Migrating to European Tag Management and Analytics platforms

How to make the right choice

  • Article
  • Data Strategy
  • Technical Web Analytics
  • EuroStack Transition Framework
European tag management platforms

Due to recent geopolitical developments, such as heightened concerns about privacy and legislation, many organisations are reassessing their dependence on US-based software solutions. At the same time, the call for greater control over data and reduced reliance on external parties is growing louder.

Migrating your tag management system (TMS) or web analytics platform (WAP) to European alternatives can be an important step in reducing this dependency. But what are the real implications of such a migration?

This article is part of the “EuroStack” series, in which we help organisations make the transition to European alternatives for their data and analytics environment.

Series overview:

Why these platforms?

Tag management systems (TMS) and web analytics platforms (WAP) form the foundation of many data-driven ambitions. They translate behaviour on websites and apps into insights, activation, and personalisation. Although they are closely related, they fulfil fundamentally different roles and therefore deserve separate consideration.

Tag Management Systems (TMS)

A TMS allows you to manage tracking codes (tags) easily, without having to modify your website or app code directly. This gives you greater control over which data you collect and how it is processed or forwarded to other systems.

TMS platforms remain essential because they:

  • pre-process data before it is sent to analytics or advertising platforms
  • read and structure information via cookies or device IDs
  • translate consent status into actions and data flows

Web Analytics Platforms (WAP)

Web analytics platforms provide insights into how users interact with your digital environment. They help you understand where visitors come from, what they do, and where friction or opportunities arise. These insights are crucial for optimisation, personalisation, and strategic decision-making.

However, WAPs are under pressure. Their impact has declined, mainly due to:

  • stricter regulation, browser tracking prevention, and rising privacy awareness
  • a growing need to connect online data with offline sources
  • more complex analysis and activation requirements, such as audience segmentation or predictive models

The role of TMS and WAP

We increasingly see that TMS and WAP data do not stand alone but form part of broader data strategies. Interactions on digital platforms are combined with other data sources to create a more complete and accurate customer view. This serves not only analysis but also activation in marketing, service, and product development.

But which solutions are available? And how do European alternatives compare to the established US-based platforms? In the next section, we compare several leading platforms based on the most relevant criteria.

What are your options?

Just like their US counterparts, many European providers now offer integrated solutions: a Tag Management System (TMS) combined with a Web Analytics Platform (WAP). This can offer integration benefits, but most web analytics platforms also work perfectly well with external TMS solutions, so vendor lock-in can often be avoided.

To provide a fair comparison, we examine both types of platforms separately, using relevant and commonly applied criteria.

Tag management systems

For TMS solutions, we focus on five core categories:

  1. Functionality: Think of data processing, decision logic, vendor support, and server-side tracking.
  2. Performance: What is the impact on your site? How scalable is the solution? How does the platform handle peak traffic?
  3. Ease of use: How intuitive is the interface, and how easy is it to manage
  4. Compliance: Support for consent management, self-hosting, and customisable processing logic.
  5. Support: The level of assistance from the provider, documentation, community, and training resources.
Tag Management Systems (TMS) comparison

Although all platforms offer value, their focus and functionality differ significantly.
Commanders Act and JENTIS offer a full-fledged server-side tracking platform for organisations with strict compliance and enterprise requirements – though this comes with limited client-side capabilities.

Piwik PRO is accessible, well supported, and strikes a good balance between features and flexibility.
Matomo is particularly attractive for organisations seeking maximum control, with features such as self-hosting and server tracking.
Piwik PRO and Matomo offer more flexible tag management options, with hybrid client- and server-side setups.

Finally, there is also EU-hosted sGTM. Unlike the other tools mentioned, this is not a European product – but you can configure it entirely within Europe. You can manage this yourself or outsource it to parties like Stape. However, you will still be subject to the known limitations and risks of sGTM.

Web Analytics Platforms

Web analytics requires a deeper set of criteria because of its greater functional complexity. We use six main categories:

  1. Reporting: From standard reports to real-time insights, dashboards, attribution, segmentation, and predictive analytics
  2. Ease of use: Collaboration options, UI design, data processing speed, and management tools
  3. Data integrations: Import/export, APIs, native connections, and ecosystem extensions
  4. Data & implementation: Flexibility of the data model, availability of prebuilt options, SDKs for apps
  5. Compliance: Consent management, self-hosting, and control over data processing
  6. Other factors: Cost structure, vendor support, and quality of the user community
Web Analytics Platform (WAP) comparison

Piano Analytics is the most powerful option in terms of reporting and data processing, ideal for enterprise use cases, but less accessible and affordable for smaller teams.
Piwik PRO provides a strong all-round experience, with excellent compliance, support, and solid dashboards.

