Curious how a privacy-first product can cut load times, protect visitors, and still show the traffic and data you need?
You can test it risk-free. Fathom Analytics is a lightweight, GDPR-compliant website analytics tool with a WordPress plugin and a single-line install. Pricing starts at $14/month for Starter, with Pro for growing needs and savings when you choose Annual billing.
The platform offers unlimited data retention, an importer for Universal Analytics and GA4, email reports, and shareable dashboards. It anonymizes visits so you often skip cookie banners and stay compliant with GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy, and PECR.
Get a free 30-day trial to validate results before paying a cent. When you’re ready, Start free trial or Get discount at checkout. Later in the article you’ll see brief comparisons with Google Analytics and Matomo to help you pick the right fit.
Key Takeaways
- Privacy-first website analytics that installs in minutes and suits U.S. small business needs.
- Pricing begins at $14/month with Pro and Annual discounts available.
- Free 30-day trial lets you test tracking, importer, and dashboards without risk.
- Unlimited data retention helps you track long-term trends and seasonality.
- Lightweight script improves site speed and user experience while protecting privacy.
What Is Fathom Analytics and Why It’s Built for Your Business
See useful visitor trends fast, while keeping your users’ data private.
This service offers a privacy-first approach that avoids cookie banners and protects people without sacrificing clarity.
Privacy-first, simple analytics without cookies
The tool anonymizes visitor data and meets GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy, and PECR standards. That means your website can stay compliant without interrupting people with consent prompts.
The script is lightweight, so it won’t slow your site. You keep control of the user experience while collecting aggregated, privacy-respecting metrics.
Commercial intent: what you can accomplish today
You can install the service in minutes using a single line of code or the official WordPress plugin. Real-time stats appear right away so you can act on trends.
- Quick setup: single-line install or WordPress plugin.
- Immediate insights: top pages, referrers, and conversions in a simple dashboard.
- Shareable reports: public, private, or passworded dashboards and automated email reports.
| Action | How fast | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Install on site | Minutes | Live tracking without cookie banners |
| View dashboards | Immediate | Top pages, referrers, conversions |
| Share reports | Minutes to configure | Stakeholders get access without extra seats |
| Import old data | One-time setup | Keep trend continuity from Universal Analytics or GA4 |
Fathom Analytics Pricing Today: Starter, Pro, and Annual Options
Choose a simple, predictable subscription that scales with your site’s visitors.
Starter plan: begins at $14/month for growing sites
Starter begins at $14/month and is ideal if you’re launching or growing a site with modest traffic.
You get unlimited data retention, email reports, and the same privacy-first tracking across all plans.
Pro plan: when you need more traffic capacity and features
Pro is the upgrade when traffic rises or you need higher capacity and advanced features.
It keeps the dashboard simple so your team spends less time learning and more time acting on data.
Annual billing: lock in savings with yearly plans
Select annual billing to lower your effective monthly rate and simplify budgeting.
Start with the free 30-day trial, then switch to a yearly plan to capture savings once results are confirmed.
Which tier should you choose as a small business
Start with Starter to validate fit during the free trial. Upgrade to Pro only when your traffic demands it.
“Start free trial now, then switch to annual to capture savings once you’ve confirmed results.”
- All plans include privacy-first tracking, compliance, email reports, and unlimited retention.
- You can import Google Analytics data on any tier to keep historical context.
- If you manage multiple brands, compare thresholds to your aggregate traffic before committing.
| Tier | Starting price | Key benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $14/month | Unlimited retention, email reports, ideal for small sites |
| Pro | Higher capacity (contact for pricing) | Advanced features, higher traffic limits, same privacy-first service |
| Annual | Discounted effective monthly rate | Save on long-term costs, easier budgeting for companies |
Action: Start the free 30-day trial to test tracking and dashboards. Then lock in annual billing to save as your site grows.
Three Key Features Small Businesses Love
Keeping full historical data makes it easy to spot seasonality and long-term growth.
Unlimited data retention for long-term trends
You’ll never lose history. Unlimited retention keeps months and years of data so you can compare seasons and measure real growth.
