Key Takeaways
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Google Analytics 4 is the default choice for millions of websites, but it was designed for Web2 applications tracking page views and form submissions. If you are building onchain applications, GA4 cannot answer the questions that actually matter: which wallets are converting, where your highest-value users come from, or how campaigns perform from first touch to final transaction.
Formo is an analytics platform built specifically for Web3 product and marketing teams. It unifies offchain web data with onchain transaction data, giving you wallet-level insights into user behaviour, attribution, and revenue without requiring a data engineering team.
This comparison breaks down the functional differences between GA4 and Formo across tracking capabilities, data integration, metrics, and use cases.
Feature Comparison at a Glance
Capability | Google Analytics 4 | Formo |
Web analytics | Page views, sessions, bounce rate | Page views, sessions, bounce rate + wallet connects |
User identification | Cookies, Google Signals, User ID | Wallet addresses (persistent across devices) |
Event tracking | Autocapture for standard events; manual setup for custom events | Autocapture for wallet events (connects, signatures, transactions) |
Onchain data | None | Smart contract events, token transfers, transaction volume, gas fees |
Attribution models | Last-click, data-driven (offchain only) | Full-funnel offchain-to-onchain attribution |
Revenue tracking | E-commerce transactions, custom revenue events | Revenue per wallet (RPW), transaction volume, token value |
Retention & cohorts | Event-based cohorts | Wallet-based cohorts (new, returning, at-risk, churned) |
Wallet intelligence | N/A | Net worth, DeFi activity, token holdings, ENS/social profiles |
Multi-chain support | N/A | Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, and more |
Data retention | Default 2 months (Explorations); up to 14 months configurable; 50 months on GA360 | 1 year (Free) · Unlimited (Enterprise) |
Privacy model | Cookie-based (subject to GDPR/CCPA) | Wallet-based (no personal data required) |
Pricing | Free (standard) · ~$4,167/month starting (GA360) | Free · $159/month · $399/month |
The Core Difference: Web2 vs Web3 Analytics
The gap between GA4 and Formo is not about features; it is about what each platform was built to measure.
What GA4 Was Designed For
GA4 tracks user behaviour through cookie-based sessions and event-driven tracking. It excels at measuring page views, bounce rates, session duration, conversion funnels for form fills and purchases, traffic sources and campaign performance via UTM parameters, and cross-platform tracking across web and mobile.
This model works well for e-commerce sites, SaaS landing pages, and content platforms where the conversion happens within the browser.
What Formo Was Built For
Formo tracks the full user journey from offchain engagement to onchain conversion. Instead of cookies, it uses wallet addresses as the primary identifier. This enables wallet-level behaviour tracking across sessions and devices, smart contract interactions and transaction volume, onchain attribution connecting marketing touchpoints to transactions, and Revenue Per Wallet (RPW), the Web3 equivalent of LTV.
The practical difference: GA4 tells you a user visited your site and clicked "Connect Wallet". Formo tells you that wallet later executed a $2,300 swap, holds 15 ETH across three protocols, and came from a Twitter campaign you ran two weeks ago. One is a session. The other is a user profile with revenue data.
Where GA4 Falls Short for Onchain Applications
GA4 was designed for a world where conversions happen in the browser. For onchain apps, this creates structural blind spots that no amount of custom event tracking can fully fix.
The Cookie Problem
GA4 relies on cookies for user identification. When users switch devices, clear their cookies, or use privacy-focused browsers (as many crypto users do), GA4 treats them as new visitors. This fragments your data and makes attribution unreliable.
Formo uses wallet addresses as persistent identifiers. A user who visits your site on mobile, connects their wallet on desktop, and executes a transaction a week later is tracked as a single user across the entire journey.
The Onchain Data Gap
GA4 has no native support for blockchain data. You can track a "wallet_connect" event, but GA4 cannot tell you what that wallet did after connecting: no transactions, no revenue, no true retention. GA4 can measure interest (clicks, connects), but not outcomes (revenue, retention, LTV). For onchain apps, outcomes happen on the blockchain, not in the browser.
Manual Event Tracking Overhead
To track wallet events in GA4, you need to manually instrument every wallet interaction (connect, sign, transaction) via Google Tag Manager or custom code, configure custom dimensions for wallet addresses, and build custom reports to visualise the data. Formo's autocapture handles wallet connects, signatures, and transactions automatically once you install the SDK.
What Formo Enables That GA4 Cannot
Wallet Intelligence
Formo enriches wallet addresses with contextual data pulled from onchain activity and public profiles (ENS, Lens, Farcaster). This turns anonymous addresses into actionable user profiles. Wallet intelligence surfaces net worth across chains, DeFi protocol usage, token and NFT holdings, social handles, and behavioural labels such as power user, whale, at-risk, and churned. GA4 has no equivalent capability.
