Plausible vs Fathom: I Paid for Both. Here's the Honest Truth.
Two premium analytics tools. Both privacy-first. Both cost money. But after 6 months with each, one is clearly the better choice for most people.
Let me save you some time: Plausible wins for 9 out of 10 people.
There. I said it. You can stop reading now if you want.
Still here? Good. Because the why matters, and the edge cases matter, and maybe you’re that 1 in 10 where Fathom makes more sense.
Plausible
Estonia • Open Source • €9/mo
Fathom
Canada • Closed Source • $15/mo
The Uncomfortable Question Nobody Asks
Why are we even comparing these two?
Both do the same thing. Both respect privacy. Both work without cookies. Both look nearly identical. So why does one cost 40% more than the other?
I genuinely wanted to find out. So I ran both on the same sites for 6 months. Identical setups. Same traffic. Real comparison.
Hot take incoming: The price difference isn’t about features. It’s about what you’re paying for when you choose “safe” over “best value.”
The Numbers (Because That’s Why You’re Here)
| What You Get | Plausible | Fathom |
|---|---|---|
| 10K pageviews | €9/mo | ~€14/mo |
| 100K pageviews | €19/mo | ~€23/mo |
| 1M pageviews | €69/mo | ~€74/mo |
| Script size | ~1 KB | ~1 KB |
| EU servers | Frankfurt | Frankfurt |
Over a year at 100K pageviews, that’s €48 saved with Plausible. Not life-changing. But not nothing either.
Where Plausible Pulls Ahead
1. It’s Actually Open Source
This isn’t just a marketing checkbox. You can:
- Read every line of code
- Self-host if you’re paranoid (or just cheap)
- Know exactly what’s running on your visitors’ browsers
- Never get locked in
Fathom? You trust them. That’s it. Black box.
2. EU Company, EU Rules
Plausible is Estonian. That’s European Union. GDPR isn’t a compliance burden for them—it’s home turf.
Fathom is Canadian. Good privacy laws, sure. But when your German client’s legal team asks “who controls the data?”, there’s a difference between “an EU company” and “well, technically Canada has adequacy status…“
3. More Features, Same Price
Plausible actually ships more:
- Revenue tracking – see which pages drive money
- Funnel analysis – basic, but it exists
- Google Search Console integration – your keywords, in your dashboard
Fathom has… uptime monitoring. Which is nice. But also weird? Why is that in my analytics tool?
Where Fathom Holds Its Ground
The “Nobody Gets Fired For…” Factor
Fathom launched in 2018. Six years of track record. Bigger team. More established.
If you work somewhere that values “proven solutions” over “best value,” Fathom is the easier sell. It’s the analytics equivalent of IBM in the ‘80s.
Marginally More Polished
This is subjective, but Fathom feels like it had a bigger design budget. The dashboard has that extra 5% of polish. Little animations. Slightly smoother interactions.
Plausible is clean and functional. Fathom is clean, functional, and pretty.
Does it matter for reading your pageview counts? No. Does it feel nice? A little.
The Dashboard Test
I showed both dashboards to three non-technical people. Asked which they preferred.
Results: 1 picked Plausible, 1 picked Fathom, 1 said “they look the same.”
Conclusion: This isn’t a meaningful differentiator.
Real Talk: What Actually Matters
After 6 months of parallel testing, here’s what I actually care about:
Accuracy: Identical. Within 1-2% of each other, always.
Speed: Both instant. Both ~1KB scripts. No difference.
Reliability: Neither went down during my test. Not once.
Support: Both responsive via email. Fathom maybe 2 hours faster on average.
Features I use: Pageviews, referrers, geography, UTMs. Both have them. Both work.
The EU Factor (It’s Bigger Than You Think)
For European businesses specifically:
Plausible isn’t just “GDPR compliant.” It’s an EU company processing data in the EU under EU law. That’s a fundamentally different legal position than a Canadian company that happens to have EU servers.
When the next Schrems ruling drops, guess which one has less to worry about?
My Decision Framework
Choose Plausible If
- You're in the EU or serve EU customers
- Open source matters to you
- You want self-hosting optionality
- Budget is a factor
- You're a developer who likes transparency
Choose Fathom If
- "Nobody ever got fired for..." is your vibe
- Your company values track record over cost
- You want uptime monitoring bundled in
- That extra design polish genuinely matters to you
- You don't care about open source at all
The Verdict
Plausible
Cheaper, open source, EU-based, more features. Unless you have a specific reason to choose Fathom, Plausible is the rational choice.
I switched from Fathom to Plausible eight months ago. Haven’t looked back.
The €48/year I save isn’t why. The peace of mind from using open source software on my privacy-focused sites? That’s why.
Both tools are excellent. You won't go wrong with either. But if you're reading a comparison article to help you decide, the answer is probably Plausible—because you're optimizing for value, and Plausible delivers more of it.
Quick FAQ
Can I migrate data between them? No. You start fresh. Data structures are incompatible.
Do ad blockers block them? Both can be blocked. Both offer custom domain workarounds.
Which is more accurate? Identical in my testing. Pick based on other factors.
What about Simple Analytics or Umami? Different comparison. But if you’re considering those, Plausible’s self-hosted option competes with Umami, and Simple Analytics sits somewhere between these two.
Try them yourself:
Related reads:
- Plausible vs Matomo – Open source showdown
- Plausible vs Umami – Self-hosted options
- Why EU Software Matters
Last updated: January 2026