This saves you from exporting or paying extra for storage. Your reports stay accurate and continuous.
Single line of code and WordPress plugin for fast setup
Install in minutes with a single line code snippet or the open-source WordPress plugin. No theme edits, no developer tickets.
The plugin supports excluding admins, dark mode, and multisite views. It also includes plugin-level support for common caching setups.
Email reports for you and your clients
Automate scheduled email reports to clients, team members, or executives without adding users to the dashboard.
Send clear snapshots that speed decisions and cut back-and-forth. Start the free trial to install fast and share your first report this week.
Fast, Private, Compliant: How Fathom Protects You and Your Visitors
Measure essential site metrics while avoiding personal data collection and needless legal risk.
Compliance acronyms matter. You meet GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy, and PECR standards through a built-in privacy model that digital privacy lawyers have reviewed.
The service anonymizes traffic so you can often skip cookie banners. That keeps your site clean, improves load times, and reduces friction for users.
EU isolation and lawful processing
EU traffic is processed on EU-based servers where IPs are removed before any routing to the U.S. This EU isolation helps you handle cross-border reporting lawfully.
- Vetted compliance: meets GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy, PECR per leading lawyers.
- No cookie banners: anonymization reduces consent needs while preserving key metrics.
- Reduced exposure: aggregated, non-identifiable data lowers legal risk for your business.
| Feature | What it does | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Anonymization | Removes identifiers before storage | Less legal risk, no cookie banners |
| EU isolation | Processes EU visitor IPs on Hetzner servers | Lawful EU handling before cross-border transfer |
| Aggregated metrics | Non-identifiable reporting | Clear insights without personal data |
Action: Start the free trial to validate compliance workflows on your site before wider rollout.
Setup in Minutes: From Sign-Up to Real-Time Data
Get live site metrics in minutes after a quick signup. Start the 30-day free trial, add your site, and you’ll see real-time stats within minutes. This frees you from lengthy onboarding and gets your team working on results right away.
Start the 30-day free trial and add your site
Create an account, add your site, and confirm your SiteID. The trial gives you full access so you can validate tracking and reports in real time.
Install via WordPress plugin or single line of code
WordPress: Plugins > Add New, install, activate, then paste your SiteID.
HTML: Paste a single script tag into your site code and publish. Both methods show live data in minutes.
Bypass most ad blockers with a custom domain
Use a custom tracking domain to reduce ad-blocker loss and get a fuller picture of your traffic. It’s a simple DNS step that improves data quality over time.
Import your Google Analytics data and keep everything
Import Universal Analytics or GA4 to preserve trends and benchmarks. Your historical data moves over so year-over-year comparisons keep working.
“Start the free trial, preview the demo, and share a secure link with teammates to review initial findings.”
- Preview the live demo before you connect production properties.
- Verify the setup with caching and optimization plugins using built-in guidance.
- Enable email reports to save time and keep stakeholders informed.
| Step | How long | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Sign up & start trial | 1–2 minutes | Full access for 30 days |
| Install plugin or script | Minutes | Real-time site data |
| Custom tracking domain | 10–30 minutes (DNS) | Fewer blocked hits, cleaner data |
| Import google analytics | One-time task | Preserve historical trends |
Fathom Analytics vs Google Analytics: Clarity and Compliance
Cut the time you spend hunting for insights by using a dashboard built for quick decisions.
Simplicity over complexity: You get a clean, actionable dashboard instead of many screens and settings that take a lot of time. Non-analysts read it the same day and act.
Performance benefits: A lightweight script means your page loads faster, improving user experience and SEO. Faster pages help keep bounce rates down and conversions up.
Privacy-first model: Operate without an advertising-driven data model. That reduces legal risk and often removes the need for cookie banners while still allowing lawful measurement.
- Faster site pages: lighter tracking equals better page performance.
- Less setup time: simpler onboarding for teams and clients.
- Long-term data: unlimited retention makes year-over-year comparisons straightforward.
