DebugView report or the realtime report for debugging GA4 implementations?

DebugView report in GA4 displays data at the hit level before any filters, sampling, or configurations are applied. It shows raw and unprocessed data, providing a more accurate and granular view of the data sent to GA4 than the realtime report. The DebugView report is particularly useful for debugging because it offers a detailed level of event information, including specific user properties and custom parameters.

The DebugView report is more reliable for debugging than the GA4 realtime report because:

• It shows raw and unprocessed data at the hit level, which has not been affected by filters, sampling, or configurations.
• It provides a more granular level of event detail, including specific user properties and custom parameters.
• Data in DebugView is kept separate from the general data, ensuring that debug mode data does not skew overall metrics.

To enable debug mode for using the DebugView report in GA4, you can use one of the following methods:

• Install and use the GA Debugger Chrome extension.
• Enter GTM Preview mode.
• Send a debug event parameter with Google Tag Manager (GTM).

Once debug mode is enabled, the incoming data is tagged so that GA4 recognizes it as separate from the normal data flow, which is crucial for accurate debugging.