Plausible vs Fathom Analytics: Which Privacy-First Tool Is Worth It in 2026?

Fathom includes 50 sites on its entry plan. Plausible’s cheapest tier covers one. That single difference reshapes how you should think about this comparison — because it means they’re solving different problems.

Both tools are cookieless, both skip consent banners, and both collect no personal data. The privacy pitch is nearly identical. Where they diverge is on pricing structure, data retention, and the depth of features you get without paying more. If you run one site for one person, Plausible’s $9/month Starter plan is hard to argue with. If you manage a portfolio of sites or need data that outlasts any subscription cycle, Fathom’s calculus looks different.

Which Plan Is Cheapest?

Plausible wins on entry price. The Starter plan is $9/month, covers one site, and includes 3-year data retention. Fathom’s cheapest plan runs $15/month. That’s the pitch; the reality is that Plausible’s $9 plan is also the most restricted — one site, solo use only, and no team access.

If you need more than one site, Plausible moves you to its Growth plan, which does not publish a flat monthly price. The data describes it only as “higher than Starter.” That opacity is a minor frustration: you cannot compare tiers without going through the pageview-tier calculator on their site.

Does Either Tool Offer a Free Tier?

Neither offers a permanent free plan. Plausible gives you a 30-day free trial with full Business plan access, no credit card required. Fathom offers a 7-day trial. If you want time to properly evaluate features before committing, Plausible’s 30 days is the more useful window — especially since you’re testing against their highest feature tier.

How Long Do They Keep Your Data?

This is where Fathom has a structural advantage. It offers forever data retention on every plan. Plausible gives you 3 years on Starter and Growth, and 5 years on Business and Enterprise. For most small sites, 3 years is probably enough. For anyone building long-term audience trend analysis — or who has been burned by switching tools and losing history — forever is a meaningful guarantee.

Plausible: What It’s Good For

Plausible suits solo operators and small teams who want a clean, GDPR-compliant dashboard without the overhead of Google Analytics. The 30-day trial at Business-tier access is genuinely useful: you get to test funnels, user journeys, revenue tracking, and the Stats API before deciding whether you need them. If you don’t, the Starter plan at $9/month covers a single site adequately.

The Business plan adds Looker Studio integration, custom properties, and 5-year retention — features that matter once your reporting gets serious. There’s also a 15% discount on Business annual billing for nonprofits, educational institutions, and open-source projects. On the numbers, Plausible rewards commitment to higher tiers, but makes it hard to forecast cost across those tiers without running their pageview calculator yourself.

Fathom: What It’s Good For

Fathom is the cleaner choice for anyone running multiple sites. Fifty sites included from Plan 1 at $15/month removes the per-site accounting that Plausible requires. Ecommerce and event tracking are available on every plan, with no additional fees, which matters if you’re tracking conversions across a client portfolio without wanting to upgrade mid-year.

The Analytics API — 600 requests per hour, included — is available without upgrading to a business tier. Forever data retention compounds over time; if you’re five years into a business and want decade-long trend data, Fathom’s model doesn’t make you negotiate an Enterprise contract to keep it. The trade-off is that Fathom’s plans don’t publish feature differentiators between Plan 1 and Plan 5 in the data available here. The price scales, but what changes with it beyond capacity is not clear from published plan descriptions.

Where This Breaks Down

The harder problem is for buyers trying to plan spend at scale. Plausible’s Growth, Business, and Enterprise plans don’t show flat prices upfront — costs depend on total pageviews and custom events across all sites in your team, and the data only confirms the relative hierarchy (Starter < Growth < Business < Enterprise). Fathom publishes five plans ranging from $15 to $100/month, with yearly equivalents of $150 to $1,000, but doesn’t explain what changes between them in terms of features or traffic limits. You’re choosing a price without knowing exactly what you’re buying at each step, which is an odd design for tools that otherwise emphasize transparency.

The Verdict

For a single site, solo operator: Plausible Starter at $9/month. Run the 30-day trial on Business first, decide what you actually need, then step down if the advanced features don’t matter to your workflow.

For agencies or anyone managing multiple sites: Fathom’s 50-site inclusion at $15/month almost certainly saves money and administration overhead versus Plausible’s per-site model. The forever data retention is a genuine long-term advantage, not marketing copy.

For nonprofits or open-source projects on Plausible’s Business plan: the 15% annual discount is worth factoring in before assuming Fathom is cheaper at comparable feature levels.

The open question for either product: as traffic scales, neither tool makes it easy to forecast cost without going through their respective calculators or contacting sales. Before you commit, run your actual pageview numbers through both pricing pages — the published plan hierarchy doesn’t tell you what you’ll pay at 2 million pageviews a month.

Methodology. Pricing and feature data was taken from the official pages of Plausible Analytics, Fathom Analytics, collected on 2026-07-23. We did not test the products’ APIs for this article. Figures come directly from those sources; where a value was unavailable it is marked ”—”. Prices change often — confirm on the provider’s site before buying.

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