Fathom Analytics vs Plausible
They differ on 4 of the 14 things buyers in this category actually ask about. Here is where, and what each one asks you to give up.
Privacy-first web analytics with unlimited retention and a fixed, predictable bill.
Strongest argument
Unlimited sites on one subscription, which suits agencies well
Biggest objection
No funnels beyond basic goal tracking
The simplest privacy-safe option, with a feature ceiling you will hit if you need behavioural analysis.
Lightweight, cookieless web analytics on a single page you can read in ten seconds.
Strongest argument
No cookies and no personal data, so no consent banner is required
Biggest objection
Pageview model cannot answer product questions like retention or cohorts
Deliberately simple: you trade every advanced feature for privacy compliance and a page anyone can read.
The differences that matter
Where they actually diverge
Only the rows where the two disagree. Everything they both do is listed below.
Cost
What each costs at 50 people
List price only. It ignores add-ons, seat minimums and the cost of the move itself — all of which routinely dwarf the difference below.
Prices are unverified estimates — useful for comparing orders of magnitude, not for budgeting. Confirm the current figure with the vendor before you commit to anything.
Common ground
What both of them do
These will not help you choose — which is exactly why they are worth knowing about before a vendor pitches one as a differentiator.
- Data modelPageviews
- Works without cookie consentYes
- Session replayNo
- Real-time reportingYes
- Raw data exportYes
- SAML single sign-onNo
- SOC 2No
- EU data residencyYes
- Public APIYes
- Native mobile appsNo
In full
Every pro and con, both sides
Fathom Analytics
- Unlimited sites on one subscription, which suits agencies well
- Cookieless and GDPR-compliant without a consent banner
- Data is retained forever rather than expiring after a year
- No funnels beyond basic goal tracking
- Not a product-analytics tool — there is no user-level analysis
- Fewer integrations than the larger platforms
Plausible
- No cookies and no personal data, so no consent banner is required
- Script is under 1 KB, which is a measurable page-speed difference
- Open source and self-hostable if you want the data on your own server
- Pageview model cannot answer product questions like retention or cohorts
- No session replay, no user-level drill-down by design
- Custom events are limited compared with a real product-analytics tool
Questions
Fathom Analytics vs Plausible, answered
Fathom Analytics or Plausible — which is better?
Neither, in the abstract. Fathom Analytics suits you if unlimited sites on one subscription, which suits agencies well matters most; Plausible if no cookies and no personal data, so no consent banner is required does. The honest trade-offs are: Fathom Analytics — The simplest privacy-safe option, with a feature ceiling you will hit if you need behavioural analysis. Plausible — Deliberately simple: you trade every advanced feature for privacy compliance and a page anyone can read.
Is Fathom Analytics cheaper than Plausible?
Plausible is cheaper at 50 people — $15/mo against $9/mo, roughly $108 against $180 a year. That gap of about $72 is rarely the whole story though — add-ons, seat minimums and the cost of migrating routinely outweigh it.
Can we migrate from Fathom Analytics to Plausible?
Usually yes, and the difficulty depends on history, integrations and headcount far more than on the two products. Data export quality is the thing to check first: ask both vendors what you can take with you before you commit to either. Our questionnaire produces a scoped estimate for the move.
What else should we consider besides Fathom Analytics and Plausible?
In product & web analytics the other credible options are Google Analytics 4, Matomo, PostHog. Narrowing to two before you have written down your requirements is the most common way to end up with the wrong one.
Do not stop at two