What is Hardal?
What is Hardal?
Hardal is a privacy-first analytics platform that tracks user behavior without compromising data privacy.Hardal collects user data and sends it to multiple destinations through server-side processing, ensuring better privacy compliance and data accuracy.Key Benefits:
- Privacy-First: GDPR and CCPA compliant data collection
- Server-Side: Process data on servers, not browsers
- Real-Time: Instant data processing and analytics
- Multi-Platform: Send data to 100+ destinations
Hardal processes data server-side to improve accuracy and privacy compliance.
What is Cookieless Measurement?
What is Cookieless Measurement?
What is Server-Side Measurement?
What is Server-Side Measurement?
Server-side measurement processes analytics data on servers rather than in user browsers, providing better control and accuracy.Data is collected from websites and sent directly to Hardal’s servers for processing, then distributed to analytics platforms.Benefits:
- Data Control: Full control over data processing and routing
- Improved Accuracy: Bypass browser limitations and ad blockers
- Privacy Protection: Process and filter sensitive data before sending
- Performance: Reduce browser load and improve site speed
- Data Collection: Website sends data to Hardal servers
- Processing: Server processes, filters, and enriches data
- Distribution: Clean data sent to analytics platforms
Server-side processing ensures data quality and privacy compliance.
What is First-Party Data?
What is First-Party Data?
First-party data is information collected directly from your website visitors on your own domain, providing the highest quality and most reliable analytics data.First-Party vs Third-Party:
- First-Party: Data collected directly from your domain
- Higher data quality
- Better privacy compliance
- Not blocked by browsers
- Third-Party: Data collected from external domains
- Often blocked by browsers
- Privacy concerns
- Data quality issues
- Data Quality: Direct collection ensures accuracy
- Browser Compliance: Not affected by third-party blocking
- Privacy Control: Full control over data collection
- Reliability: Consistent data collection
First-party data provides the most reliable and privacy-compliant analytics.
What is Custom Domain?
What is Custom Domain?
A custom domain allows you to collect analytics data through your own domain, making it first-party data and improving tracking reliability.Instead of sending data to
hardal.com, you use a subdomain like analytics.yoursite.com to collect the same data as first-party.Benefits:- First-Party Data: All data collected as first-party
- Ad Blocker Bypass: Reduces blocking by ad blockers
- Better Compliance: Improved privacy compliance
- Data Reliability: More consistent data collection
Custom domains convert third-party tracking into first-party data collection.
How does Hardal's data model differ from Google Analytics 4?
How does Hardal's data model differ from Google Analytics 4?
Hardal and Google Analytics 4 handle data collection and session management differently. Here’s a detailed comparison:
Key Differences:
| Feature | Hardal | GA4 |
|---|---|---|
| Visitor | Each unique user | Each unique user |
| Session | Collection of all events for each user | Based on 30-minute session duration |
| Session Count | Visitor count = Session count | Visitor count ≠ Session count |
| Data Approach | Reports raw data directly | Groups data based on sessions |
| Session ID | Generated server-side by Hardal without cookies | Based on Cookie/Client ID |
- Session Definition: Hardal treats each visitor as one continuous session, while GA4 creates multiple sessions based on time gaps
- Data Accuracy: Hardal provides raw, unfiltered event data without session-based grouping
- Privacy: Hardal generates session IDs server-side without relying on browser cookies
- Simplicity: Hardal’s 1:1 visitor-to-session ratio makes data analysis more straightforward
This fundamental difference means data comparisons between Hardal and GA4 should account for different session methodologies.