Google Analytics 4 is free and does almost everything — which is exactly why most teams never fully learn it. Orbit trades GA4's breadth for a dashboard you can read in ten seconds, without the cookie banner GA4 usually forces on you in the EU.
| Feature | Orbit | Google Analytics 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Cookies required | No cookies | Usually yes, for identifiers |
| Data sampling | Never | Yes, on Explore reports and high traffic |
| Setup time | One script tag, dashboard ready in minutes | Property + data stream + event config, often a half-day project |
| Multi-site view | One Board across all your sites | Separate property per site, no unified view |
| Pricing | Free for 1 site, €4.99/mo for 5 | Free, unlimited properties |
| Data retention | Unlimited on paid plans | 14 months by default (extendable for some reports) |
If you need ads integration, BigQuery export, or deep event modeling, GA4's complexity is the price of that power. If you just want to know how many people visited, where from, and whether that number is going up, Orbit gets you there without the setup project or the cookie banner.
In most configurations, yes — GA4 sets identifiers that count as personal data under GDPR, so EU visitors typically need to see a consent banner before tracking starts. Orbit doesn't use cookies, so no banner is required.
On higher-traffic properties and in Explore reports, GA4 applies statistical sampling to keep queries fast, which means the numbers you see are estimates, not exact counts. Orbit counts every pageview directly, no sampling.
Yes — add Orbit's script tag alongside your existing GA4 tag, run both in parallel for a few weeks to build confidence in the numbers, then remove GA4 and its consent banner once you're ready.
No — Orbit is deliberately narrower. If you need ad-platform conversion tracking, audience exports to Google Ads, or BigQuery export, GA4 still does that better. Orbit is for teams who want traffic and engagement numbers without the complexity.