Fathom Analytics vs Google Analytics
We know that 85% of websites use Google Analytics. For most people, the next step after buying a domain and hosting is to install GA. It’s a habit too many of us have let unconsciously continue for years.
Fathom Analytics exists to break bad analytics habits. We believe you can protect your visitor’s privacy while protecting your time dealing with analytics. That’s why we're privacy-first and work hard to ensure our software is simple and intuitive.
Here are a few main reasons we think our software is a great alternative to Google Analytics:
Data retention
Google Analytics
With Universal Analytics (now dead), they used to save your data for 26 months maximum. But then, they killed Universal Analytics with no way to save or import your historical data into GA4. Currently, GA4 saves your data for 2-14 months.
Fathom Analytics
Our data retention policy is simple: we never delete your data. That means all our customers who signed up the day we launched Fathom (5+ years ago) can still see data from the first day they signed up. And in 20 years, they’ll still see 100% of their data. We even offer a Google Analytics importer to save your historical data.
Real-time metrics
Google Analytics
Visitor data can take 24-48 hours to appear in Google Analytics (outside of their active users’ view).
Fathom Analytics
Data is real-time, so if someone’s looking at your site, that data shows up across our entire dashboard immediately.
Legality
Google Analytics
Several EU countries have ruled that it’s illegal to use Google Analytics (even with a consent notice). Meaning, as a website owner, your site wouldn’t align with the GDPR and you’d potentially risk being fined.
Fathom Analytics
Since Fathom Analytics started, we’ve put privacy and privacy law compliance as our highest value in developing our software. So not only are we GDPR compliant (including Schrems II), but we also invented a method for processing EU visitor data on EU servers.
Profit models
Google Analytics
No one knows how Google uses the data they collect about all of us from the websites with Google Analytics installed. Chances are since they don’t charge for their software, they’ve found a way to make a lot of money from that data. They’re a multi-billion dollar company, hell-bent on growth, so they’re not just being altruistic giving away free software.
Fathom Analytics
We charge money for our software. It’s an honest and fair business model. That means we won’t ever sell your data or give it to anyone else, for any reason, ever. We are fully transparent about how we process data.
Complexity
Google Analytics
1000s of pages of reports and endless pages of setup. Google Analytics is overkill for most people and SMBs, and they obviously don’t care how much time and training is required to use their “free” software. There are so many courses and certifications for GA because it’s so complicated to learn and use.
Fathom Analytics
We sweat every detail and feature of our software because we know our customers are busy and don’t need to spend hours finding information in their analytics software. Just look at our live demo or watch a 10 minute dashboard tour to see what we mean.
Accuracy
Google Analytics
Google uses machine learning and data sampling to guess who’s visiting your site and what they’re doing. They also make it difficult or impossible to block bots, crawlers and DDoS attacks from polluting your stats.
Fathom Analytics
We don’t sample data or have any machine learning. Instead, we think it’s more honest and accurate to show our customers all the humans who visited their websites. We even automagically block bots, crawlers and DDoS attacks (no setup required).
File size
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is almost 20kb and almost 30kb when used with their Tag Manager, and they’re often loaded together.
Fathom Analytics
Our script is less than 2kb and loaded from servers worldwide via our CDN. That means Fathom Analytics script won’t slow your site down and is great for your page speed performance.
Customer support
Google Analytics
There’s no customer support offered. This means if you have a problem, find a bug, or have a question, you’ve got to search the internet for an answer (and then hope the answer is correct).
Fathom Analytics
Real, human(e) support from either our full-time support person or one of our founders (Jack and Paul). We’re a small business who values our relationships with our customers.
Fathom Analytics has features that Google Analytics doesn’t
Here are just a few things our simple software has that Google doesn’t offer:
- Dark mode
- All sites view
- Easy data export
- GA4 importer
- Email reports
- Ability to make your dashboard public
- One-click data filters
- Amazing referral program which pays 25% for life
I consider Fathom a must have tool if you want to understand what's happening with your website traffic—it's simple, speedy, and accurate.
Ruben Gamez
Founder Signwell & Bidsketch
After switching to Fathom for my web properties, I find I'm more attentive to my sites because I'm always aware of how many people are on them and which pages are most popular.
Caleb Porzio
Creator of Alpine.js
They are the best Google Analytics alternative who really care about privacy and simplicity. Fathom’s simple dashboard with clear metrics makes it easy to understand what's happening across all web properties.
Jessica Joyce
SEO Expert
Compare Cloudflare web analytics to Fathom Analytics
Cloudflare launched their web analytics at the end of 2020. They offer privacy-first, lightweight and simple website analytics—and their analytics are free. Fathom Analytics launched in 2018 and also offers simple, private-focused website analytics. Our product is paid, but as you’ll see below, paying for a product has benefits.
Why Fathom Analytics is a great Matomo alternative
Matomo, formerly called Piwik, is an open-source alternative to Google Analytics. It gained traction early as an open-sourced website stats analysis project. Here's why Fathom is an alternative to using Matomo for website analytics.
Fathom Analytics: GDPR, CCPA and cookie law compliant website analytics
Fathom Analytics began from day one with a focus on protecting the digital privacy of website visitors and complying with privacy laws. This isn't just something used for our marketing purposes; it's how we built the business and our software.
Fathom: Privacy-focused web analytics plugin for WordPress
Fathom Analytics is a simple-to-use, privacy-focused (GDPR-compliant) website analytics tool for your WordPress site. You don’t have to edit the code in your WordPress template to start using our software.
Fathom: website analytics for European companies
Fathom Analytics was built from the ground up to be fully compliant with privacy laws in Europe. And, since we have intelligent routing, our script loads up to 50% faster than EU-only infrastructure.
Fathom: website analytics software for agencies
Fathom Analytics is a simple-to-use, privacy-focused Google Analytics alternative created with agencies in mind. And as an agency, you can add up to 50 client dashboards (if you need more, you can quickly add more for a small additional fee).
Fathom: a website analytic tool for creators
We understand independent creators because we belong to that group as well. Fathom Analytics was started by two creators (we're: course makers, book writers, podcasters and musicians).
Fathom Analytics is simple website analytics
Analytics have become complicated. From Google Analytics to other third-party analytics, there are a lot of complicated analytics solutions out there. Each analytics solution provides infinite screens of reports and never-ending ways to overwhelm even the savviest website owner. Yet, it doesn’t have to be complicated.
Fathom: a privacy focused Google Analytics alternative
By using Google Analytics, website owners are allowing Google (the largest advertising company on the planet) to track and store information about every website visitor to their website. To avoid this, learn why Fathom is a great Google Analytics alternative.
Is there a better alternative to Google Analytics?
Fathom Analytics is a privacy-first alternative to Google Analytics. Our software was built for industries managing sensitive information, such as governments, businesses, or finance, it's a only choice for organizations prioritizing data protection regulations like GDPR.
