7 Alternatives to GTM4WP Compared

WordPress plugins like GTM4WP and its alternatives help developers track data and user actions that would be otherwise impossible to track only with GTM.

However, GTM4WP it is not a perfect solution. Some of you may find it too simple, others may find it too difficult or simply need a specific feature, that is not there.

And so, I made this comparison for you. To make it fair, I compared only GTM4WP alternatives that are free, since GTM4WP is also a free tool.

P.S. Although I did my best to test everything as well as possible, these tools are big and I might have missed something. If you see that I made a mistake somewhere, please let me know.

Alternatives to GTM4WP

In this article, I will compare GTM4WP with:

• PixelYourSite
• GTM Kit
• Google Site Kit
• Tag Pilot Free
• Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager by WEBKINDER
• Pixel Manager for WooCommerce by Sweetcode
• and WP Full Picture (my own plugin!)

Methodology of comparison

For this comparison, I installed all tools on the same website (one by one), set them up and tested the results in Google Tag Assistant.

The website has WooCommerce and uses WooCommerce blocks and a block theme. I chose blocks instead of shortcodes, because blocks are much more difficult to track.

In my tests, I concentrated on:

• ease of use (+documentation)
• features
• supported consent management tools
• WooCommerce support
• and… finding issues :)

And I started with…

GTM4WP

I started with GTM4WP to set a benchmark for other tools.

Ease of use

GTM4WP is a pretty straightforward plugin. Its settings are clearly described and divided into easy-to-understand sections.

Unfortunately, there are some functions there which can be useful only for a very, very limited number of users and I see no point in having them there. Another thing I don’t like is the documentation – it has only 4 pages and does not explain some functions of the plugin, like supported consent solutions.

I also found that some information that should have been in the documentation (like GTM templates) are in the blog section instead. No bueno.

If you are a GTM expert, then it will not be a problem for you. If you are not, then you may have some difficult time with some functions.

Overall, I give it 7/10.

Features

GTM4WP has a lot of features. Most of them are useful, but there are some, which I cannot imagine myself using.

I like that it can push to the datalayer:

• all basic post and user data
• searched phrases
• events, like navigating form fields, registrations and logging in
• WooCommerce events data (more on this later)
• scroll depth (which improves a lot over the one available as a trigger in GTM)

I also like that you can use the plugin for server-side GTM (although, for some reason, the setting for that is buried in the “advanced” tab).

Plus, GTM4WP has a GTM template, which makes it easier to use the variables in GTM.

The only thing that I am missing here is the option to track metadata. It would benefit specialized sites and stores.

For the features, I give it a solid 9/10. Well done Thomas!

Consent management support

GTM4WP has no built-in consent banner but it has settings to make it work with Cookiebot and WebToffee GDPR Cookie Consent.

I have also found information online, that it plays well with:

• CookieYes,
• Complianz,
• and OneTrust.

I could use some documentation listing the supported tools, though…

But overall, I give it 7/10.

WooCommerce support

The plugin sends information on WooCommerce events:

• add to cart (with an issue)
• view item list
• view_item (with an issue)
• remove from cart (with an issue)
• checkout
• purchase

That is great, is that the plugin also pushes to the datalayer information useful for remarketing (product IDs and SKUs) as well as complete data set for advanced matching or enhanced ecommerce.

But not everything is so great. I had some issues with tracking.

1. When I added 2 grouped products to the cart (from a page that had 3), GTM4WP reported that I added all of them.
2. View_item event did not fire for me when viewing grouped products.
3. The “remove from cart” event did not work in the block cart
4. I have not found a way to track additions to a wishlist

Taking these issues into consideration, I give it 8/10 for WooCommerce support.

Overall

GTM4WP is a good plugin with a solid set of features.

Unfortunately, it has some WooCommerce tracking issues and clearly lacks documentation.

If you know GTM well, then GTM4WP is 8/10 for you. Otherwise, it’s a 7/10.

PixelYourSite

PixelYourSite is a heavy-hitter. It has been around for years, offering direct integrations with Meta Pixel, Google Analytics and several other popular platforms.

Recently, however, it got GTM support, and so it got into this list.

Ease of use

TLDR; Chaos.

The moment I activated PYS, I was welcomed by huge notifications that take almost the whole screen and show on all pages of WP admin.

When I closed them and got to the settings page of PYS, I felt immediately confused. There was so much going on and so many elements on screen screaming for your attention.

As for the settigns themselves, the plugin has many settings and they are divided into multiple screens. Unfortunately, placement of some of these settings seems random. Two different menus, both of which are difficult to spot, only add to the confusion.

All sorts of notifications and video links in between these settings make things even worse.

So far, not good.

As for the documentation, it covers other integrations available in PYS but not the GTM module.

