Switch from MonsterInsights

How it works

Imports the GA4 property MonsterInsights reports on, through Google's Analytics Data API

Where

Vireo Analytics, then Settings, then Import & export

Cost

Free. Importers are part of the free plugin.

What carries over

• Daily pageviews and users
• Pageviews and users per page, matched to your posts where the path resolves to one
• Referring sites, by domain
• Which pages each referring site sent readers to
• Countries
• Browsers, operating systems and device types
• Outbound link clicks by site, and file downloads by file name, where GA4 recorded them
• Custom events: your own events and form submissions, by name and count

What doesn't

• MonsterInsights' reports as reports. They're views of your GA4 data, and the import brings across the numbers underneath them.
• Sessions, engagement time and revenue. Vireo has nowhere to store them, so they stay in GA4.
• GA4's automatic events, such as scroll, session_start and the video events. Outbound clicks, downloads and form submissions are the ones that come across.
• Event parameters. Your own events come across by name, without the details attached to them.
• Missing pages and bot traffic. The GA4 importer doesn't read them.
• Query strings on page addresses. Pages are stored by path.
• Referrals from your own domain. A visit from one of your pages to another isn't a referral.
• Universal Analytics properties. The importer reads GA4 properties only.

What you get with Vireo

• Visits counted on your own server and stored in your WordPress database, with no cookies on visitors' devices
• The Google searches behind each post, from Search Console, stored in your database and shown on that post's stats screen
• What AI crawlers take from your site, next to the readers AI assistants send back
• Bots kept out of the numbers and listed by category, so you can see what was filtered
• Your GA4 history and Vireo's own counts in one set of charts, with imported months drawn lighter on the year chart

What you give up

• Sessions, engagement time and unique users over a month. Vireo counts pageviews and visitors per day, and a month's visitors are the days added up.
• MonsterInsights' paid reports, such as eCommerce, form conversions and user journeys. Vireo Pro has revenue from WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, FluentCart, Freemius, Paid Memberships Pro, Restrict Content, MemberPress, LifterLMS, GiveWP and SureCart, along with goals and funnels.
• Google's demographics and interest reports. Vireo has nothing like them.

What you need

• A Google Cloud service account with a JSON key
• Viewer access for that service account on the GA4 property
• The numeric GA4 property ID (not the G- measurement ID)
• The PHP OpenSSL extension on your server
• Admin access to the GA4 property MonsterInsights sends data to, to add the service account

Steps

1. Install Vireo Analytics from WordPress.org on the same site. It starts counting from that day. With MonsterInsights active, the Import & export tab lists Google Analytics under "Found on this site".
2. In Google Cloud Console, create a service account with a JSON key and enable the Google Analytics Data API for its project. The Google Analytics guide has each screen.
3. In Google Analytics, add the service account address with Viewer access on the property MonsterInsights uses, and copy its numeric property ID from Admin, then Property details.
4. In WordPress, go to Vireo Analytics, then Settings, then the Import & export tab. Choose Google Analytics, paste the whole JSON key, enter the property ID and pick a date range, then start the import.
5. When the numbers look right to you, deactivate and delete MonsterInsights. Its tracking code stops loading once it's deleted, and your GA4 property stays in your Google account.

Before you start

• Imports stop the day before Vireo's own data begins, and the import screen says which day that is, so days Vireo already counted aren't added twice. You can include those days anyway, with a warning that they'll be counted twice.
• Vireo counts a visitor once per day. For a month, its visitor total is the sum of the daily figures, which reads higher than GA4's users for the same month, because GA4 counts a returning user once across the whole range.
• The import uses a service account of its own, separate from MonsterInsights' Google connection, so it keeps working after you remove MonsterInsights.
• While MonsterInsights is active, the GA4 tag and its cookies stay on your pages, so keep your consent setup until you remove it.

After the import

Imported days sit in the same tables as the traffic Vireo records itself, so your charts run straight through from the old tool to the new one.

The Google Analytics 4 guide has each Google screen for the GA4 import, and the Search Console docs cover the searches.

Still deciding? Vireo vs MonsterInsights compares the two feature by feature, with prices and where MonsterInsights is ahead.

MonsterInsights is a trademark of its owner. This guide describes Vireo's importer as of October 2026. MonsterInsights.