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.