How device distribution is different in Google Analytics and CRUX dashboard?

[Arif Maharramov]

Hi! I have a problem related to device distribution with different reports.

• GA4 shows that for our domain 80% of all pageviews are from desktop while the other 20% is from phone. Tablet is ~0%
• CRUX dashboard shows that mobile has 52%, desktop has 48% and tablet has 0%.

Does anyone know how the logic is different between these tools? We want to understand which device categories the pageviews and users mainly come from?

Thanks in advance.

[Barry Pollard]

Hi Arif,

Our documentation details the inclusion criteria for CrUX. In particular it only measure Chrome traffic so if you have large volumes of traffic from non-Chrome browsers then this may only be a subset of your users.

Similarly, any other analytics solution–like Google Analytics–will only show page views for a subset of users as well if users block analytics.

I would suggest you filter your GA traffic by Chrome-only, and also over a 28-day period that CrUX uses to see if they more closely align.

However, CrUX is primarily used to provide user experience metrics segmented by device, and most tools show it this way, rather than necessarily intended to give a breakdown between these, often very different, traffic sources. While the CrUX Dashboard does show the Device Distribution, it is important to understand what that is based on, as per above, and the limitations of this.

Thanks,

Barry

[Arif Maharramov]

Hi, Barry, 

Thanks for your recommendation! I kept only Chrome in GA but it actually did not help - most of our views (80%) are from chrome.

Regarding the differences of CrUX and GA - would you recommend to use GA or CrUX to understand the device distribution of users/views? Which are more precise considering the limitations?

Regards,

Arif

[Barry Pollard]

Unfortunately that is an impossible question for me to answer.

Certainly 80% desktop and 20% mobile seems very highly weighted to desktop considering most sites nowadays are seeing more mobile traffic than desktop. But I have no idea on what your site is, whether more desktop traffic is expected based on it's purpose, or how you have implemented GA and are pulling analytics for that.

I am afraid you will need to investigate the GA set up on your side to understand why it is reporting what it is reporting.

Barry