Here’s a practical list of top marketing-analytics tools grouped by purpose (so you can pick the right category for your business), with what each is best for and one-line notes about strengths / when to choose it.

Web / site analytics

• Google Analytics 4 (GA4) — Best for: web + app tracking for most businesses on a budget.
  Notes: event-first model, deep Google Ads integration and free tier; good for broad website traffic, funnel and campaign measurement. (peerspot.com)
• Adobe Analytics — Best for: large enterprises with complex digital measurement needs.
  Notes: powerful, flexible insights and enterprise integrations (often preferred when you need custom/multi-channel attribution and advanced segmentation). (reuters.com)

Product / behavioral analytics (user journeys, retention, funnels)

• Amplitude — Best for: product teams that need event-based analytics, retention/cohort analysis, and behavioral modeling. (stackshare.io)
• Mixpanel — Best for: rapid event tracking, funnel analysis, and simple experiments for web & mobile apps. (peerspot.com)
• Heap — Best for: teams that want automatic capture of all user interactions (retroactive analysis without manual event instrumentation). (stackshare.io)

Attribution / revenue analytics

• HockeyStack — Best for: revenue-focused marketing attribution without heavy engineering; ties user behavior to revenue.
  Notes: newer entrant that raised funding and focuses on unified marketing → revenue analytics. (axios.com)
• Ruler Analytics / Wicked Reports / Adjust — Best for multi-touch, offline-to-online attribution and ad-channel ROI (good for agencies and advertisers who need ad-level ROI).

SEO / content & competitive analysis

• SEMrush — Best for: all-in-one SEO, content, PPC and competitive research for marketers and agencies. (demandsage.com)
• Ahrefs — Best for: backlink research, keyword research and content gap analysis (favored when backlink data freshness and depth matter). (coolest-gadgets.com)

Session replay / UX & qualitative analytics

• Hotjar / FullStory / Contentsquare — Best for: session replay, heatmaps, user feedback and qualitative UX research to reduce friction and improve conversions.

Business intelligence / dashboards & cross-channel reporting

• Tableau / Looker / Microsoft Power BI — Best for: combining marketing data (ad platforms, CRM, analytics) into visual dashboards and advanced cross-channel reporting. Use when you need custom dashboards, joins across datasets, or enterprise governance.

Customer data & event pipeline (CDP / data tracking)

• Segment (Twilio Segment) / RudderStack / mParticle — Best for: collecting, cleaning and routing tracking data to analytics, ad tools and data warehouses (reduces duplicated instrumentation work).

Marketing automation + reporting (campaign analytics + contact-level insights)

• HubSpot — Best for: mid-market companies wanting integrated CRM + marketing analytics + campaign performance in one platform.
• Marketo / Pardot (Salesforce) — Best for: larger B2B teams needing advanced nurture, lead scoring and campaign attribution.

How to choose (quick checklist)

• Team size & budget: GA4, Hotjar, SEMrush and HubSpot starter tiers are friendly for SMBs; Adobe, Tableau, Amplitude enterprise tiers suit larger orgs. (reuters.com)
• Data ownership & flexibility: If you want full control and warehouse-centric analytics, pick a CDP + BI stack (Segment + Snowflake + Looker/Power BI).
• Use-case fit: product analytics (Amplitude/Heap/Mixpanel) vs. marketing attribution (HockeyStack/Ruler) vs. SEO (Ahrefs/SEMrush). (axios.com)
• Implementation effort: Heap and HockeyStack reduce instrumentation needs; Amplitude/Mixpanel require event design; Adobe/enterprise BI often need analyst/engineering support.

If helpful, I can:

• Recommend the 3–4 tools that fit your company size, tech stack and budget (tell me size, main channels and whether you use a data warehouse), or
• Produce a comparison matrix (cost, time to implement, required engineers, sample use-cases) for any 4 tools you’re considering.

Which option do you want?