- Import option: bring your Google Analytics data over to preserve continuity during the switch.
| Benefit | Google Analytics | Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Dashboard clarity | Many screens, steep learning | Single view, action-focused |
| Page performance | Heavier tags can slow pages | Lightweight script, faster load time |
| Privacy model | Ad-driven, more consent steps | Privacy-first, fewer banners |
Action: Start the free trial to validate this alternative google analytics experience on your site and import historical data to keep trends intact.
Fathom Analytics vs Matomo: Hosting, Maintenance, and Ease
Choosing the right analytics path changes how much upkeep your team handles.
Hosted convenience vs self-host complexity
You avoid server maintenance when you pick a hosted service. The hosted alternative keeps backups, scaling, and security off your plate.
Matomo’s open source option often means self-hosting, which brings database care, updates, and occasional downtime. That adds work and potential issue resolution time for your team.
Quick install, fewer settings, less overhead
Install in minutes with a single script or the open source WordPress plugin and start seeing data fast.
Self-hosted setups require server provisioning, tuning, and ongoing upgrades. That can slow the time to value and distract you from growth tasks.
- Less infrastructure work: predictable subscription costs vs variable hosting bills and labor.
- Fewer conflicts: a lightweight script reduces plugin or tracking script issues on your page.
- Multiple sites: consolidate without running separate instances or long upgrade cycles.
- Open source plugin: you still get an open source WordPress plugin while relying on a managed backend.
Bottom line: choose the hosted route if your priority is reliable insights with minimal time spent on servers and fewer technical issues.
Known Limits and Practical Considerations
Know the hard limits up front so you can plan campaign rollouts with confidence.
The platform is built to be predictable for teams that manage many properties.
Default site quota and expansion
You can track up to 50 sites by default. If you manage more, request higher limits from support and confirm timing before launch.
Event tracking and campaign attribution
Event tracking covers clicks, sign-ups, purchases, and other critical actions you need to measure. UTM parameter support lets you map which campaigns drive traffic and conversions.
- Long-term data: retain historical records to compare campaign cohorts across quarters.
- Stakeholder sharing: shared dashboards and scheduled email reports keep teams aligned without extra seats.
- Privacy-aware measurement: respect users while still measuring the things that impact revenue.
| Limit or feature | Default | What you should do |
|---|---|---|
| Sites managed | 50 sites | Request quota increase if you run more properties |
| Event tracking | Built-in | Define event schema during trial to validate rollout |
| UTM support | Yes | Use consistent tagging to trace traffic and conversions |
| Reporting | Email & shared dashboards | Automate reports for campaign stakeholders |
Start with your highest-priority campaigns and confirm limits and event schemas during the free trial. That keeps your rollout smooth and your site setup unified across properties.
Refunds, Trial, and Money-Back Confidence
Start with a full 30-day trial to validate reporting, speed, and event tracking on your own site. Use this time to benchmark traffic, import historical data, and confirm the product fits your goals without commitment.
Free 30-day trial to validate results risk-free
Use the trial as an active audit window. Import your Google Analytics history early so you can compare trends in one place. Enable a custom domain to reduce ad-blocker losses and capture more accurate site data.
- Share dashboards and email summaries with people who make decisions.
- Test page performance with and without the script to confirm speed gains.
- Validate event tracking and UTMs across top campaigns in the first week.
How the refund window supports your evaluation
If you need help, contact support early so you don’t lose evaluation time. Reach out with questions about setup, imports, or custom domains.
“Use the 30-day window to decide with confidence by week four.”
| Action | When | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Import historical data | Days 1–3 | Compare past trends in a single product view |
| Enable custom domain | Days 1–7 | Capture more accurate traffic, fewer blocked hits |
| Test events and UTMs | Week 1 | Validate campaign attribution and conversions |
| Share reports with stakeholders | Ongoing | Align people and speed decision time |
Action: Start the free trial now and contact support if anything slows you down. At the end of the trial you’ll have the data and time needed to decide.
How to Claim a Fathom Analytics Discount or Coupon
Claiming a discount is quick and works right from the checkout screen. Follow this short process to apply any coupon and combine it with yearly savings for the best rate.