Onchain Attribution
Formo tracks the full funnel from offchain touchpoint to onchain conversion. If a user clicks a Twitter ad, visits your site, connects their wallet, and executes a $5,000 swap three days later, Formo attributes that revenue to the Twitter campaign, across devices and sessions. GA4's attribution breaks the moment the user leaves your site or clears cookies.
Revenue Per Wallet (RPW)
RPW is the total onchain transaction value generated by a single wallet, equivalent to customer LTV in Web3. Formo calculates it automatically. You can see which acquisition channels bring in the highest-value wallets, which wallets are worth retaining, and how RPW changes over time. GA4 cannot calculate RPW because the data lives onchain, not in the browser.
When to Choose Each Platform
✅ Choose Formo if… | ⚡ Choose GA4 if… |
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The Hybrid Approach
Many teams use both: GA4 for top-of-funnel metrics (traffic, referrals, content engagement) and Formo for bottom-of-funnel metrics (wallet connects, transactions, revenue, retention). This gives visibility into the full journey, but requires managing two platforms and manually connecting data. Formo's unified analytics eliminates the need for this by tracking both web and onchain events in one platform.
Pricing and Setup
Google Analytics 4
Formo
ROI note: GA4 is free but the hidden cost is engineering time. Instrumenting wallet events manually can take weeks. Formo's autocapture eliminates that overhead; most teams are generating insights within an hour of signing up. |
Migrating from GA4 to Formo
If you are currently using GA4 and considering Formo, migration is straightforward.
Install Formo: sign up, create a workspace, and add the Formo SDK to your site's <head> section (single script tag).
Map your events: Formo autocaptures standard wallet events. For custom GA4 events you want to preserve, Formo lets you map them to maintain reporting continuity.
Run both in parallel: validate that Formo is capturing the data you need. Most teams run both for 2 to 4 weeks before fully switching.
Sunset GA4: remove the GA4 script. Formo's unified analytics replaces both GA4 and any custom onchain tracking you built.
What about historical data? Formo does not currently support importing historical GA4 data, but you can export your GA4 data via the GA4 Data API and store it separately for reference. All new data from the point of migration is captured in Formo. |
Real-World Impact: What Teams Say
"Using other tools with onchain data was clunky for analytics, especially in web3." Zachariah Zhang, Product Manager in DeFi |
"Formo gave us valuable insight into where our users are finding us, how active they are across DeFi, and socials where we can reach them." Vince DePalma, CTO at Kairos Swap (processed over $200M in volume on Base) |
"A strong fit for crypto startups. Formo is straightforward to use and covers most core metrics without requiring a complex data stack." Will Fey, Founder at Ammalgam (backed by Lightspeed Faction and Framework Ventures) |
The Bottom Line
For most onchain applications, GA4 is a partial solution at best. It can tell you who visited your site, but it cannot tell you who converted, how much revenue they generated, or whether they came back. Formo was built to answer those questions.
Choose GA4 if your conversions happen entirely offchain and you need a free, proven solution for standard web metrics. Choose Formo if you are building onchain and your analytics need to extend beyond the wallet connect button, reaching the transactions, revenue, and retention that actually determine your protocol's health.
If your analytics stack ends at "wallet connect", you're flying blind. GA4 tracks page views. Formo tracks protocol outcomes: swaps, stakes, mints, and the wallet profiles behind them. Most onchain teams set up Formo in under 10 minutes and immediately see data they never had before. What you get with Formo:
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More in This Series
Evaluating your Web3 analytics stack? Read the other comparisons in this series:
Web3-native analytics vs the product analytics standard | How the Coinbase acquisition changed the analytics landscape |
Comparing Web3 analytics and growth platforms | Onchain attribution and audience targeting compared |
Behavioural analytics for Web2 vs Web3 product teams | Open-source product analytics vs onchain-native |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can GA4 track wallet activity and onchain conversions?
No. GA4 can track a wallet connect event, but cannot see what happens onchain after that: no transactions, no revenue, no retention. For full-funnel onchain tracking, see Formo's onchain attribution.
Why is cookie-based tracking unreliable for crypto users?
Crypto users frequently use privacy-focused browsers and extensions that block or clear cookies, causing GA4 to fragment a single user across multiple sessions. Wallet addresses are persistent across devices and sessions. Read more about cookieless attribution.
What is Revenue Per Wallet (RPW)?
RPW is the total onchain transaction value generated by a single wallet, equivalent to customer lifetime value in Web3. GA4 cannot calculate it because the data lives onchain. Learn more about RPW and Web3 monetisation.
How does Formo measure retention differently from GA4?
GA4 measures retention by session activity on your site. Formo measures it by wallet activity on your protocol: did the user return and transact again? This reflects real protocol engagement, not just page visits. Explore Formo's retention analytics.
Which teams should still use GA4 alongside Formo?
Teams with significant content or marketing sites benefit from GA4 for top-of-funnel web metrics. Formo then handles everything from wallet connect onwards. See ourGoogle Analytics alternatives guide.