Plausible and Fathom are extremely lightweight, privacy-friendly, and easy to use, but lack advanced features like segmentation or custom attribution.
Matomo sits somewhere in between: open source, flexible in terms of hosting, but limited in reporting depth and integrations.

What about hybrid approaches?

Migration does not need to be an all-or-nothing decision. There are several hybrid approaches that help you mitigate risk and maintain flexibility. Examples include self-hosting Google Tag Manager scripts to bring more client-side tracking under your control or deploying a server-side tag management configuration via a European cloud provider.

Some organisations also choose to run two web analytics platforms in parallel: one for day-to-day operations and another as a privacy-friendly alternative. Whatever you choose, make sure your implementation remains agnostic, so you can quickly adapt when legislation, technology, or company policy changes. This helps you avoid being locked in and prevents costly and lengthy migrations later.

Conclusion

The digital data infrastructure landscape is changing rapidly due to geopolitics, regulatory shifts, and growing concerns about data sovereignty. It makes sense to prepare your organisation now, rather than wait until you are forced to act.

This does not mean you must immediately abandon US solutions – they often offer powerful features and mature support. At the same time, European alternatives are rapidly maturing and already excel in areas such as compliance and transparency.

By exploring which platforms best fit your strategy and technical maturity today, you give yourself the freedom to move gradually towards a future-proof setup. Choose deliberately, implement agnostically, and stay agile.

Are you considering a migration or looking for a sparring partner to explore your options? We’d be happy to help as your data partner – get in touch or schedule a call.

Want to know more?

Joachim will be happy to talk to you about what we can do for you and your organisation as a data partner.

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There are reasons abound for deploying a tagging server on your website. This blog will not be about why it makes sense (or why perhaps in your case it doesn’t) to use server-side tagging. Instead we will jump forward in time and ask ourselves another pertinent question: ‘how can you tell if your tagging server is doing what it is supposed to?’

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Three trainees talking about Digital Power's Tracking & Analytics traineeship

Consultancy.nl interviewed our Nissreen, Gianni and Yannick about their experiences on Digital Power's tracking and analytics traineeship. What attracted them to the traineeship? What is the Digital Power company culture like? What project are you running now? What are the highlights and what is the mentoring like?

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Webinar: Data Governance

In this webinar, we discuss the maturity model that we apply to quantify the maturity of different dimensions of data governance. Additionally, we provide concrete steps and implementation tips to start providing added value through data management.

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Implementation of e-commerce tracking for Google Analytics 4

MS Mode & America Today used Universal Analytics (UA) for analysing their online stores. They had fully implemented e-commerce tracking, with KPIs such as transactions, average order value, and abandoned shopping carts visualised in Looker Studio.

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Transitioning from Universal Analytics 360 to Google Analytics 4 and Streamlining Data Analysis

There are currently a lot of developments surrounding Google Analytics, including user privacy (GDPR) and the sunset of Universal Analytics. For Miele X, the digital branch of Miele, GA4 was also one of the topics on their agenda as part of their bigger plans towards a more privacy-centric and vendor-agnostic way of data collection. They enlisted our help to support them with the transition from Universal Analytics 360 to GA4.

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Digital Power launches new data strategy offering

Digital Power has launched a new data strategy proposition to help its clients define and realise their goals for datadriven working. “Few organisations know how to convert the insights from their data into results. What they lack is a good data strategy,” says Charlotte Vonkeman, who is responsible for the new proposition.

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EU-US data transfers, three times a charm or not?

July got off to a rocky start. First, we saw the Swedish Data Protection Agency (DPA) issued a warning to stop using Google Analytics due to the risks posed to privacy under the lack of an adequacy decision for EU-US data transfers. In the same week, the EU Commission reached an adequacy decision with the US for the third time. Can you now finally share personal data for all purposes with US based organisations or should you change course?

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Getting started as a data trainee with JavaScript, HTML and web data

How does the Tracking & Analytics traineeship work in practice? When do you start working on real challenges for clients? And how can you develop yourself during this traineeship? Our trainee Nadine Spijker will tell you more about it.

