics

Traffic and acquisition reports

Shows how people reach a site or app across paid and organic channels, which pages and screens they use, and what happens in real time.

Explorations

Free-form analysis, open or closed funnels, path analysis, segment overlap, cohorts and user lifetime value, built by dragging fields onto a canvas.

Attribution

Data-driven attribution, conversion path reports and model comparisons show how each marketing channel contributes to conversions.

Predictions and insights

Machine learning predicts actions such as purchase or churn to build audiences, flags notable changes automatically, and answers typed questions.

Google Ads and BigQuery links

Imports Google Ads, Display & Video 360 and Search Ads 360 data, sends audiences and conversions back, and exports raw events to BigQuery.

Chartbeat

Pricing could not be confirmed. See chartbeat.com.

Google Analytics

• Google Analytics$0

  Free: reports, explorations, attribution, predictive audiences, Google Ads and Search Console links, and BigQuery export.

• Analytics 360Custom

  Sold through sales: intraday data within an hour, sub-properties, roll-up reporting, higher limits, up to 50 months of data and SLAs.