What are the Pros and Cons of Using a Native App vs GTM for Tracking?

Learn about the benefits/drawbacks of each method so that you can determine the best tracking setup for your business.

When deciding if you're going to use a Native App for tracking or go through Google Tag Manager, it's less of a "Which is better?" question and more of a "What is better for my business?" question.

Pros of Using a Native App for your Tracking

1. Native apps take about two seconds to setup.
2. They cover major events like product views, add to carts, purchases, etc out of the box.
3. They will load faster.
4. And they'll typically get updated automatically if a channel (i.e. Facebook, Snapchat, etc) makes an update to their Pixel.

Pros of Using Google Tag Manager for Your Tracking

1. With Google Tag Manager, you're not limited to the standard events and standard data like a native app. You can send custom events and customize the data in these events. This customization can even help with a marketing channel's advanced matching capabilities if they have any!
2. GTM allows you to add in consent logic if needed.
3. Native apps typically only work with standard Shopify themes and standard checkouts. If you're using a third party checkout, you might run into challenges capturing purchase and checkout events. With GTM, so long as you can add script to the page, you can add in tracking.
4. If you move to Google Tag Manager, you can also take advantage of Elevar's Server-Side integrations. These allow you to ensure 99%+ order accuracy between Shopify & your marketing destination.

Also Consider Which Native Apps Let You Separate Catalog & Pixel Functionality

The other item to take into consideration is some apps don't let you only disable their Pixel. So if you want to use the native app for the catalog functionality, you won't be able to disable just the Pixel and use GTM instead.

You'll either need to 1) use the native app for both the catalog & pixel functionality or 2) use another software for your catalog functionality (like DataFeedWatch, Feedonomics, etc) & use GTM for your tracking.

Below is a short list of native apps that (as of October 2023) allow you to disable just their Pixel:

1. Facebook
2. Snapchat
3. Klaviyo- Klaviyo does allow you to disable their Base Snippet & use GTM instead. However, this can only be done by their Support Team.
4. TikTok
5. Google Ads / Remarketing

Apps that (as of October 2023) don't let you separate catalog & pixel functionality:

1. Pinterest

Elevar Recommendations: App vs GTM

Here's a short list of native Shopify apps and whether Elevar recommends keeping the app or moving the tracking to Google Tag Manager / Elevar Server-Side: