Fathom Analytics is the best Google Analytics Alternative
Although Google Analytics isn't a paid piece of software, its analytics platform is definitely not free and with Google Analytics sunsetting Universal Analytics in 2023 - it’s time to look at Google Analytics alternatives.
As of March 2022, over 86% of websites have Google Analytics tracking on them. All that data goes directly to Google for them to analyze the user behavior, user interactions, user experience, user journeys, traffic sources, conversions and many more key metrics including campaign performance for your business!
Google is using the data from its analytics software for their own purposes. Even if you're paying for Google Analytics 360, they get that data too. Giving you access to their analytics service means that Google has access to your visitors’ browsing data. As a profit-driven advertising company (since Google isn't charging you for their product) they’re monetizing your visitors' data.
“Moving Remote3 (my website) from Google Analytics to Fathom. Why?
1. Privacy-focused, GDPR complaint ✌️
2. Simple UI, No unnecessary features (for me) 🙂
3. Faster dashboard than GA 🚀
4. Supporting a bootstrapped business ❤️” Yogesh
Google Analytics data is used in lawsuits
The data that Google collects about all of us from their services can be subpoenaed by lawyers and even used in civil cases (over 75,000 requests for 160,000 users were submitted in 2018 alone).
The same personal and personally identifiable information isn't collected by Fathom Analytics. We don't track individual browsing habits and prefer to track data in aggregate. So if authorities or lawyers requested information about a website and its users, there's nothing we could provide them with to identify specific people. Your website visitors and customers are safe and secure because we don't keep IP address activity. In fact, we go to extreme lengths to ensure that privacy is the foundation for everything we do.
By switching to Fathom Analytics, you're paying a fair price for a product (this is how our company stays in business). Because we charge our customers money, we don't need to resort to selling data to advertisers or Big Tech. Plus, there's nothing we could sell, since we don't know who visits our customers' websites. We only know their popular pages, popular referrers and a few other non-identifiable data points. Fathom Analytics isn't backed by investors or venture capital firms, who require exponential growth at all costs, so we can keep our business completely ethical and above board.
If you decide to switch to Fathom Analytics as your website analytics provider, you'll be giving your visitors and customers the privacy they deserve. Wouldn't you like the same treatment from the websites you visit?
Fathom Analytics is a simple web analytics tool that's easy to use and doesn't violate the digital privacy of your website visitors. Instead, you get a single analytics dashboard with all the information you need to evaluate your website traffic.
This is why we created Fathom Analytics
There are better alternatives to Google Analytics and that's why we created Fathom. We've written a detailed comparison here, but we also have a video (with fancy purple & green lighting) on why Fathom is a great alternative to Google Analytics.
Quick feature snapshot
- Fathom Analytics is a simple web analytics tool—all your data is displayed in an easy to read dashboard
- We're independently owned, customer driven and used by thousands of paying customers world-wide
- Our embed code doesn't invade the privacy of your website visitors
- We charge for our product, so we don't need to sell information or data
- You own the data and have unlimited data retention
- Gain back data from ad blockers that Google Analytics is blocking
- We're fully GDPR complaint website analytics, no GDPR, CCPA or PECR notices required
- And that's just scratching the surface of Fathom's features
Here’s why Fathom Analytics is a great Google Analytics alternative
Simple vs complicated website analytics
Fathom collects and showcases actionable data only. You don't need infinite reports, you have a business to run. Fathom highlights the key things about your website traffic so you can quickly adjust your business or blog. Page views, referrers and a few other key data points.
No developers or certified marketing consultants are needed. Fathom Analytics is simple website analytics which is easy to install on any CMS (Content Management System) including WordPress and SquareSpace. You also don't need an MBA or hundreds of hours to read our data.
The best analytics software isn't the one that has the most metrics or hundreds of pages of reports, it's one that quickly shows you what you need so you can get back to running your business.
“Can someone explain the logic behind Google Analytics 4 default setup they have for the average user lol. There's no way majority of smaller businesses find default setup / views useful at all. How can @usefathom understand and have so much better UI than @googleanalytics? 🤯” Derek
Read more on why Fathom is simple website analytics.
No GDPR, CCPA or PECR notices required
We don't invade the privacy of your website visitors, and we don't use cookies, so you don't have to show those pesky notices that your visitors hate. Fathom Analytics is GDPR, CCPA and PECR compliant website analytics without needing popups.
Fathom Analytics was one of the first website analytics companies to ensure we were fully compliant with privacy laws and our anonymization techniques have now become industry standard.
Read why Fathom is GDPR, CCPA and PECR compliant website analytics without requiring pop-up notices or complicated privacy policies.
Independently owned and customer driven
Fathom Analytics is privately owned and bootstrapped, as well as profitable enough to keep both founders on full-time salaries. We don't answer to investors or boards of directors who simply want to maximize their investment, we answer to our customers and keep their best interests in mind.
Thousands of people use Fathom Analytics, and we're a small company focused on privacy and charging a fair price (so we don't have to sell data to be profitable). Our customers are mostly small businesses who value privacy, but also Fortune 500s, pioneers of the Open Web, and governments, who trust our software to provide them with simple analytics. Although our company is small, we use the same technology and infrastructure as bigger companies, so our servers auto-scale and are ready for huge spikes, and our embed file never slows your site down.
