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.
While Fathom isn’t based in the EU, compliance with EU privacy laws is one of the top priorities we have as a business.
That’s why we work with legal experts and lawyers across Europe to ensure our software is compliant. And now that Google Analytics is illegal in the EU, it’s even more important to ensure that you’re using GDPR compliant analytics.
Quick setup Free for 30 days No obligationWhy choose Fathom Analytics?
The gist of why Fathom is the best and most compliant website analytics software for European companies is the following:
Fathom Analytics is a 100% Canadian corporation, and the European Commission made an adequacy decision which determined that Canada has an adequate level of data protection.
Fathom Analytics created EU Isolation, to process all EU visitor data in the EU, on EU servers. So EU traffic is routed to Germany, but US visitors are still routed to our US infrastructure.
Fathom Analytics is a data processor, and we have a solid, fair Data Processing Agreement (DPA) that we created with our EU lawyers. We encourage customers to read (or have their lawyers read it), and then sign it.
Our script loads quickly from around the world
This means that our service is much, much faster (up to 50%) than a service that operates solely out of the EU.
In the scary world of trying to be GDPR compliant and not showing customers cookie banners it’s critical to use someone you trust and for me that’s Fathom Analytics
Simon Bennett
Founder of SnapShooter 🇬🇧
Fathom collects hundreds of thousands of pageviews across all our sites and gives us a simple but powerful overview of our business in real time.
Sebastian Schlein
Managing Partner of Beyond Code GmbH 🇩🇪
We use Fathom Analytics because we care about the privacy of our customers, and GDPR compliance is extremely important to us.
Peter Suhm
Cofounder of Reform 🇩🇰
Website analytics features for European companies
Compliance
Fathom Analytics is a GDPR-compliant website analytics tool (including the Schrems II ruling). We work with legal experts and lawyers from the EU and around the world to ensure we don’t just guess about privacy laws. You can read more about our GDPR, ePrivacy Directive, PECR (and more) in our compliance section.
Canadian-based
As we’ve mentioned, Fathom is a Canadian company, and Canada has a data adequacy ruling under the GDPR. This means that we don’t need to be based in the EU to be as compliant as EU companies are. Not to toot our own horns, but Fathom is more compliant than the majority of EU companies, as we don’t use US controlled cloud servers to process EU visitor data.
No cookie banners needed
Because we don’t use cookies (we invented cookie-free analytics), you can use legitimate interest as a lawful basis for using Fathom under the GDPR, and we are compliant with the ePrivacy Directive.
Solid Data Processing Agreement
We are a data processor and have put together a solid Data Processing Agreement with leading EU lawyers to ensure our customers are compliant with their GDPR obligations.
Google Analytics is against the law
On January 13, 2022, the Austrian DPA ruled that Google Analytics is illegal. This means if your European company uses Google Analytics (or any analytics provider that has US servers or servers which are owned by a US cloud provider), your company is at risk of complaints and fines.
When you switch to Fathom, you don’t have to worry about compliance with the GDPR and, specifically, the Schrems II ruling. We built European analytics infrastructure back in 2021, which we call EU Isolation, to protect our customers automatically by ensuring EU visitor data is processed by German-owned infrastructure spread across 3 locations in the EU.
| Google Analytics | Other analytics | Fathom Analytics | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Data collected | Sometimes | Never | |
| Anonymized logs | No | Sometimes | Yes |
| EU traffic processed on EU servers | No | Sometimes | Yes |
| Schrems II compliant | No | Sometimes | Yes |
| GDPR compliant | Actually illegal | Sometimes | Yes |
| Intelligent routing | No | No | Yes |
Questions European companies may have about Fathom Analytics
Don’t I need to use an EU-based analytics solution to be GDPR compliant?
No, the European Commission has given an adequacy ruling for Canada, so using Fathom (we’re a Canadian company) means you’re just as compliant with GDPR and Schrems II. If for some reason Canada loses its adequacy decision (extremely unlikely), Fathom is 50% European owned, so we’d open a separate company in Europe that would take over processing EU traffic.
Where is EU visitor data processed with Fathom?
In the EU. Our EU Cloud is monitored 24/7, highly available (across three regions in the EU), multi-region and has enough capacity to process “Sir Lewis Hamilton” level traffic (even if you're a RedBull fan).
Is Fathom (as a Canadian company) fully GDPR compliant?
Yes, we very much are. We work with legal experts and lawyers from the EU and around the world to ensure our solution is completely compliant (including the Schrems II ruling). As a Canadian company, we have an adequacy ruling under the GDPR as well.
How do I set up EU isolation?
EU isolation is available to all customers, on all plans, and automatically runs, to ensure all customers comply with privacy laws. We enable this by default for everyone on every plan.
Is Google Analytics illegal in the EU?
As of January 13, 2022, it very much is. You can read about this ruling here, and check out our EU isolation feature, which specifically helps our customers stay compliant in light of that ruling.
Can I import historical GA data?
You bet! Use our GA importer to save your UA data from being deleted by Google Analytics, or to get you GA4 data into a much simpler analytics tool. We offer this at no charge and your monthly volume plan will not increase, no matter how many pageviews you import.
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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. Here are a few main reasons we think Fathom is a great alternative to Google Analytics.
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