ga4 or matomo?
 

which one do use? something else?

I"ve used google analytics in the past and it was great. but recently I tried to use google cloud - that was painful. switched to digitalocean and it just works perfectly. so I'm sceptical to go the google route...

I switched to Matomo after trying GA4 for a few days, and that was 3-4 years ago.

Run your own https://github.com/umami-software/umami instance using docker, it's amazing and it tracks ad-block users as well since it's a reverse proxy!
Here is a demo https://eu.umami.is/share/LGazGOecbDtaIwDr/umami.is

I do both for my clients. They provide different insights. I prefer self-hosted Matomo.

self-hosted matomo is good. pretty sure I used it way back when it was called Piwik.

I used Matomo for a while but fell back to GA after a few months