Why We Deprecated Google Analytics (And Built a System 3x Cheaper)

Name: Why We Deprecated Google Analytics (And Built a System 3x Cheaper)
Uploaded: 2026-07-02T06:07:26.000Z
Channel: InfoQ

Google analytics alternative Bigquery Gcp pub/sub Real Time analytics Data engineering Event tracking Analytics infrastructure Gdpr compliance Custom analytics Snowplow comparison

InfoQ July 2, 2026

AI summary

Engineering talk detailing how Delivery Hero built a custom real-time user tracking infrastructure on GCP (BigQuery, Pub/Sub) to replace Google Analytics, achieving 97% data accuracy at 1/3 the cost and 10x scale. Covers MVP strategy, architectural decisions (custom SDK over Snowplow), data governance frameworks, and overcoming production challenges like OOM pod restarts. Ideal for engineers building analytics pipelines or considering custom tracking solutions.