GTM is something which shouldn't exist in the first place. Adding a script to your website is something that should be going through your usual release process.

But avoiding that release process is also the reason why some deparments usually want GTM. It allows them to give GTM access to other people who can then inject stuff into your site. Once you have GTM you can let marketing / ad agencies add their own tracking points and other fun stuff to your site quickly. This unfortunately sounds like a great idea to marketing people.

Let's hope they are in touch with the GDPR compliance department.

Apparently they are actually a company that provides GDPR solutions. I would hope they themselves are careful to be GDPR compliant.

I'll tell you why, because I often wonder why projects that claim to replace Google Analytics regularly make the top of HN front page.

Google Analytics isn't about logging in when someone is on your website.

It's about how it connects that data point to Google's huge dataset about everyone. Google Analytics tells you what kind of people are visiting your site (aka, segments): age, location, etc.

Also, more often than not, these tools aren't as capable as GA to design and watch conversion tunnels and behaviours.

And then there's the whole binding with Google Ads.

Replacing GA with only an Apache or php/node URL logger is missing the whole point of GA.

The article is about Tag Manager, not about Analytics.

The tag manager is only a cog in the Analytics stack.

I'm also curious what it does or why it is so vital. I've never needed to unblock it in NoScript, and as best I can tell nothing suffers. Does it do something useful server side instead?

I think it's generally used to load the nine or ten different analytics, segmenting, crash reporting, user mouse movement tracking, A/B testing, etc frameworks that every site seems to have nowadays. Using Tag Manager means that when the marketing department decides they need to add another framework they can just click some buttons instead of having to ask a developer.

Since none of that stuff is necessary for the site to work, leaving it blocked basically never breaks the website.

Really? In my experience, blocking GTM almost always breaks some core functionality of the website I'm browsing.

Yes, completely serious. I've enabled it once or twice to see if a site was acting wonky because it was blocked, but it was never the culprit.

Not all companies can afford in-house solutions.

I meant not only "easy to develop" for the user but also "easy to develop" for competitors to offer an alternative to Google's Tag Manager.