Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a widely-used tool that allows businesses to manage and deploy marketing tags on their websites or mobile apps without editing the code. While GTM offers flexibility and robust features, there are reasons why some businesses may seek alternatives – whether it’s due to privacy concerns, specific feature needs, or the complexity of Google Tag Manager for smaller teams.
Why Look for Alternatives to Google Tag Manager?
Those who are Google Tag Manager power users like myself, it seems like a crazy question – why would you move away from it? It’s free, it’s integrated nicely with all the marketing tech. What more do you want??!
Over my time in corporate agencyland, I’ve come to realise the list of reasons are fairly small, but they do make sense from the business’ perspective –
- Privacy and Compliance: Some businesses, especially in industries like healthcare or finance, have very stringent privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR or HIPAA) and may prefer tools that don’t interact with Google’s ecosystem.
- Security: In larger organisations, giving lots of different users access to GTM creates a lot of security holes that is difficult to manage. A bad actor is essentially able to run their own javascript on the page, potentially creating havoc, steal data, and damage the brand.
- Specialised Features: Some companies need very specific features—such as advanced tracking for mobile apps or easier integrations—that may be better served by other tools.
- Speed and Performance: Not all businesses want to use javascript heavy tools that can impact website performance. Alternatives to GTM may offer more lightweight tracking solutions. This is actually one of our main pet peeves with GTM as it negatively impacts Google’s own PageSpeed tool.
- Cost & Complexity Considerations: GTM is free, but the associated Google products and premium support is quite expensive, especially for small businesses or less technical users. This may push businesses to look at paid solutions with integrated support options. At least there, they’ll have someone they can look to for help.
Without further ado, here are our top alternatives to Google Tag Manager
Tealium iQ
Tealium iQ is a leading enterprise-level tag management system, perfect for organisations that need more control and support than GTM offers. It’s particularly well-suited for businesses with complex data needs.
Key Features:
- Enterprise-level support and training
- Strong focus on data privacy and compliance
- Seamless integration with a wide range of marketing tools
Good for:
Enterprises with large websites and complex data privacy requirements.
Adobe Launch
Adobe Launch is part of the Adobe Experience Cloud and integrates directly with other Adobe products, making it an ideal solution for organisations already embedded in the Adobe ecosystem.
Key Features:
- Built-in integrations with Adobe’s suite of products (Analytics, Target, etc.)
- Server-side data collection for more control
- Drag-and-drop interface that simplifies tag management
Good for:
Companies that rely on Adobe Experience Cloud for marketing, analytics, and personalisation.
Matomo Tag Manager
Matomo is a privacy-centric alternative that provides a tag management solution within its analytics platform. Unlike Google, Matomo offers full ownership of your data.
This service is actually one of our favourites as it integrates easily with WordPress and is in line with the older style Universal Analytics (yay!) instead of the current Google Analytics 4 (ew!)
Key Features:
- Focus on data privacy and user autonomy
- Full integration with Matomo Analytics
- Simple interface, suited for users of varying technical expertise
- Server side tracking!
Good for:
Organisations concerned with privacy, particularly those that want to avoid sending data to third-party companies like Google.
The option to have server side tracking is actually a major plus since the use of adblock is growing every year and Google Analytics data is lost due to this.
Segment by Twilio
Segment is a powerful Customer Data Platform (CDP) that can replace both your tag manager and parts of your analytics stack. It provides extensive integrations and advanced data routing capabilities.
Key Features:
- Real-time event tracking
- Ability to send data to multiple analytics tools and marketing platforms
- Robust API for deep customisation
Good for:
Good for businesses who are already using the Twilio / Segment Customer Data Platform.
Piwik PRO Tag Manager
Piwik PRO Tag Manager is another privacy-first alternative that focuses on strict data privacy controls while offering tag management features similar to GTM.
Key Features:
- Compliance with GDPR and HIPAA
- On-premise hosting option
- Rich integration with analytics and marketing platforms
Good for:
Privacy-focused companies in regulated industries, such as healthcare, banking, and government.
Enterprise Tag Manager
Enterprise Tag Manager (previously known as TagCommander) is a less popular but powerful tag management solution designed for marketers. It provides extensive support for customer data management, personalisation, and optimisation.
Key Features:
- Customer journey mapping tools
- Real-time data collection and segmentation
- Easy integration with a variety of advertising and analytics platforms
Good for:
Companies focusing on marketing automation, personalisation, and detailed customer journey mapping.
Cloudflare Zaraz
Cloudflare Zaraz is a relatively new but innovative tool in the tag management space. As part of Cloudflare’s ecosystem, Zaraz focuses on improving website performance by running third-party tools and analytics in the cloud instead of the user’s browser.
Key Features:
- Server-side execution of third-party scripts, reducing website load times and improving performance
- Privacy-first approach, with no data being shared with third-party platforms
- Strong integration with Cloudflare’s security features
- Helps with PageSpeed scores.
Good for:
Businesses looking to improve site performance and security while maintaining a streamlined approach to tag management.
It’s actually what we use on Ample Tech as it is one of the few tools that actually helps Google’s PageSpeed scores.
What’s the Right Tag Management Solution for You?
Selecting the best alternative to Google Tag Manager depends largely on your business needs, budget, and technical requirements.
But for majority of websites, Google Tag Manager is generally enough. If we had to pick an alternative, it would be Cloudflare’s Zaraz (which we personally use), or Matomo because it integrates with Matomo Analytics.
The only reason you might want to deviate away from these tools is if your business is in Europe with their GDPR laws and/or in healthcare, finance or other highly regulated industry where you need to have very strong, compliant data privacy protections, in which case, Tealium IQ, Piwik Pro, or Adobe Launch is your best bet.
If you need help with your tag manager, whether it be Google’s Tag Manager or one of the many alternatives, we can help set up your analytics so you can measure and track your marketing dollars wisely!
