Step 1: Export what you will actually need later
Google Analytics Help sets GA4's default data retention at 2 months for user-level data and 14 months for event-level data -- after that window, the underlying data simply is not there to query anymore, retention setting or not. Before you touch anything else, export the reports you might reference in a year: Reports Snapshot, Acquisition overview, your top landing and exit pages, conversions by channel, and any custom Explorations you built. GA4's Explore section can export to Google Sheets; the standard reports export to PDF or CSV from the share icon. Keep these in a dated folder -- "GA4 export 2026-10" -- rather than trusting Google to keep anything beyond its own window.
Step 2: Install the replacement and let both tools run together
Add your new analytics snippet (for TrackTrendy, a single script tag) without removing the GA4 tag yet. Running two tools in parallel for two to four weeks of real traffic is the only reliable way to sanity-check a switch: it gives you a like-for-like comparison period instead of guessing whether a dip in week one is the new tool undercounting or just a quiet week. Expect the raw numbers to disagree somewhat -- a cookieless tool typically reports a higher visitor count than GA4 precisely because it has no consent banner to lose visitors to, not because anything is broken.
Step 3: Reassign everything that points at Google Analytics
Before removing GA4, track down every place its measurement ID or behaviour is referenced:
- Google Tag Manager containers, if you used one just for GA4 events.
- Your cookie consent banner's configuration, which may be gating the GA4 script specifically.
- Any dashboard, Looker Studio report, or Slack/email alert built on GA4 data.
- Google Ads or Search Console links, which pull conversion data from the GA4 property.
Leaving one of these live after deletion does not break anything visibly, but it does mean someone finds a dead integration months later with no explanation.
Step 4: Delete the GA4 property (not the account yet)
In GA4, deleting a property does not erase it immediately. It moves to a trash can for a 35-day grace period, recoverable by an Editor or higher from Admin → Trash Can, after which it is removed for good and cannot be restored by Google support either. That window is your safety net if the switch does not go as planned -- use it. Delete the property only once your replacement tool's numbers have been live and believable for your full parallel-running period.
Step 5: Delete the account, if you are leaving Google Analytics entirely
A Google Analytics account can hold several properties. If GA4 was the only one and you are stepping away from Google's analytics products altogether, delete the account itself once every property inside it is confirmed gone. This also removes any remaining user access and data-sharing settings tied to the account, which is the step people most often forget -- the property is gone, but the account (and the fact that it is still sharing data with Google's other products under its default settings) lingers.
For the mechanical, click-by-click version of property deletion itself, see our guide on how to delete your Google Analytics account. This checklist is the order of operations around that one step so you do not lose data or break a dependent tool on the way out.
A short sanity check before you commit
Before the final delete, confirm three things: you have exported what you need, your new tool has at least two to four weeks of parallel data that matches your expectations, and nothing downstream (ads, Search Console, dashboards) still expects GA4 to exist. If all three are true, there is no reason to keep paying the complexity cost of running two analytics tools.