Read more about the people behind Fathom Analytics.
The best website analytics alternative to Google Analytics
You get what you pay for. So, if you aren't paying for the product, you are the product. Google doesn't charge for Google Analytics because they make billions selling your data through their other products. We charge a small but fair price so we don't ever have to do that.
With Fathom Analytics, you fully own your data and protect the privacy of your website visitors at the same time. Although we host your data on our ridiculously fast cloud servers, you remain in complete control of the information collected on your website through our website analytics tool. Your website data is never shared with advertising companies or any third parties, ever.
Your website data is not collected or analyzed for personal, demographic or behavioural trends, ever.
Your website data is never monetized. We make money selling software, it's not in our best interests to sell that data as it's not our business model. Google Analytics is free because it's run by the largest advertising company in the world. They are a company who collects and sells personal data at a rate few of us could ever comprehend, so it's time we made our websites a black hole to Big Tech.
Data privacy is a growing trend online. Fathom exists and is profitable because of this trend, and every day more and more website and business owners are realizing how important it is to respect and protect the privacy of their website visitors with website analytics software like Fathom.
GDPR complaint website analytics
Not only is Fathom GDPR compliant, but we're also CCPA, ePrivacy and PECR compliant. And we don't use cookies.
Lawmakers and governments around the world have realized how severe data breaches and targeting advertising has become, and are now enacting laws to protect their citizens. Not only does Fathom Analytics agree with these laws, we've also pushed for amendments to CCPA, for greater privacy.
“Has to be @usefathom for me. Ditching Google Analytics and their unfriendly crummy UI (not to mention the GDPR issues) has been great, and the UI of Fathom just makes it so easy to use.” Rick Mills
A lightweight alternative to Google Analytics
The Fathom Analytics script is 1.6 KB. Google Analytics has a total file-size of 45.7 KB, which means it takes a lot longer to load any website with Google Analytics installed. Faster websites, funnily enough, are rewarded by search engines like Google.
Fathom Analytics is very easy to install as well, our customers simply paste our code into the header or footer of their website and it starts working immediately. People can be impatient, so the faster your website loads the happier they'll be. Pair that fact with not having to have cookie notices, and your website will be that much better if you use Fathom on it.
Avoid ad-blockers that Google Analytics is blocked by
Research shows that at least 43% of internet users have some form of ad-blocker installed. That means that 43% of internet users are blocking Google Analytics from tracking them right now. And rightly so, Google Analytics collects and stores personal information.
On the other hand, Fathom Analytics does not violate anyone's digital privacy, and with the help of our custom domain feature, we make it easy to bypass ad-blockers and see all of your privacy-focused stats.
Fathom Analytics offers a competitive advantage over Google Analytics by dodging ad-blockers, which means our customers aren't sending data to Google. This has been one of our main goals since the start: to keep the data collected from website analytics anonymous and out of the hands of advertisers forever.
Why isn't Fathom Analytics free if Google Analytics is free?
Google Analytics isn't truly free. All that data that's collected by their software, from your website, is used by them because they're a multi-billion-dollar advertising company. Google built their vast wealth by analyzing and selling copious amounts of personal data they collect from their website analytics tool.
Fathom Analytics isn't an advertising company, we're a software company. We sell our software for a fair price and generate enough revenue to cover the salaries of our founders. This means we don't have to sell data, as it'd actually hurt our business if we did that.
Fathom Analytics are bootstrapped and have actively turned down investors, so we can focus on our customers and their needs.
Note: If you consider potential fines and complaints for using Google Analytics, it’s definitely not free.
Fathom Analytics is a better Google Analytics alternative
We are simple, privacy-friendly analytics made by a small and bootstrapped company.
Our software makes it easy to learn what you need to make smart decisions from your website analytics, all while being GDPR, CCPA and PECR compliant. If you have a blog or a website, give us a try with our 7-day free trial… We find people who do become happy customers.
Top 5 Privacy Based Google Analytics Alternatives for 2022
- #1 - Fathom Analytics
Fathom Analytics is a simple, privacy-friendly Google analytics alternative made by a small and bootstrapped company in Canada. Fathom is GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy, PECR (& more) compliant and routes data using EU isolation for added privacy-law compliance. Starts at $14/month, view a live demo and has a free 7 day trial to start today. - #2 - Matomo
Matomo (formerly Piwik) is an open-source PHP based analytics alternative that can be cloud-hosted or self-hosted. They give you 100% ownership of your data, are GDPR compliant, CCPA compliant. Starts at $23/month for cloud hosted & has a 21 day free trial. - #3 - GoSquared
Started in 2006, GoSquared is one of the original Google Analytics alternatives. They’re GDPR compliant, engineered for privacy, and their pricing starts at $9/month with a 7-day free trial. - #4 - Simple Analytics
The name says it all! Simple Analytics is a privacy focused no-cookies analytics platform hosted in the EU providing simple analytics. They aggregate tweets into referrals and are based in the EU. They have a 14 day trial & starts at $19/month. - #5 - Pirsch
Pirsch is open source analytics that are privacy-friendly, GDPR, CCPA, and Schrems II-compliant. Connect Search Console data to your Pirsch dashboard for complete campaign optimization. Pirsch is built in Germany, has a 30 day trial and starts at $5 when billed annually.