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Interview with data trainee Jasper

What does the Tracking & Analytics traineeship look like in practice? When do you start working on real challenges for clients? And how can you develop yourself in this traineeship? Our trainee Jasper van der Meer tells us more about it.

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Getting started with your data strategy

Download our e-book about data strategy and learn how to maintain control and truly extract value from your data.

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Data strategy expert interview: a golden mountain of data

Nowadays, almost every organisation is aware of the need to work data driven. They understand the importance, but few have managed to succesfully implement a data strategy. In this interview series we talk about the definition of data strategy, use cases, opportunities and tips from data strategy experts.

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Data strategy expert interview: data strategy from a holistic perspective

Nowadays, almost every organisation is aware of the need to work data driven. They understand the importance, but few have managed to succesfully implement a data strategy. In this interview series we talk about the definition of data strategy, use cases, opportunities and tips from data strategy experts.

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How do you collect data while protecting the privacy of EU citizens?

The world of web analytics is constantly changing due to technological and legal developments. One significant event in the field of technical web analytics is the introduction of server-side tracking, which allows companies to have full control over their data flows.

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Future-proof migration to GA4

From 1 July 2024, it will no longer be possible to process data in Universal Analytics 360 (hereinafter: UA360). Wehkamp collected data in UA360 and was keen to be prepared in time for the migration. In addition, they wanted to collect at least 1 year of historical data for UA360's sunset. This allowed Wehkamp to compare the data in UA360 and in GA4. A key desire was to migrate the measurements as-is.

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Data strategy expert interview: data-driven start-ups

Nowadays, almost every organisation is aware of the need to work data driven. They understand the importance, but few have managed to succesfully implement a data strategy. In this interview series we talk about the definition of data strategy, use cases, opportunities and tips from data strategy experts.

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Getting started with your data strategy

How does all the data you collect effectively contribute to achieving the organisational goals? Few organisations actually succeed in converting insights from their data into results. As a data consultancy firm, we regularly talk to organisations that are overwhelmed by the vast array of tools and the large amount of data, and can no longer see the wood for the trees. Does this sound familiar? The development and implementation of a well-thought-out data strategy will help you regain control.

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Switching from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

On 14 October 2020, Google launched the new version of Analytics: Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Soon after the launch, it became clear that a number of important functionalities from Universal Analytics (GA3) were missing, and therefore the time to switch seemed far away. Fortunately, we see that the development team on the side of Google has not been idle. Some nice features have since been introduced within GA4 that have narrowed the gap between GA3 and GA4. This article answers the questions that are increasingly being asked about GA4.

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Implementing a standardised digital data layer

ABN AMRO partnered with our team to create a standardised digital data layer, addressing challenges with uniformity, reliability, and efficiency in their migration to a new analytics platform. The new standard allows for consistent tagging of all online components, leading to improved tagging management and reliable digital data for future use.

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Google Analytics 4 vs. Google Analytics 3: What are the pros and cons?

If you want to keep track of free statistics about website visitors and their behaviour on your website, you will quickly turn to Google Analytics. With the free version of Universal Analytics (better known as GA3), it only takes a few minutes to set up basic metrics such as users, sessions and pageviews. For more extensive analyses, you have the paid version Google Analytics 360. As of July 2023, GA3 will no longer be supported by Google. Time to switch to the new GA4. Read all about the pros and cons of the new Google Analytics in this article.

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What to do about broken Looker Studio dashboards?

Did the following scenario happen to you last week? While enjoying your morning coffee, you take a look at your pride and joy: a meticulously created Looker Studio dashboard built with the GA4 connector. You rub the sleep from your eyes and see your charts are all broken. Frantic phone calls from colleagues are pouring in. What is happening? Find out in this post what the consequences of Google’s newly imposed quota on the Google Analytics Data API are.

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Data strategy expert interview: from vision to practice

Nowadays, almost every organisation is aware of the need to work data driven. They understand the importance, but few have managed to succesfully implement a data strategy. In this interview series we talk about the definition of data strategy, use cases, opportunities and tips from data strategy experts.

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Integration web and app data contributes to a 360-degree customer view

Univé is a Dutch insurance company that offers insurance, financial products, and services to both consumers and businesses. The company is focused on providing high-quality service and helping customers make responsible financial decisions. Since 2014, we have been working closely with Univé.

