# Connect external data sources

**Category:** [Analytics](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/analytics-1)
**Updated:** 2026-08-19

## Supported sources

Alongside your native TotalCtrl data, Analytics can query four external platforms:

- **Google Analytics** — sessions, users, top pages, channels, and countries.
- **Datadog** — monitors, recent events, and metric queries.
- **Snowflake** — SQL queries against your warehouse.
- **BigQuery** — SQL queries against your datasets.

## Viewing source status

Open the **External Data Sources** page in Analytics. Each platform appears as a card showing whether it is **Connected** or **Not connected**.
## Connecting a source

Connections are managed centrally, not inside Analytics. On any source that is not yet connected, click **Connect in Settings**. This takes you to your account's **Connections** area, where you add and authorize the credentials (Snowflake, BigQuery, and Datadog are stored as connectors; Google Analytics uses a connected account). Once authorization succeeds, return to Analytics and the source card switches to **Connected**.
## After connecting

Connected sources unlock new actions on their card:

- **Google Analytics** and **Datadog** get a pre-built **View Dashboard** button.
- All four sources get a **Query Console** button for ad-hoc queries — see [Run queries in the Query Console](run-queries-in-the-query-console).

You can also add metrics from any connected source to your own [custom dashboards](build-a-custom-dashboard).

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## Related Articles

- [Analytics overview & the native data layer](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/analytics-overview-2)
- [Build a dashboard and add panels](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/build-a-dashboard)
- [Explore the built-in app dashboards](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/explore-built-in-dashboards)
- [Connect external data sources](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/connect-external-sources)
- [Share a dashboard](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/share-a-dashboard)

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