The verdict
If you can only run one, run Google Analytics. It is free, it covers the quantitative ground (acquisition, conversions, channel attribution) that every business needs, and it is already wired into the Google tools you are likely paying for. Nothing else clears the value-for-money bar at zero cost.
Reach for Contentsquare the moment quantitative numbers stop being enough , when GA4 says a checkout or signup flow is bleeding users and you need to see why. Its session replay and heatmaps are exactly the qualitative layer GA4 deliberately does not have. The Growth plan from 40 USD/mo and a free tier make it accessible to a small team, which was not true of the old enterprise-only Contentsquare.
The trap to avoid is buying Contentsquare instead of GA4 expecting it to replace channel and conversion reporting. It is a behaviour-analytics platform, not a free replacement for Google's measurement stack.
Side by side
| 9 points compared | ||
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $49/mo | |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes |
| Custom dashboards | Yes | Yes |
| Heatmaps | Yes | No |
| Product analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosting | No | No |
| Session replay | Yes | No |
| Links |
Plans and pricing
Contentsquare
- Experience Analytics FreeFree
- Experience Analytics Growth$49/mo
Google Analytics
- StandardFree
Who each is for
Choose Contentsquare if…
Pick Google Analytics if you are a founder or marketer who needs free, broad measurement of where traffic comes from, what it does and which channels convert , and you live in the Google ecosystem. The deep, free links to Google Ads, Search Console and BigQuery make it the default measurement layer for anyone running paid search or doing SEO. It is the right first install for almost every B2B site, and for many lean teams it is the only analytics tool they will need for a long time.
Choose Google Analytics if…
Pick Contentsquare if you are a product, UX or CRO-minded team and your bottleneck is understanding on-site behaviour, not counting traffic. You already know where the drop-off is and now need to watch real sessions, read heatmaps and trace journeys to fix conversion friction. The free tier and 40 USD/mo Growth plan let you start small; the sales-led Pro and Enterprise tiers are there when you scale. It connects to Salesforce, HubSpot, your web analytics and A/B testing via open APIs, so it sits alongside GA4 rather than ripping it out.
Other options worth a look
View session recordings and heatmaps free to understand how users navigate your website or app.
Links marketing touchpoints and ad spend to customer revenue and pipeline for B2B SaaS teams.
Lightweight, open-source web analytics that shows your traffic on one page without cookies or consent banners.
Assigns unique phone numbers to campaigns so inbound calls can be attributed to their original marketing source.