Your Data Shouldn't Be Google's Hostage

We’ve spent the last fifteen years building data warehouses, and we’re tired of watching smart analysts bang their heads against the wall.

Every week, we see the same story play out: brilliant data teams spending more time wrestling with Google Analytics 4’s broken schema than actually analyzing data. CMOs wondering what happens when Google changes the rules again. Compliance officers quietly panicking about where their data actually lives.

And everyone just… accepts it. Like this is the price we pay for “free” analytics.

Well, we’re done accepting it. And after talking to hundreds of data teams, we know we’re not alone.

The Real Cost of “Free” Analytics

Look, GA4 isn’t actually free. You’re paying with something more valuable than money: your time, your sanity, and your data sovereignty.

Here’s what Google’s “gift” actually costs you:

• Your analysts spend half their time fighting the schema instead of finding insights. Nested JSON structures that make seasoned SQL developers want to quit. Missing session entities (seriously, Google removed sessions). The constant disconnect between what you see in the interface and what you get in BigQuery exports.
• Your marketing attribution is broken.** Ever tried to connect GA4 data to your Google Ads spend? Good luck finding a reliable GCLID in BigQuery. UTM parameters that disappear. Attribution models that work differently in every export.
• Your compliance team is one regulatory change away from a heart attack. Your data lives on Google’s servers, in Google’s jurisdiction, under Google’s terms. When Schrems III hits (and it will), or when your industry regulator decides third-party analytics violate patient privacy, you’ll have about 24 hours to figure out a backup plan.
• You have zero control. Google changes the schema, you adapt. Google deprecates a feature, you find workarounds. Google decides your industry is too risky, you scramble for alternatives.

This isn’t analytics. It’s digital sharecropping, and frankly, we’re all too smart to keep doing it.

What Actually Works: Lessons from 15 Years in Data

We’ve built data platforms for healthcare systems handling millions of patient records. Financial institutions tracking every transaction across multiple jurisdictions. Government agencies that can’t let data leave their infrastructure, ever.

Here’s what we’ve learned: the best analytics platform is the one you control.

Not the one with the fanciest UI. Not the one with the biggest marketing budget. The one where you own the code, control the infrastructure, and can audit every line of data processing.

That’s why we built something different.

Our Solution: Analytics That Actually Makes Sense

We took everything broken about GA4 and fixed it — not with Band-Aids and workarounds, but by rebuilding the foundation properly.

• Clean, logical data schema. No nested JSON nightmares. Session entities that actually exist. Event parameters you can query without losing your mind. Your SQL analysts will thank you.
• Complete data fidelity. Every GCLID, every UTM parameter, every custom dimension preserved exactly as sent. No sampling, no privacy thresholds, no mysterious data gaps. You get ALL your data, not Google’s filtered version.
• Real-time processing. Sub-second latency from event collection to queryable data. Because waiting 24–48 hours for GA4 to “process” your data is ridiculous in 2025.
• Deploy anywhere. Your AWS account, your on-premises data center, your air-gapped government cloud. EU jurisdiction, HIPAA-compliant infrastructure, or behind your corporate firewall. Your data, your infrastructure, your rules.
• GA4 compatibility. Uses the exact same measurement protocol as GA4. Your marketing team keeps their familiar tracking setup; your data team gets clean, queryable tables. Perfect data match during transition.

Why This Matters More Than Ever

Let us be blunt: if you’re in healthcare, financial services, or government, GA4 is a compliance time bomb waiting to explode.

HIPAA doesn’t care about Google’s security certifications. Patient data sitting on Google’s servers, processed by Google’s algorithms, stored in Google’s jurisdiction — that’s a violation waiting for an audit.

Financial regulators want data sovereignty. Post-login customer journeys, transaction analytics, private user behavior — all invisible to third-party platforms for good reason.

The EU isn’t done with data transfers. Schrems III is coming. The Privacy Framework will get invalidated again. When it happens, your GA4 goes dark overnight, and you’ll need a plan.

We’ve seen too many organizations scramble when regulations change or vendors shift terms. The smart ones prepare before they have to.

The Open Source Difference

We’re not building another SaaS platform that’ll hold your data hostage in five years. We’re building open source infrastructure that you own.

• MIT licensed
• No black boxes
• No vendor lock-in
• No pricing surprises when you scale

When the next analytics giant changes their business model (and they will), you’ll be ready.

Because after 15 years of watching great data teams get burned by vendor dependencies, we believe you deserve better.

Your Move

Stop paying Google to break your data. Stop accepting vendor lock-in as inevitable. Stop pretending compliance has to choose between usability and legal safety.

Your data team is too valuable to waste time fighting broken schemas. Your business is too important to depend on the whims of tech giants.

Ready to take back control? The code is open source - deploy it yourself. Want to see it in action first? Let’s talk.

Either way, your future self will thank you.

About the authors: We’re data engineers who got tired of explaining why our analytics infrastructure kept breaking. Now we build tools that actually work for data teams instead of against them.