3 Best GTM Server Hosting Solutions
It is hard to surprise anybody with the fact that a company sticks to the server-side tracking model. Sending all the tracked data from the client’s browser directly to the analytical platforms is not trendy anymore. Server side hosting of the Google Tag Manager container has already proven itself to be a much more effective method for B2B, e-commerce, retail, and other industries. An important point is, however, that client-side tracking does not require any additional investments from the users, while for server-side, one actually needs to have a server. Cloud servers are a good infrastructural solution that makes it much easier to host a GTM. In this article, we have prepared a list of platforms that offer GTM container hosting services. We will discuss their main features, pros, and cons, to make it easier for you to choose the one that fits your needs best. No more introductions, let’s dive into it!
Stape
Stape is one of the first titles that come to mind when talking about a service for hosting a server GTM container. In its essence, Stape is an all-in-one solution that not only covers the hosting aspect but also provides dozens of different features and power-ups to improve your server-side tracking experience. It is also worth mentioning that small companies often stick to this company due to the free plan for the insignificant amounts of requests (up to 100.000 per month) and its unique offer, Stape Academy. The latter is a free learning course that familiarizes people who have never heard about it before with server-side tracking and its basics.
If you check reviews and comments on the internet, companies and individuals who use Stape highlight several strong points of the service:
- seamless integration with the existing marketing stack;
- diversity of offers suitable for any company size and any industry;
- user-friendly interface and responsible support;
- constant update and introduction of new features and tools;
- gateways for different platforms.
Another great thing that makes Stape stand out from the pool of competitors is its approach to pricing. We have already mentioned that it has a free plan for small clients, but big companies should not get upset – there is something for everyone. Stape goes away from the model of fixed plan pricing and offers a fresh view on the matter, with tariffs that depend on the number of requests. The starting price for the GTM hosting is $17, and everything extra depends on the number of monthly requests over 10.000. Add to this the fact that Stape’s hosting services are global, and you get a solid top solution for this matter.
Google Cloud Platform
The cloud hosting platform from Google is one of the main Stape’s competitors and another big player on the scene. It is famous for the large toolkit it offers to optimize the tracking efforts and integration with the whole Google ecosystem, as, obviously, it comes from the same company. You may think that we mentioned the “vast toolkit” just for effect, but no; here is the list of the most popular tools provided by the Google Cloud Platform (there are also numerous smaller ones we do not mention here).
- BigQuery integration allows users to analyze huge amounts of data in real time.
- Firebase integration to track marketing performance on mobile.
- Google Analytics 4 integration to collect event-based data and cooperate closely with Google Ads.
- Google Cloud Storage integration to store all the unstructured tracked data.
- Cloud Dataflow integration to process data streams and batch data.
The funniest thing is that GCP has recently switched to the pay-as-you-go pricing model, which charges users and businesses for the services they use and the amount of data processed. To get a rough estimate of how much it can cost for each particular case, you actually need to watch a tutorial on how to use the platform’s pricing calculator, which is supposed to be an intuitive tool. It is just a minor inconvenience, but we reckon it is worth mentioning.
Similarly to Stape, GCP has its data centers located all over the world, which means you can expect more or less stable and fast performance, no matter where your business is located physically. Considering that it can also host APIs and gateways, Google Cloud Platform becomes a solid choice for everyone who wants to start implementing server-side tracking for their business.
Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services, also known as AWS, is not a solution specifically for GTM container, API, or gateway hosting. It is a vast cloud infrastructure used by IT specialists all over the world. Among the services it offers, there are:
- EC2 and Lambda, which provide users with massive decentralized computing resources;
- S3, EBS, and EFS, massive storage for any type of data;
- RDS, Aurora, and Neptune, managed databases and data warehouses.
These are only some of the titles provided by AWS, and believe us, we mentioned all of them here, not only to impress you. This list (which is, in fact, a tiny keyhole to AWS) is aimed at demonstrating to you that this platform is something beyond a simple cloud hosting provider for server GTMs, and this is its plus and minus at the same time.
On the positive side, businesses that require not only GTM hosting but also storage services, cloud virtual machines, private networks, etc., AWS is a fantastic option as you will get all you need in one package. On the other hand, however, if you only need a server GTM hosting, there is no sense for you even to try Amazon Web Services, as it will be an overcomplication.
In terms of payment, Amazon is very loyal to its clients, as it offers a well-known pay-as-you-go model, in other words, pay for the amount of requests and data processed. For instance, API hosting services cost $3.50 for a million requests + $0.09 per GB of data transferred after the first one. Server GTM hosting is priced in a very unusual manner – per hour of use – and is around $0.05 if you use only 1GB of memory. This model can seem complicated to understand at first, but you get used to it soon.
Which One to Choose?
Of course, there are more than 3 services for server GTM hosting, and if we decided to tell you about all of them, it would make more sense for us to create a new review website instead of an article. Go with Stape if you are looking for a dedicated all-in-one solution that specializes in server GTM container hosting. GCP is your choice if it is crucial for your business to integrate with Google’s infrastructure. As for AWS, well… We would say it is great for those who love experimenting and for whom the previous two options are not acceptable for any reason. If you find any significant advantages of AWS over the other titles, please do not hesitate to contact us.
