It’s showing different data than Google Analytics, so idk if who has more accurate data on traffic or site views or visits.
Cloudflare’s beacon script and Google Analytics both rely on page elements that are highly likely to get blocked in various ways: adblockers, built-in browser privacy protection features, user opt-outs, etc. For example, Brave browser out-of-the-box blocks them both automatically:
I’d wager that Google Analytics is probably MORE likely to be blocked because it’s more widely known. But over time, block rates for both are likely to increase.
But even if they’re only logging 20% (random guess) of visitors, you can still identify increases/decreases in traffic over time, get a general idea of where most of your users are, etc. Like a survey rather than a comprehensive census.
The only thing you can trust almost-absolutely are the logs on your origin server (IF you have the ability to view your server’s logs), and keep in mind that Cloudflare caching will reduce the number of requests hitting your origin. That’s one of the reasons I (almost) never cache HTML through Cloudflare, because I don’t want someone to be able to visit one of my sites without leaving even a single hit in my server logs.
I’ve been thinking about this some more and I should probably clarify
If your DNS entries are orange-clouded, Cloudflare apparently uses additional information for analytics besides just the beacon script
So even if the beacon script gets blocked, it may still register a visit in analytics because it’s passing through Cloudflare’s servers. They kinda say this:
Due to Cloudflare’s vantage point at the network edge, we are well-positioned to deliver accurate analytics right from our server logs.
So if they can already log orange-clouded traffic without the beacon script, why do they also add the beacon script? Maybe to capture additional information with Javascript that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to see.
although on this page https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037684251-Understanding-Cloudflare-Site-Analytics
they imply that they only use edge server logs on the Pro plan and up
implying that Free users are still reliant on the beacon script (which is likely to get blocked)
so the answer seems to be “it depends”
Yeah it make sense. Thanks for the comprehensive answer!