Fathom Analytics Review: Simple, Privacy-Focused Website Analytics

Are you looking for a simple website analytics tool that respects user privacy? Fathom Analytics is a fast-growing alternative to Google Analytics that provides key insights without intrusive tracking or complicated reporting.

In this in-depth review, we‘ll take a close look at Fathom‘s features, pricing, and technology to help you decide if it‘s the right fit for your website.

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Fathom Analytics Overview

Fathom Analytics is a privacy-focused website analytics platform founded by Jack Ellis and Paul Jarvis in 2018. Their mission is to provide a faster, simpler, and more ethical alternative to Google Analytics that doesn‘t compromise on data insights.

Over 10,000 companies now use Fathom to track over 150 million monthly pageviews while preserving user privacy. This includes well-known brands like Transferwise, Carrd, and Transistor.fm.

Some of Fathom‘s key differentiators include:

Cookieless tracking without personal data collection
Lightweight, fast-loading tracking script
Intuitive dashboard focused on essential metrics
GDPR, CCPA, PECR, and ePrivacy compliant by default
No data sampling or limits on historical data
Unlimited sites and users under one account

By focusing on speed, privacy, and ease of use, Fathom aims to give website owners and marketers the data they need without the complexity of Google Analytics.

How Fathom Protects User Privacy

A core part of Fathom‘s value proposition is its strong privacy protection. But how exactly does this work under the hood? Let‘s dive into the technical details.

Cookieless Tracking

The biggest difference with Fathom is that it doesn‘t use cookies to track website visitors. Cookies are small text files stored on a user‘s computer that can persist across sessions and sites. While handy for remembering login credentials and preferences, third-party cookies have been widely abused for cross-site tracking and ad targeting.

Fathom takes a different approach by using anonymized data like hashed IDs to track pageviews and on-site behavior without cookies. Here‘s a simplified overview of how it works:

When a visitor loads a webpage, Fathom‘s tracking script sends a page view event with the page URL to Fathom‘s servers.
To determine if a visitor is unique, Fathom generates a hash ID based on their IP address, user agent string, and site ID. A salt is added to prevent reverse engineering.
Fathom checks if that hash ID has been seen before in a given period. If not, it‘s counted as a unique visitor. If yes, just the page view is incremented.

By tracking users anonymously this way, Fathom can still provide aggregate insights on unique visitors and user journeys without needing to use cookies or track individuals across sites.

This has a number of benefits:

Enables GDPR, CCPA, and PECR compliance without visitor consent
Eliminates the need for cookie banners and privacy pop-ups
Improves page load times by avoiding extra scripts and assets
Aligns with privacy-conscious users who block third-party cookies

Anonymized Data Collection

Another key aspect of Fathom‘s privacy-friendly approach is its minimal data collection. Unlike Google Analytics which collects dozens of data points on each visitor, Fathom only gathers:

Page URL
Referring URL
Browser name and version
Device type (desktop, tablet, mobile)
Operating system
Country-level geolocation

Notably, Fathom does not collect:

IP addresses
User agent strings
UTM parameters

Personal information like names, email addresses, and usernames are never tracked. All data is anonymized and aggregated to avoid individual visitor identification.

Data Retention and Portability

Fathom also stands out for its transparent data retention and portability policies. Unlike Google Analytics which starts sampling data once you reach a certain hit limit, Fathom never throttles or samples your data.

Your Fathom analytics are available as long as you maintain a subscription. There are no arbitrary time limits on historical data access or retention.

If you need to export your data for analysis or migration, Fathom lets you easily download all your stats in CSV format directly from the dashboard. They also provide an API for pulling data into external tools.

Intuitive Dashboard and Reporting

In addition to strong privacy, another big draw of Fathom is its simple, intuitive reporting. All the key metrics you need are available at-a-glance in Fathom‘s single-page dashboard.

Here‘s an overview of what you‘ll see:

Unique visits
Total page views
Bounce rate
Average visit duration
Top content by visits
Top referrers
Device & browser breakdown
Geographic data by country

Date ranges are adjustable and real-time data shows up instantly as visitors interact with your site. Clicking into any stat provides more granular details like page-level metrics.

A few other notable reporting features include:

Custom dashboards for different stakeholders or departments
Unlimited email reports on a custom schedule
Uptime monitoring to track site performance & reliability
CSV export of any data range

Custom Event & Goal Tracking

Like Google Analytics, Fathom supports custom event and goal tracking to measure important on-site actions. However, the setup process is much simpler.

To configure a goal, you just specify the event name and page URL where it should trigger. For example, to track email signups you could create a goal called "Newsletter Subscriber" that fires on the signup confirmation page.

Fathom will then track the number of completions and conversion rate for each goal. This is a great way to tie website metrics to business KPIs and see which channels drive the most valuable traffic.