All in all, I give the ease-of-use 3/10.

Features

Just like GTM4WP, PixelYourSite also has a lot of features related to GTM. Among other things, it can track:

• post and user data
• WooCommerce events (more on this in a section below)
• form submissions (but not moving through the form fields, like GTM4WP)
• registrations and logins
• downloads
• scrolls
• searches
• 404 pages

In addition, it lets you send to the datalayer custom events when someone visits a specific page – although I can’t really see the use for that in GTM, which can do it internally.

There is also a GTM template for PYS to make the setup easier.

But there are also some things that are missing. There is no option to track metadata and use the server-side GTM, which is a disadvantage for some advanced users.

Overall, however, I give it a very good 8/10.

Consent management support

PixelYourSite strongly promotes its own (paid extra) “Consent Magic” banner for consent management. However, it also supports other consent management solutions, like CookieBot, CookieNotice, CookieYes and Real Cookie Banner.

I wish there were more options available, but the existing ones are pretty good.

Overall, just like with GTM4WP, I give it a 7/10.

WooCommerce support

It’s a mixed bag.

On one hand, you can track all the typical events, like additions to cart, product views, checkout and purchases.

On the other hand, in the free version of PYS, they are severely limited:

1. There is no event for tracking product list views (it is hard to say if it is in the Pro version)
2. Events do not contain product IDs (not SKUs), which means that you will not be doing any dynamic ads (see screenshot under this list)
3. The purchase event does not contain user data that could be used for advanced matching or enhanced ecommerce.
4. Switching product variants are not tracked as product views
5. When you click “Add to cart” button, the event will be tracked after the page refreshes (if you don’t use Ajax buttons)
6. Clicks in “remove from cart” buttons are not tracked (at least in my setup based on Woo blocks)

Here’s what data the plugin sends to the datalayer after clicking the “Add to cart” button. Product information in the “ecommerce” object are very limited and practically useless for marketing.

All this together does not paint a very nice picture, so I give the plugin’s WooCommerce support a 5/10.

Overall

The free version of PixelYourSite comes with limited GTM support, no documentation for GTM and confusing interface (shared with the Pro).

Users with low requirements will find it “OK” while more advanced users will need to buy the premium version to make it useful and invest a lot of time into learning how the interface works.

Overall, I give it 5/10.

GTM Kit

Before writing this article I have never heard about GTM Kit. But it is good that I did, because GTM Kit is a breath of fresh air and a very solid plugin.

There are many good things about it. Let’s start with…

Ease of use

So far, this is a winner. The moment I activated the plugin I was greeted with simple user onboarding. Surprisingly, one of the steps included importing data from GTM4WP plugin, which I liked a lot.

Next, the main plugin’s page clearly shows the way to the most important sections of the plugin, documentation, tutorials and additional materials.

As for the settings fields, they are clearly labelled and grouped into logical sections.

I liked the fact that none of the options seem to be only for a fraction of users, like the weather information in GTM4WP. This makes the plugin lean and consisting only the important functions.

As for the documentation, there was not much of it. It was on par with GTM4WP – only several pages. However, I liked the fact that the plugin includes longer descriptions of the more advanced fields, which help a bit. Still, I would not mind longer, proper explanations in the documentation.

For the ease-of-use I give GTM kit 9/10.

Consent management support

The plugin includes information and settings for the Consent Mode that Google Tag Manager uses to trigger tags. However, I found no information which consent management solutions were tested and play well with GTM Kit’s setup. There is no documentation on that either.

I will refrain from giving it my note on this topic.

Features

It’s a strong one, but not the strongest.

GTM Kit can push to the datalayer information on page, user and WooCommerce events (more on that later). It does not add any other data though, e.g. improved scroll tracking (the one in GTM is awful) or tracking searched phrases.

Just like the two previous tools, it also does not let you track metadata.

More advanced GTM users may wonder about server site container. And… I don’t know.

One one hand there are fields to set up server-side GTM. On the other hand, on the pricing page for the premium version, it clearly says, that server-side options are in the paid version.

I have not tested it though, so I will assume, that this is simply an improperly labelled field and this option is not available for Free.

In addition, there is no GTM template which could make the setup easier.

All in all, 7/10 – GTM Kit has all the most important stuff and it is fairly easy to set up.

WooCommerce support

So far, the best.

During my tests I did not have any problem with GTM kit. I repeat – ZERO issues.

All the events were properly tracked and full, correct data was sent to the datalayer. There was even user information useful for setting up enhanced conversions in marketing tools.

Well done. 10/10

Overall

This plugin is great. I give it 9/10 however with a big question mark for lack of info on the supported consent management solutions.

What’s next?

The review of Google Site Kit is coming next week.