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Implementation of Google Analytics 4

An interest group for homeowners offers a wide range of content and services on its website that can be closed online. In order to serve its website visitors in the best possible way, interactions with the services, funnels and content pages must be properly measured. They already did this with our support, with Universal Analytics (GA3). To be well prepared for the future, they asked us to implement Google Analytics 4.

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Getting started as a data trainee with JavaScript, HTML and CSS

What does the Tracking & Analytics traineeship look like in practice? When do you start working on real issues for clients? And how can you develop yourself in this traineeship? Our trainee Bob Wassenaar tells us more about it in the 'From data to action' podcast. Listen to the podcast or find out all about it in the article below.

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Being trained as a Technical Web Analyst, why and how?

A new group of trainees Tracking & Analytics will start soon. They will be trained as Technical Web Analysts and can become part of the Digital Power team after their traineeship. But what does a Technical Web Analyst (not) do and what can you expect from this traineeship? In this podcast, Marloes interviews her colleague Jos on this topic.

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Digital Power Datahub and Partos launch the Data Awareness series

On February 10, 2022, the Digital Power Datahub and the Partos Digital Lab together kicked off the Data Awareness series with the Intro to Data Awareness. This series of 6 training courses develops the Datahub especially for the members of Partos; non-profits in the development cooperation industry. The aim of the series is to make development cooperation specialists data-wise, so that they can make and measure more impact.

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Which data traineeship is right for you?

You are almost done with your studies and looking for an employer that offers you the opportunity to learn everything about the field of data. Or you are no longer challenged in your current position and would like to become more technical. In both cases, you do not want to follow unpaid courses, but you would like to get started as soon as possible for real customers, with a serious salary. Does this sound familiar? Then these data traineeships are really something for you.

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Learn to code in JavaScript

As a data professional you never stop learning. Your field is developing at lightning speed and you have to continuously develop yourself to keep up. In recent years, for example, new functions have been created such as Data Scientist and Data Engineer. There is also an increasing need for data professionals who can code. But how do you learn to code in Javascript? We developed an internal training programme for this.

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What are cookies?

Cookies. This word comes up a lot in the world of marketing and online analytics. But what exactly are those cookies? And are there different types of cookies?

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Measure ecommerce events in GA4 and Universal Analytics with only the updated datalayer pushes

With our variable in the Google Tag Manager Community Template Gallery it is easy to start using all the new ecommerce analytics capabilities that Google Analytics 4 offers while fully supporting the 'old' enhanced ecommerce of Universal Analytics. Find out how the variable works.

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A new tagging structure for the App and website

Univé is the only Dutch insurer with a website, App and physical stores. They therefore follow an omni-channel strategy. According to its own '1 digital front door principle', the insurer also wanted to offer customers the opportunity to take out/change insurance policies and report damages via the App. They asked our Data Analysts to make the new funnels measurable.

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How do I set up Google Tag Manager?

A tag management system such as Google Tag Manager (GTM) enables you to measure visitor behaviour on your website. You can also implement marketing pixels (such as Google Ads and Facebook) and cookie banners via this platform. This article gives you tips to keep in mind when setting up GTM. This allows you to collect reliable and usable data, and you will be less dependent on your web developers.

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A structured, scalable tag plan for Mijn Vattenfall

Nuon became Vattenfall in October 2019. The rebranding was a good reason to optimise Analytics. There was a renewed focus on applying insights from user data in the Mijn Vattenfall environment. The data collected for this was not always reliable. In addition, there was insufficient knowledge and capacity within the department to maintain the Analytics. The energy supplier asked for our help to support them in re-establishing the tagging and analytics of Mijn Vattenfall.

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Standardise Adobe Analytics implementation for complete insight into the customer journey

Within KPN, one team is responsible for the implementation of Adobe Analytics, the Digital Performance team. Due to the working method that had developed before the formation of this team, the specialists did not work together optimally.

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Streamlining web development using a tag management plan

To have a good overview of the results of multiple websites at the same time, you need a clear structure as a basis. RNW Media has several project websites, some of which are available in different languages. Our own web development team is responsible for the build and maintenance of this. They set to work with a building block model for building new websites. We were asked to provide a structural solution for measuring all websites.

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Higher customer satisfaction and increased conversion by setting up an A/B test environment

Vodafone started a 3-month 'digital boost' project with the aim of improving the conversion of the online shop. The project team consisted of external digital professionals, each with their own specialism. As part of this project, we set up an A/B test environment with the aim of improving the user experience and thus increasing conversion.

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