Google Analytics filters bots out. Botsanalyser puts them back in.
GA4 is the right tool for human traffic. It is the wrong tool for AI and search bots, because it actively hides them. Botsanalyser captures every crawler hit and, if you want it, sends the data back into your GA4 property as custom events.
Human analytics. Bot-filtered by design.
- ✓Page views, sessions, conversions, funnels for humans.The job it was built for.
- ✓Acquisition and attribution reporting.Source, medium, campaign.
- ✗Bot traffic is removed before it reaches your reports.IAB/ABC Spiders and Bots List. Cannot be disabled.
- ✗GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot never fire gtag because they do not execute JavaScript.Invisible regardless of filter settings.
- ✗No per-URL crawler breakdown.Not the data model it uses.
Bot analytics. Streams into GA4 as custom events.
- ✓Every GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot, Applebot, Bytespider, and Amazonbot hit captured at the request layer.No JavaScript required.
- ✓Per-URL, per-bot, per-country breakdowns in a real-time dashboard.Plus a weekly email digest.
- ✓Native GA4 connector sends bot events as custom events with bot name, path, and status.One-click setup, no Measurement Protocol wiring.
- ✓REST API, outbound webhooks, CSV export.Feed Looker, HubSpot, BigQuery, Segment.
- ✓Bot-only, GDPR-safe, no cookies, no consent banner.EU and US data regions.
| Capability | GA4 | Botsanalyser |
|---|---|---|
| Captures human traffic | Yes | No (not its job) |
| Captures AI bot traffic (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) | Filtered out | Yes |
| Captures search bot traffic (Googlebot, Bingbot, Applebot) | Filtered out | Yes |
| Per-URL crawler breakdown | No | Yes |
| New-bot auto-detection | No | Within 24h |
| Works without JavaScript on the visitor | No | Yes |
| Works on Shopify, Webflow, Squarespace | Human events only | Yes, bot events |
| Cookie-free, consent-banner-free | No | Yes |
| REST API and outbound webhooks | Measurement Protocol only | Both, day one |
| Pipes its data into the other tool | N/A | Yes, native GA4 connector |
The simple answer
Run both. GA4 on humans, Botsanalyser on bots. Use the native connector to pipe bot events into GA4 as custom events, so every dashboard, Looker Studio report, and saved audience lives in one place.
Why GA4 cannot do this itself
GA4 is built on gtag, which is JavaScript. AI bots and search crawlers do not execute JavaScript. They never send a hit. The "bot filtering" in GA4 is a second line of defence against spam that gets through, but the first line, the JavaScript itself, already blocks 100% of declared crawlers. That is intentional. GA4's whole job is to report human behaviour cleanly. It would be useless if it did not.
Why Botsanalyser captures what GA4 skips
Botsanalyser runs at the request layer, either inside your CMS plugin or via the universal script tag on the server. Every request with a known crawler user-agent gets logged with its URL, response status, country, and timestamp. No JavaScript execution required.
See bots in GA4 by Monday.
Reserve your spot. Native GA4 connector ships at launch.
- One email at launch
- Unsubscribe any time
- GDPR compliant