OpenRev vs Google Analytics

Google Analytics describes itself as “Get essential customer insights.”

The short answer

Google Analytics 4 is Google's free, hosted analytics, closely tied to Google Ads. It reports revenue from ecommerce events that your site, app or server sends, such as purchase and refund, and has no direct payment-provider connections. OpenRev is open-source analytics you host yourself: it takes payments straight from Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle and eight other providers and credits each one to the visitor's source.

Facts checked on October 25, 2026, from Google Analytics's own site. Sources

Side by side

Pricing: OpenRev
Free. You pay only for your own hosting, and small sites fit Cloudflare's free plan
Google Analytics
Free; Analytics 360 is sold through Google's sales team, with no published price
Source code: OpenRev
Open source (MIT)
Google Analytics
Proprietary
Hosting: OpenRev
You host it: Cloudflare Workers + D1, Docker or Node.js, with D1, SQLite or PostgreSQL
Google Analytics
Hosted by Google
Revenue attribution: OpenRev
Built in: payments are linked to visitors and the channel that brought them, with LTV and renewals by source
Google Analytics
From ecommerce events (purchase, refund and others) sent by your site, app or server
Payment providers: OpenRev
Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, Polar, Dodo Payments, Creem, Shopify, WooCommerce, Gumroad, Paystack and Razorpay, plus a custom webhook and a Payments API
Google Analytics
No direct connections
Cookies: OpenRev
First-party visitor ID by default; optional cookieless mode per site
Google Analytics
First-party cookies; with Consent Mode, cookieless pings when consent is denied
Goals & funnels: OpenRev
Google Analytics
Key events (up to 30) and funnel explorations
Visitor journeys: OpenRev
Google Analytics
User explorer
Realtime view: OpenRev
Google Analytics
API: OpenRev
REST API with an OpenAPI spec
Google Analytics
Data API and Admin API
MCP server for AI agents: OpenRev
Built into every install
Google Analytics
Official, experimental, runs locally, read-only
Alerts: OpenRev
Payments, goals, traffic spikes and digests to Slack, Discord, Telegram, email or webhooks
Google Analytics
Custom insights with email alerts

OpenRev and Google Analytics compared feature by feature
Feature	OpenRev	Google Analytics
Pricing	Free. You pay only for your own hosting, and small sites fit Cloudflare's free plan	Free; Analytics 360 is sold through Google's sales team, with no published price
Source code	Open source (MIT)	Proprietary
Hosting	You host it: Cloudflare Workers + D1, Docker or Node.js, with D1, SQLite or PostgreSQL	Hosted by Google
Revenue attribution	Built in: payments are linked to visitors and the channel that brought them, with LTV and renewals by source	From ecommerce events (purchase, refund and others) sent by your site, app or server
Payment providers	Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, Polar, Dodo Payments, Creem, Shopify, WooCommerce, Gumroad, Paystack and Razorpay, plus a custom webhook and a Payments API	No direct connections
Cookies	First-party visitor ID by default; optional cookieless mode per site	First-party cookies; with Consent Mode, cookieless pings when consent is denied
Goals & funnels		Key events (up to 30) and funnel explorations
Visitor journeys		User explorer
Realtime view
API	REST API with an OpenAPI spec	Data API and Admin API
MCP server for AI agents	Built into every install	Official, experimental, runs locally, read-only
Alerts	Payments, goals, traffic spikes and digests to Slack, Discord, Telegram, email or webhooks	Custom insights with email alerts

The main differences

Revenue

GA4 counts revenue from purchase and other ecommerce events that you add to your site or send from your server, for example through the Measurement Protocol. OpenRev receives payments, renewals and refunds from your payment provider by signed webhook, so revenue needs no ecommerce tagging.

Data ownership

GA4 stores your data in Google's data centers. OpenRev stores it in your own D1, SQLite or PostgreSQL database.

Cookies and consent

GA4 sets first-party cookies (_ga, two years by default). With Consent Mode it sends cookieless pings when consent is denied and fills gaps with modeling, and you need a consent banner to drive it. OpenRev stores a first-party visitor ID by default, and its cookieless mode stores nothing on the device.

Ecosystem

GA4 connects to Google Ads and the rest of the Google Marketing Platform, and covers apps as well as websites. OpenRev is a focused web dashboard and doesn't integrate with Google Ads.

Which one fits you

Choose Google Analytics if

You run Google Ads and want conversions and audiences shared with it.
You need app analytics alongside your website.
You want a free hosted tool and can manage consent and ecommerce tagging.

Choose OpenRev if

You want revenue straight from your payment provider, without ecommerce tagging.
You want your analytics data in your own database.
You want a simple dashboard focused on which channels make money.

Switching from Google Analytics

Run OpenRev next to GA4; nothing in your GA4 setup needs to change. Importing Google Analytics history is on OpenRev's roadmap but not available yet.

OpenRev and Google Analytics: questions

Is OpenRev a Google Analytics alternative?

For websites that want to know which channels bring revenue, yes. It shows visitors, sources, campaigns, pages, goals and funnels, with revenue from your payment provider next to each one. It doesn't replace GA4's Google Ads integration or app analytics.

Does Google Analytics connect to Stripe?

Not directly. GA4 counts revenue from purchase and other ecommerce events that your site, app or server sends, for example through the Measurement Protocol. OpenRev connects to Stripe and 10 other providers through signed webhooks.

Is Google Analytics free?

Standard GA4 is free. Google Analytics 360, the enterprise version, is sold through Google's sales team without a published price. OpenRev is free and open source; you pay only for hosting.

Try OpenRev on your own site

One command sets it up on Cloudflare, Docker or Node.js. It's free.

Get started View on GitHub

Sources

Facts about Google Analytics come from these pages, read on October 25, 2026. Facts about OpenRev come from its source code and docs. Spotted something out of date? Open an issue.

More comparisons

Google Analytics is a trademark of its owner. OpenRev is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Google Analytics.