Fathom vs Google Analytics

Real-time metrics

Google Analytics

Visitor data can take 24-48 hours to appear in Google Analytics (outside of their active users’ view).

Fathom Analytics

Data is real-time, so if someone’s looking at your site, that data shows up across our entire dashboard immediately.

Legality

Google Analytics

Several EU countries have ruled that it’s illegal to use Google Analytics (even with a consent notice). Meaning, as a website owner, your site wouldn’t align with the GDPR and you’d potentially risk being fined.

Fathom Analytics

Since Fathom Analytics started, we’ve put privacy and privacy law compliance as our highest value in developing our software. So not only are we GDPR compliant (including Schrems II), but we also invented a method for processing EU visitor data on EU servers owned by EU companies.

Profit models

Google Analytics

No one knows how Google uses the data they collect about all of us from the websites with Google Analytics installed. Chances are since they don’t charge for their software, they’ve found a way to make a lot of money from that data. They’re a multi-billion dollar company, hell-bent on growth, so they’re not just being altruistic giving away free software.

Fathom Analytics

We charge money for our software. It’s an honest and fair business model. That means we won’t ever sell your data or give it to anyone else, for any reason, ever. We are fully transparent about how we process data.

Ad-blockers

Google Analytics

Due to Google having a horrible track record around privacy and protecting our data, GA is blocked by most browsers and all ad-blocker extensions. And for a good reason, no one knows what they’re doing with all that data.

Fathom Analytics

Our script is blocked by far less ad-blockers and browser because we don’t invade anyone’s privacy.

Complexity

Google Analytics

1000s of pages of reports and endless pages of setup. Google Analytics is overkill for most people and SMBs, and they obviously don’t care how much time and training is required to use their “free” software. There are so many courses and certifications for GA because it’s so complicated to learn and use.

Fathom Analytics

We sweat every detail and feature of our software because we know our customers are busy and don’t need to spend hours finding information in their analytics software. Just look at our live demo or watch a 10 minute dashboard tour to see what we mean.

Accuracy

Google Analytics

Google uses machine learning and data sampling to guess who’s visiting your site and what they’re doing. They also make it difficult or impossible to block bots, crawlers and DDoS attacks from polluting your stats.

Fathom Analytics

We don’t sample data or have any machine learning. Instead, we think it’s more honest and accurate to show our customers all the humans who visited their websites. We even automagically block bots, crawlers and DDoS attacks (no setup required).

SEO

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is almost 20kb and almost 30kb when used with their Tag Manager, and they’re often loaded together.

Fathom Analytics

Our script is less than 2kb and loaded from servers worldwide via our CDN. That means Fathom Analytics script won’t slow your site down and is great for your page speed performance and SEO.

Customer support

Google Analytics

There’s no customer support offered. This means if you have a problem, find a bug, or have a question, you’ve got to search the internet for an answer (and then hope the answer is correct).

Fathom Analytics

Real, human(e) support from either our full-time support person or one of our founders (Jack and Paul). We’re a small business who values our relationships with our customers.