Fathom Analytics: Is it the right choice for your website?

You’ve just launched your new website. It’s sleek, it’s fast, and you’re excited to see how visitors engage with it. You’ve started getting several visitors. But there’s one problem: you have no idea who’s actually visiting, where they’re coming from, or what they’re doing once they get there. Without this crucial data, you’re flying blind.

And when you’re flying blind, you’re missing out on key insights. If you’re selling a digital product, for instance, how do you know which countries your users are coming from the most, so you could maybe double down on targeting that market?

How do you know which blog posts on your website are bringing in the traffic? Or more importantly, how do you know which ones are getting people interested in your product and actually driving conversions? Without this information, you’re guessing instead of strategizing.

Naturally, the first name that comes up whenever you ask around for a web analytics tool is Google Analytics. It’s the industry standard, after all. But as soon as you start diving in, you realize it’s not as straightforward as you hoped. The interface is dense, the terminology is confusing, and there’s a steep learning curve that feels more like scaling a mountain.

Google Analytics comes with a long list of complexities—data privacy concerns, potential GDPR headaches, and a heavy, almost overwhelming, amount of information that can be tough to sift through.

This is why it’s worth considering other options. There’s no shortage of Google Analytics alternatives out there—tools that promise to make tracking your web stats easier, more intuitive, and perhaps a bit less daunting. Plausible, Fathom, and Seline are just a few of the names making waves in this space.

Today, we’re going to take a closer look at Fathom and see how it stacks up against Google Analytics across the metrics that matter most.

Analytics Strength

Let's start with the feature that you should pay most of the attention to—analytics and data reporting strengths. That’s the whole purpose of a web analytics tool!

Fathom Analytics markets itself as a simple web analytics solution. For the most part, I think it delivers on that promise. But I also think this often worries potential users. The idea of being a simpler alternative often seems like they’d probably be missing some really important analytics data points. I had this fear initially, but that’s not entirely the case with most of the simple web analytics tools I’ve used—Fathom, Seline, and Plausible. Their simplicity is mostly around their ease of use.

Despite its simplicity, Fathom covers all the essentials you'd expect from a web analytics tool. It handles the basics efficiently—real-time data reporting, audience interaction tracking, and campaign monitoring using UTMs.

You can also customize and monitor key events, and filter audience data based on specific metrics. Basically, you’ll be able to pull off most of the day-to-day analytics functions that you can pull off with Google Analytics.

Fathom is also quite strong on the data accuracy front. On average, I believe Google Analytics’s session-based analytics typically deliver slightly better accuracy when dealing with very large volumes of traffic. However, you can’t really say with certainty which is more accurate for your particular site due to several variables. For instance, a lot of Ad blockers block Google Analytics trackers which can affect the accuracy of the reports you get. So, if you run a site with a lot of privacy-conscious visitors with ad blockers running riot, there’s a good chance Google’s analytics wouldn’t capture their actions on your website accurately.

If you’ve experimented with using both Fathom and Google Analytics on your site, you’ll quickly realize there’s no clear winner in terms of accuracy. At least for a website with average traffic. In some cases, GA4 reports more users and events, in some cases Fathom reports more.

Of course, both tools ensure that only real human visitors are counted, filtering out bots and crawlers. So, none of the tools are counting bots. The differences are primarily due to how both tools approach counting unique users.

Just like Google Analytics, Fathom also supports audience segmentation, allowing you to categorize users by specific demographics. However, it offers limited information about your audience, providing limited personal details compared to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Depending on your perspective, this could be either a benefit in terms of privacy or a drawback in understanding your audience more deeply. That’s your call to make.

For those managing multiple websites, Fathom makes it easy to monitor all sites simultaneously. It aggregates data across all your websites, giving you a comprehensive view of total traffic and performance metrics without any delay. That’s a big plus in my books.

Holistically speaking, the data Fathom provides is considerably comprehensive and accurate. Both Fathom and Google Analytics are strong at their core job of web analytics.

Data Retention

How long does Fathom give you access to your web analytics data? How does it compare to Google Analytics?

Let's talk about Google Analytics first. By default, Google automatically deletes all site data after an average of 26 months. Users can adjust this retention period, setting it to be longer or shorter, but the duration is influenced by the type of data and whether the user has a GA360 account. For instance, GA360 users can retain event-level data for up to 50 months, which is significantly longer than the standard 24 months.

On the other hand, Fathom Analytics offers a much simpler and more permanent solution: your data is never deleted. Whether you’ve been with Fathom since they launched in 2018 or you’re a new user, your data remains intact. They’ve committed to keeping this feature, making it ideal for users who might need access to old data from several years back. Plus, Fathom stores your data securely in AWS Cloud data centers located in the US and Canada, so you don’t have to worry about storage.

Between the two, Fathom Analytics clearly comes out on top in this category. While some users might choose to discard older data, having the option to retain it—especially data from recent years—can be invaluable for research and identifying long-term audience patterns.

Ease of Use

Google Analytics is a notoriously complicated web analytics tool. When it comes to ease of use, Fathom shines. It's quite intuitive, making navigation a breeze. You won’t find yourself lost in a maze of options or need to sign up for a course to figure it out. You could use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for years and still get puzzled by some features. Fathom’s simplicity is its strength—everything you need is right where you expect it to be.

Google Analytics, on the other hand, is more complex. It organizes metrics across different dashboards, likely to avoid clutter, but this can make it feel fragmented. If you're the type who just wants a straightforward tool that doesn’t require much hand-holding, Fathom takes the crown. However, if your definition of ease of use is having your site metrics decentralized into various sections, GA4 might be more your thing.

