Fathom Analytics vs Plausible: Many Sites or EU-Only Data

The short answer: both count visits without cookies by their own description, both rotate a daily salt, and both are paid; what separates them is how many sites the money covers and where the anonymised data ends up. At 100,000 pageviews a month, Fathom Analytics charges $15 for up to 50 sites, while Plausible charges $19 for one site on Starter, $29 for three on Growth or $39 for ten on Business, all on monthly billing (checked on 26 October 2026 on the Fathom and Plausible pricing pages). Choose Fathom for an agency or a portfolio of sites. Choose Plausible when visitor data must be processed and stored inside the EU on European-owned servers, or when you want a free, self-hosted route.

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What to count first:

1. Sites times traffic. For example, six client sites with 180,000 pageviews and events between them fit Fathom's $25 tier for 200,000; on Plausible, more than three sites means Business, which is $59 a month at 200,000. On monthly billing that is 12 x $25 = $300 against 12 x $59 = $708 a year, using the Fathom and Plausible pricing pages.
2. The history you already hold. Plausible lists Google Analytics import on every plan, per its pricing, and Fathom's GA4 comparison describes an importer for GA4 data. Bring the same months into both during the trials, so the comparison starts with a shared past.
3. The definition of a visitor. Both reset identifiers daily, so "unique visitors" in either means unique per day, not per month. Differences between the two will come from bot filtering and salt timing more than from design; Plausible's cloud excludes about 32,000 data-centre IP ranges by default, per its self-hosting page.

Built the same way, sold differently

Read on 26 October 2026: Fathom's pricing page, salts and hashes page, data isolation page and limits guide; Plausible's pricing, data policy, self-hosting page, trial guide and plans guide.

Where they part

Where the anonymised record lives

Fathom routes EU visitors to EU servers, strips the IP address there, and then stores the anonymised record on its main servers in the United States, per its data isolation page; its homepage adds that, as a Canadian company, it is covered by Canada's EU adequacy decision. Plausible says all visitor data is processed and stored in the EU on infrastructure owned by European companies and never leaves it, per its data policy. If a works council or a public-sector client has written "EU only" into the contract, that sentence decides it.

What the money covers

Fathom prices traffic and throws in sites: every plan covers 50. Plausible prices traffic and plan together, so sites, team members and features rise by tier: Starter has one site, Growth three sites and three team members, Business ten of each plus funnels, revenue attribution and its Stats API, per its pricing. One brand with one site is cheaper on Plausible Starter only at 10,000 pageviews, $9 against Fathom's $15 entry tier.

The self-hosted route

Plausible's Community Edition is the same code under the AGPLv3 licence, free to run on your own server. Its self-hosting page is plain about the cost: you own backups, uptime, upgrades and security fixes, bot filtering is basic, and funnels, user journeys, ecommerce revenue goals and SSO are left out. Fathom has no self-hosted option.

Consent, by each vendor's own account

Plausible's data policy says you do not need cookie banners for analytics; Fathom's pricing page lists "No cookie banners required". Both are the vendors' statements. Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive requires consent before information is stored on or read from a visitor's device, outside narrow exceptions, and the EDPB's Guidelines 2/2023 read that rule as reaching beyond cookies. Fathom's own compliance overview says cookie-free does not automatically mean outside device-access rules. If GA4 runs on the same site, Google's Consent Mode governs its tags and neither of these. The full set-up, with questions for counsel, is in consent-friendly EU analytics.

Monthly price at four traffic levels

Monthly billing in USD, checked on 26 October 2026 on the Fathom and Plausible pricing pages. Both give two months free on yearly billing, and both count custom events towards the allowance.

One AI step: Luna's traffic answer, checked in the other tool

During a side-by-side month, Fathom's assistant Luna can be asked "Did my traffic drop last month?"; after you click Allow, it compares the month with the one before and lists the pages and referrers that changed. A person opens Plausible for the same dates and checks the pages Luna named. A drop both tools show is real. A drop only one shows points to the script on those pages, and Luna's Escalate button hands the chat to a person at Fathom if the explanation does not hold up.

Choose Fathom Analytics if the job is

• Several sites under one budget, as an agency or a company with many brands.
• Revenue from events on the entry plan, without a feature tier.
• A hosted service with no servers to run, where storage of anonymised records in the US is acceptable.

Choose Plausible if the job is

• Visitor data that must be processed and stored inside the EU.
• A single site at low traffic, from $9 a month at 10,000 pageviews on Starter.
• Analytics you can self-host for free, with your own team running the server.

Try both, and watch what the trial is set to

Start with Plausible's 30-day trial, which needs no card and never converts on its own, per its trial guide, and run Fathom's 7-day trial in its last week so both see the same traffic.

Read Plausible's plan picker with care at the end. Every new account spends its trial with all Business-plan features switched on, and its plans guide says the picker then marks as Recommended the plan that fits your usage and the features you have been using, so a team that tried funnels in week two is steered to Business, $39 rather than $19 a month at 100,000 pageviews. Decide which features you need before the trial, and leave the rest unopened.

FAQ

Is either one free?

Plausible's Community Edition is free to self-host, per its self-hosting page; the hosted service has a 30-day trial. Fathom has no free plan, and its pricing FAQ explains why.

What happens to Plausible data if the trial ends unpaid?

The dashboard locks, collection stops, and the stats are eventually deleted after an email warning, per its trial guide. Subscribe or export before that date.

What happens on a traffic spike?

Neither charges for one. Fathom emails if you stay well over the allowance and locks the dashboard only after reminders, per its limits guide; Plausible asks for an upgrade after two consecutive months over, per its plans guide. Both keep collecting while locked.