Step-by-step: apply coupon during checkout
- Start your free 30-day trial and confirm tracking works on your site.
- When you’re ready to convert, go to the checkout page and select your preferred plans and billing cycle.
- Paste your coupon code into the discount field and click apply before you confirm payment.
- Verify the discounted total on the page, then complete payment to lock the rate.
- If a code doesn’t work, contact support to confirm eligibility and timing.
Annual plan savings: stackable value for SMB budgets
Choose Annual billing to stack savings. Selecting a yearly plan lowers your effective month cost and can combine with a coupon for maximum value.
- Start your free trial, then apply the coupon during conversion to secure savings.
- Evaluate which plan fits your site traffic before you finalize to avoid changing tiers later.
- Save the receipt and account link for finance and renewal reminders.
“Move fast: apply your discount during the trial so you don’t miss promotional windows.”
Get discount. Turn trial results into ongoing value by applying a coupon and choosing annual billing to lower your month-over-month cost while keeping email reports and easy setup via plugin or code.
Recommended Use Cases for Small Businesses
Pick practical use cases where privacy-first metrics speed decisions for your company.
Service firms, SaaS, and content sites needing privacy-first insights
Service businesses can prove marketing ROI with clear reports while keeping client pages fast.
SaaS companies track sign-ups, onboarding events, and feature adoption without invasive profiling. Content sites monitor top articles, referrers, and reading time to grow loyal audiences.
Agencies reporting to clients with shared or private dashboards
Agencies can share a public or passworded dashboard per client without creating extra logins for every company.
Your team and clients get automated email reports so people stay aligned without extra meetings.
“Start a free trial and roll out a standard dashboard template across client portfolios this week.”
- Consolidate multiple sites into one view to manage brands or franchises efficiently.
- Respect people’s privacy while scaling traffic and keeping analytics consistent over time.
- Reduce training overhead—dashboards are intuitive for any team member.
| Use case | Why it works | Quick action |
|---|---|---|
| Service firms | Prove campaign ROI, keep client pages fast | Share private dashboard |
| SaaS | Track sign-ups and adoption without profiling | Enable event tracking |
| Content sites | Measure top pages and reading patterns | Schedule weekly email summaries |
| Agencies | Deliver client reports without extra accounts | Deploy dashboard template |
Conclusion
In short, you get fast, private reporting that keeps your pages light and your legal risk low.
Fathom Analytics is a privacy-first, simple, and compliant alternative google solution that helps you measure site performance without cookies. It starts at $14/month and includes a 30-day free trial, unlimited data retention, EU isolation, and a WordPress plugin.
The product beats google analytics for clarity and page speed. Compared to self-hosted options like Matomo, you avoid maintenance and get insights in minutes.
- Privacy: anonymization and compliance with GDPR/CCPA/ePrivacy/PECR.
- Speed: lightweight script improves page load and user experience.
- Continuity: import Universal Analytics/GA4 data and keep long-term trends.
“You can start the free trial and see results on your site in minutes.”
| Benefit | Hosted service | Self-hosted |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | Minutes via single script or plugin | Hours to days (server + config) |
| Maintenance | Managed updates and backups | Your team handles updates and scaling |
| Privacy model | Anonymized, EU isolation | Depends on setup and compliance work |
| Cost control | Starts $14/month, annual savings | Variable hosting and labor costs |
Action: If you want to use fathom analytics now, start the free trial or get discount at checkout. You’ve got everything you need to keep your site fast, compliant, and focused on growth.
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A brief live test on your site shows whether tracking, dashboards, and reports meet your team’s needs.
Install the single line code or the WordPress plugin, watch real visitor traffic, and check how the dashboard surfaces key data. In just a few days you can judge page speed, event tracking, and overall ease of use.
Choose the 30-day trial to compare this alternative google analytics experience with your current setup. The product keeps privacy front and center while preserving long-term data and reducing load time. If you hit an issue, contact support for help during the trial so your team can move from demo to live with confidence.