Integration

When it comes to integrating analytics into your website, Google Analytics and Fathom Analytics are on different levels. I find Fathom Analytics significantly easier to set up and use on websites.

However, when it comes to playing nice with other tools, Google Analytics is clear of Fathom. As part of Google’s Marketing Platform, Google Analytics seamlessly and exclusively integrates with a wide array of Google apps and third-party tools like Zendesk, Notion, and Calendly. Fathom Analytics doesn’t have as much integration flexibility.

This is really hard to call, so deciding which is better for you when it comes to integration really depends on what you want to achieve with your web analytics tool.

Pricing

Let’s talk dollars and cents. Google Analytics gives you options: a free plan and a paid one. The free version is ideal for individuals and small businesses who just need the basics. But if you're looking to unlock the full potential of your data, the paid plan, starting at a hefty $50,000 per year, is designed for medium to large companies that need more robust features.

Fathom Analytics takes a different approach. There’s no forever-free plan, but you do get a 30-day free trial to see if it’s the right fit. After that, it's $15 per month—a straightforward, affordable option. So, if you're after a tool you can use for free over the long haul, Fathom might not be your go-to. Google Analytics would be more up your alley for extended free usage.

When it comes to picking the right tool for your budget, it all depends on what you need. Fathom is a great choice for small to medium-sized businesses that value simplicity and cost-effectiveness. But if you’re running a bigger operation that requires deep data insights, Google Analytics, even with its steeper price tag, might be the smarter investment. In the end, the decision hinges on your business size, goals, and how much you're willing to invest in your analytics.

Privacy and Data Protection Compliance

We’ve reached the final round, and it’s a big one—privacy. This is often the clincher for those leaning towards Fathom. Fathom’s claim to fame is its strong stance on privacy; it doesn’t peek into your website visitors’ personal information.

Now, Google Analytics plays by a different set of rules. With Google Analytics installed on over 30 million websites, GA4 is known to gather Personally Identifiable Information (PII) through cookies it installs on visitors’ browsers. Google uses this cookie to track you across all the websites you visit and uses this data to power its large ads empire. This data fuels personalized ads, helps Google grow its empire of products, and comes with the risk of third-party access to this sensitive information.

Let’s break it down: When you connect Google Analytics to your website, it drops a tracking code on all your visitors’ browsers. This facilitates the relay of your visitors' information back to Google. Even though Google has pulled back on sharing data with third parties, the thought of any data being transmitted can still be unsettling for some. That said, Google Analytics is in compliance with big-name privacy laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

So, is Google Analytics doing enough to protect user privacy? They’re certainly making strides, but they are still a very long way from the privacy-focused analytics we want. Fathom offers a privacy-centric alternative. Just remember, the trade-off is that the rich data Google provides—useful for building customer profiles and really getting to know your audience—might be lacking with Fathom.

In the end, both tools are safe bets. Your choice will come down to what matters more to you: locking down privacy or unlocking deep audience insights.

Fathom is Great, But Seline is Greater?

While Fathom Analytics has its strong points, it’s not without a few bumps in the road. First off, there’s the 30-day trial. Sure, a month might seem like plenty of time, but when it comes to truly understanding how an analytics tool supports your campaigns, 30 days barely scratches the surface.

Personally. I think you need months of consistent data to spot trends, understand seasonality, and really see the long-term impact of your marketing efforts. A single month? That’s more like a teaser than a full test drive.

Another sticking point is Fathom’s limited audience segmentation. If you’re someone who thrives on diving deep into audience demographics to fine-tune your marketing strategies, Fathom might leave you wanting more. Fathom’s simplicity is great, but it does come at the cost of less detailed data—a potential dealbreaker for data-driven marketers.

If you’re hunting for a privacy-focused alternative to Google Analytics that also sidesteps some of Fathom’s shortcomings, Seline might be what you are looking for.

Seline is quickly becoming a favorite among those seeking a powerful, privacy-focused alternative to Google Analytics.

One of its standout features is the free-forever setup. As long as your traffic stays under a certain limit, you can use Seline at no cost—making it a perfect choice for startups or new websites that aren’t ready to dive into a paid plan.

Simplicity is at the heart of Seline, but it doesn’t skimp on features. It blends the best of Fathom—ease of use, privacy, and essential analytics—while adding more flexibility. The interface is even more user-friendly, so navigating your data is a breeze.

Seline doesn’t just make analytics simple—it makes them smarter. While Fathom offers simplicity, Seline takes it further by providing a more intuitive interface, clearer data, and actionable insights.

Beyond the basics, Seline helps you dive deep into understanding your audience. It tracks visitor journeys, so you can see exactly how users move through your website. This lets you identify key touchpoints—where users convert, where they drop off—and optimize these paths for better results.

You also get a snapshot of visitor profiles that give you a comprehensive view of your audience's behavior. In terms of conversions, Seline is quite good for funnel analysis. You can set up funnels to track where users enter, where they drop off, and where they convert. You can use this data to tailor your content and marketing strategies to enhance engagement, and retention and drive even more traffic.

And when your traffic starts to pick up, Seline’s flexible pricing model means you only pay for what you actually need. No more picking plans based on arbitrary traffic tiers; instead, you get a plan that fits your real traffic, ensuring you’re never overpaying.

Plus, if you do decide to pay, Seline makes sure your web traffic data is stored securely for as long as you need it—forever if you want, at no extra cost.

What really sets Seline apart is how it takes simplicity to the next level, even beyond Fathom. The user interface is intuitive, the data is crystal clear, and the insights are actionable. It’s a tool that grows with your business, making analytics not just easier, but smarter.

But how would you know if you don’t try it? It’s free! So, don’t take our word for it, Sign up to try Seline and see for yourself.