Fathom vs Google Analytics

For many website owners, the biggest question is how Fathom compares to the most popular (and free) analytics tool: Google Analytics. While they serve the same general purpose, there are significant differences in approach and capabilities.

Here‘s a quick comparison table:

Feature	Fathom Analytics	Google Analytics
Privacy	Cookieless tracking, anonymized data	Cookie-based tracking, user profiling
Compliance	GDPR, CCPA, PECR compliant by default	Requires customization & consent
Ease of use	Simple setup, single-page reporting	Complex UI, steep learning curve
Metrics	Essential KPIs only	Comprehensive but overwhelming
Data sampling	Never	Starts at 500k sessions per month
Data retention	Unlimited	14-50 months
Real-time	Standard	Up to 4-hour delay in free version
Pricing	$14-$139+/month	Free with data sampling, $150k+/year for 360

Advantages of Fathom

Significantly easier to set up and use. Fathom can be installed with a single line of code and doesn‘t require any customization to be GDPR-compliant. The learning curve is minimal compared to Google Analytics.
More beginner-friendly reporting. Fathom‘s streamlined dashboard surfaces all the most important metrics in one place. You don‘t need to navigate multiple reports or customize to get a pulse on site performance.
Faster performance. Fathom‘s tracking script is about 5X smaller than Google Analytics (4 KB vs 20+ KB). This minimizes the impact on page load times, especially for mobile visitors.
Built-in privacy compliance. With Fathom, you don‘t need to worry about displaying cookie notices, gathering visitor consent, or modifying your terms of service. Everything is anonymized and aggregated by default.
Unlimited data retention & exporting. Fathom doesn‘t apply any arbitrary limits on how long you can store your data or the number of properties you can track. Everything is included in one simple subscription.

Advantages of Google Analytics

Free for most users. The biggest advantage of Google Analytics is that it‘s free for the vast majority of websites. Only very high-traffic sites (>5M pageviews/month) need to pay for GA 360.
Comprehensive feature set. Google Analytics offers hundreds of default and customizable reports to slice and dice your data. Fathom intentionally limits this to keep things simple.
Multi-platform tracking. Google Analytics can track users across websites and mobile apps, tying data to a single user ID. Fathom is focused solely on website analytics.
Built-in data visualization. Google Analytics includes native support for custom dashboards, charts, and graphs. With Fathom, you‘ll need to export the data and visualize it with third-party tools.
Integration with Google Ads. If you use Google Ads, Google Analytics will automatically import campaign data and tie it to on-site conversions. Fathom can still track conversions but there‘s no native integration.

Ultimately, the choice between Fathom and Google Analytics comes down to your priorities and use case. If you need advanced tracking and don‘t mind dealing with privacy headaches, Google Analytics is still the most powerful free option.

However, if you value simplicity, performance, and privacy, Fathom is an increasingly compelling alternative. For most small to midsize websites, it provides all the essential insights without the complexity or compliance burdens of Google Analytics.

Pricing & Plans

Fathom Analytics offers a straightforward pricing model based on monthly pageviews across all your websites. Pricing starts at $14/month for up to 100,000 pageviews with increasing tiers for higher traffic:

Up to 200,000: $24/month
Up to 500,000: $44/month
Up to 1,000,000: $74/month
Up to 5,000,000: $199/month
Up to 25,000,000: $299/month

Enterprise plans are available for sites with more than 25 million monthly pageviews.

All Fathom plans include:

Unlimited websites
Unlimited data retention
Unlimited users
Email & Slack reports
Uptime monitoring
Custom domains

There are no overage fees if you exceed your plan limit. You‘ll just be prompted to upgrade to the next tier at the end of your billing cycle.

Compared to other privacy-focused analytics tools, Fathom‘s pricing is very competitive. For example, Plausible charges $12/month for 20,000 pageviews while Simple Analytics is $19/month for 100,000 pageviews.

Final Thoughts

If you‘re looking for a simple, fast, and privacy-focused alternative to Google Analytics, Fathom is definitely worth considering. It provides all the key insights most website owners need without the complexity or compliance burdens of GA.

Fathom‘s cookieless tracking and anonymized data collection make it much easier to comply with GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy regulations. You can get reliable website analytics without sacrificing visitor privacy or jumping through consent hoops.

At the same time, Fathom‘s intuitive reporting and flexible pricing make it accessible to a wide range of website owners. Whether you‘re running a small blog or a high-traffic ecommerce store, Fathom can adapt to your needs and budget.

As more consumers become privacy-conscious and regulations tighten, solutions like Fathom will only become more important. By adopting a privacy-first approach now, you can future-proof your analytics and build trust with your audience.

To see if Fathom is right for you, start a free 7-day trial (no credit card required). You can also explore the live demo dashboard to get a feel for the interface and reporting capabilities.

For more on website analytics, privacy, and compliance, check out these related posts:

Have you tried Fathom Analytics? What‘s been your experience with privacy-focused analytics solutions? Let us know in the comments!