Google Analytics vs Instatus

The Google Analytics 4 Data API (`analyticsdata.googleapis.com/v1beta`) lets applications pull custom reports of metrics, dimensions, and audience segments out of a GA4 property, complementing a separate Admin API used to manage properties, streams, and access. It requires a Google OAuth 2.0 bearer token, confirmed live via a `WWW-Authenticate: Bearer realm="https://accounts.google.com/"` challenge on an unauthenticated `runReport` call, and the same request repeated with an Origin header echoed `access-control-allow-origin` back, resolving CORS support from unknown to yes. The core Data API is free to call within Google's standard quotas, with Google Analytics 360 offered as a paid enterprise tier for higher limits and additional features.

Instatus's REST API (`api.instatus.com`) lets a status-page owner script incident and maintenance updates, component status changes, and subscriber management for their own hosted status page. Every request must carry an `Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY>` header and a page ID from the dashboard, confirmed live via a 401 "API key is not sent in request header" response on an unauthenticated GET to `/v1/pages`; the same endpoint echoes a matching `access-control-allow-origin` on both a GET and a separate OPTIONS preflight sent with an Origin header, confirming the API is browser-callable. Instatus itself runs a permanent free-forever plan alongside paid per-project tiers, with no separate gate on API access.