Blocking local/test environments

If you use local, staging, or test environments, you can keep those visits out of Fathom so your analytics only reflect real traffic to your live website. This also prevents non-live pageviews from counting against your plan quota.

Exclude non-live environments with allowed domains

The best option is to add your live website to Allowed domains in your site firewall settings. Once allowed domains are set, Fathom filters out data from any hostname that is not on that list, including local, staging, and test domains.

Make sure you enter the exact version of your live domain that your site uses by default, including www. or the non-www version (or both). If your live site uses both a root domain and subdomains, add each version you want to allow.

Filter your IP address

If you are the only person testing your staging or local environments, you can also exclude visits from your IP address. This works well for a single developer or a small, stable set of IP addresses, but allowed domains are more reliable for teams and changing networks.

Block tracking in your browser

If you only need to block tracking in your current browser, open your browser console on a page where Fathom is installed and run:

fathom.blockTrackingForMe();

This stores the setting in your browser’s local storage, so it will keep working for future visits from that browser. You can read the full browser console instructions, including how to turn tracking back on later.

Test your exclusions

After setting up an exclusion, visit your non-live environment and check that the visit does not appear in your dashboard. Fathom shows analytics in real time, so if the exclusion is working, your non-live visit should not show up as a current visitor.