plausible-vs-fathom.html

Plausible Analytics vs Fathom Analytics — which analytics tool wins for your brief, in 2026

Two analytics platforms, side by side. Plausible Analytics is privacy-first, cookieless web analytics. the honest ga4 alternative — 1kb script, eu-hosted. Fathom Analytics is privacy-first analytics from a tiny independent team. plausible's closest us-hosted competitor. The verdict, the criteria, and the honest take below.

ALL ANALYTICS COMPARISONS →

Verdict in one paragraph

Two privacy-first GA4 alternatives, 90% identical. Plausible wins on EU hosting, AGPL self-host option, and lighter script (1KB vs 25KB). Fathom wins on US hosting and slight dashboard polish. For most teams it is a coin flip — pick by jurisdiction.

Score: Plausible Analytics 4 · Fathom Analytics 1 · ties 1

Side by side

Plausible Analytics
Fathom Analytics
Category
Privacy-first web
Privacy-first web
Pricing
Freemium
Paid
Starts at
$9/mo
$15/mo
License
AGPL-3.0
Proprietary
Created
2018
2018
Script size
<1KB
~25KB
Cookieless
Yes
Yes
Self-host
Yes
No

Decision criteria

  • Which is hosted in the EU?

    Plausible Analytics

    Plausible is EU-hosted; Fathom is US-hosted. Real for EU compliance stories.

  • Which has the lighter script?

    Plausible Analytics

    Plausible is <1KB, Fathom is ~25KB. Lighthouse-relevant.

  • Which can be self-hosted?

    Plausible Analytics

    Plausible has an AGPL community edition. Fathom is cloud-only.

  • Which has the more polished dashboard?

    Fathom Analytics

    Fathom has a slight edge on dashboard polish — email reports, events UI.

  • Which is better for cookie banner avoidance?

    Tie

    Both are cookieless out of the box; both let you skip the banner in most jurisdictions.

  • Which is the safer 5-year bet?

    Plausible Analytics

    Larger team, larger user base, AGPL escape hatch. Both are stable but Plausible is safer.

What Plausible Analytics is best for

  • Marketing sites, blogs, SaaS landers — anyone who needs Lighthouse-friendly analytics
  • Teams that want to drop GA4 entirely without a cookie banner
  • Sites in EU jurisdictions where GDPR scrutiny is real

Read the full Plausible Analytics entry: /analytics/plausible/

What Fathom Analytics is best for

  • US-based teams who want a privacy-first alternative without EU vendor concerns
  • Indie hackers and bootstrappers who want to support a peer-run business
  • Teams who prefer Fathom's slightly more polished dashboard

Read the full Fathom Analytics entry: /analytics/fathom/

The tool choice is the easy half — the tracking plan is the hard one

The hard half is what events you track, who reads the dashboard, and how the privacy story holds up. The 30-min call is where you describe your product and your goals.