More in Getting started
- Install TapCub on your website
- Migrate from Google Analytics 4 or Baidu Tongji
- Add a website, app or mini-program
- How do I add TapCub to WordPress?
- How do I add TapCub to Shopify?
- Where do I paste the TapCub tracking code?
- Can I install TapCub with Google Tag Manager?
- How do I track a React, Vue or Next.js app?
- How do I check that TapCub is collecting data?
- Why does TapCub show no data after I installed it?
- What is a site, and how many can I add?
- Which time zone should I pick for a site?
- Which domains do I need to register?
- How do I keep my own visits out of the reports?
- Can I run TapCub alongside Google Analytics 4?
- How do I move my goals and events from GA4?
- Can I import my historical data from GA4?
- How do I add TapCub to Squarespace?
- How do I add TapCub to Wix?
- Which Content Security Policy rules does TapCub need?
- Do ad blockers block TapCub?
- How do I send events from my server?
- How do I install TapCub on React?
- How do I install TapCub on Nuxt?
- How do I install TapCub on Vue?
- How do I install TapCub on Next.js?
- How do I capture a HAR file for TapCub support?
- How do I create and manage API keys?
- How do I send events with the HTTP API?
- All guides in this category
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Because “visitor” is not one definition. GA4 counts a cookie-based user and may include bots; TapCub counts a cookieless daily pseudonym and excludes recognized bots by default. Compare the trend week over week, not the raw totals.
What differs, and what to compare
Totals from two analytics tools never match exactly, and that is not a defect in either one. They count different things under similar names:
| Metric | What differs | What to compare |
|---|---|---|
| Visitors / users | GA4 counts a device with a cookie; TapCub counts a cookieless daily or site-level pseudonym and excludes recognized bots by default. | The trend shape week over week. Expect TapCub lower when GA4 counted bots, higher when cookie consent blocked GA4. |
| Sessions | Both split on idle time. TapCub defaults to 30 minutes and does not split at midnight. | Sessions per visitor — should be within a few percent. |
| Pageviews | The closest metric. Gaps come from blocked scripts and single-page-app route events. | Top 10 pages by share. The ranking should match. |
| Bounce / engagement | GA4 calls a session engaged after 10 seconds; TapCub counts a bounce as one pageview with no event. | Direction by channel, not the absolute number. |
Cookieless identity moves the monthly number most
GA4 stores an identifier in the browser, so one person is remembered for weeks. TapCub writes nothing to the browser: by default (balanced mode) it derives a keyed hash from the site, a persistent site salt, the IP and the browser type, so the same browser on the same network is recognized across days. In strict mode the salt rotates daily and nobody is recognized across days.
The practical effect: compare daily uniques, where both tools agree on what a person is. Weekly and monthly uniques are different metrics with different names — GA4 will usually report fewer monthly uniques and more “returning” visitors.
The blog post Why UV never matches walks through every reason with sample numbers you can show your team.
Compare trends, not totals
Stop trying to make the totals equal. Run both tools for a week, compare the trend lines, and when the shapes agree, trust the one with the cleaner definition. A funnel is comparable even when totals are not, because every step is counted the same way inside one dataset.
TapCub keeps bots in a separate report rather than deleting them. The humans-only toggle is the default and the number to report; switch to all traffic only to debug crawl volume.
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