- Pick it if you are:
- Bloggers and content sites; Agencies managing many client sites
- Top complaint:
- Is Fathom Analytics free? No free plan, and the trial needs a card
- Price:
- From $15/mo
- Pick it if you are:
- Sites running Google Ads; Marketers with an analyst
- Top complaint:
- Why is Google Analytics showing no data?
- Price:
- Free plan
Score Comparison
Signals Comparison
Fathom Analytics
- Is Fathom Analytics free? No free plan, and the trial needs a card(6/10)
- Why is Fathom Analytics so expensive for small sites?(5/10)
- Custom events count toward the Fathom pageview limit(5/10)
- Fathom Analytics doesn't give refunds(5/10)
Google Analytics
- GA360 costs a reported $50,000+ per year(6/10)
Fathom Analytics
- Fathom dashboard locked after going over the plan limit(7/10)
- Fathom blocked by ad blockers after custom domains were removed(6/10)
- Fathom removed uptime monitoring in 2023(3/10)
- Fathom Analytics not tracking visits after installation(6/10)
- Fathom only showing the homepage in stats(5/10)
- Fathom numbers don't match Google Analytics(4/10)
Google Analytics
No signals
Fathom Analytics
- No funnels, user flows or heatmaps in Fathom(5/10)
Google Analytics
- Standard property limits on events and dimensions(6/10)
Fathom Analytics
- Fathom can't be self-hosted and isn't open source(4/10)
Google Analytics
- Consent mode drops data when users decline cookies(7/10)
Fathom Analytics
- Fathom not tracking page changes in single-page apps(5/10)
- GA4 import into Fathom leaves out events(4/10)
Google Analytics
- BigQuery export capped at 1 million events a day on free(5/10)
Fathom Analytics
No signals
Google Analytics
- Why is Google Analytics showing no data?(8/10)
- What does (not set) mean in GA4?(6/10)
- Events not showing as key events(7/10)
Fathom Analytics
No signals
Google Analytics
- GA4 data thresholds hide rows in reports(7/10)
- GA4 keeps only 2 or 14 months of exploration data(7/10)
- Sampling and Large property limits(7/10)
Fathom Analytics
No signals
Google Analytics
- Reports in GA4 are hard to find and understand(5/10)
Pricing Comparison
Fathom Analytics
Storage: Full history kept while subscribed
Limits: No funnels, user journeys, heatmaps or session replay. No self-hosting.
Storage: Full history kept while subscribed
Limits: Same as monthly plan.
Google Analytics
Users: Unlimited users
Storage: Event data kept 2 or 14 months
Limits: 25 event parameters, 30 key events, 50 event-scoped custom dimensions per property; retention 2 or 14 months; no SLA stated
Storage: Retention up to 50 months
Limits: Requires a Google Marketing Platform 360 contract
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Fathom Analytics | Google Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy | ||
| Cookieless tracking | ||
| EU data isolation EU visitor data processed in the EU automatically | ||
| Consent mode modeling Volume prerequisites apply | ||
| Cookieless first-party hosting | ||
| Tracking | ||
| Event-based tracking | ||
| Custom events and revenue fathom.trackEvent() with optional _value | ||
| Funnels / user journeys | ||
| Heatmaps / session replay | ||
| Custom domain / ad-blocker bypass Removed March 2023 | ||
| Reporting | ||
| Explorations and funnels Retention limited to 2 or 14 months on free | ||
| Unsampled explorations 360 only | ||
| Shared dashboards Public or password-protected | ||
| Email reports and CSV export | ||
| Data | ||
| BigQuery export 1M events/day on free | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Google Search Console integration | ||
| GA4 importer Free on all plans; daily data, no events | ||
| Analytics API | ||
| Monitoring | ||
| Uptime monitoring Removed October 2023 | ||
| Hosting | ||
| Self-hosting Cloud only, closed source | ||
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