A Fathom Analytics alternative
Fathom is polished, cookieless, and privacy-first, but it is hosted-only and web analytics only. smolanalytics is also cookieless, adds product analytics (funnels, retention, cohorts), lets you self-host free, and lets you ask questions in plain English.
is smolanalytics a good Fathom Analytics alternative?
Yes, if you want product analytics or a free self-host on top of Fathom's privacy stance. Fathom is a paid, hosted, cookieless web-analytics tool with a single clean dashboard and no free tier, only a trial; its current product has no self-host option, and it stays web analytics only. smolanalytics is also cookieless with no consent banner, but it does web and product analytics from one snippet: visitors, referrers, funnels, retention, paths, and cohorts. It is a single MIT-licensed Go binary with no external database, storing roughly 7 bytes per event, up in about 30 seconds with docker run. It leads with a daily verdict on what to fix, and you can ask it questions in plain English, either from a dashboard bar or from your own Cursor or Claude over MCP, with a CI test that proves the AI's answer matches the dashboard. Self-hosting is free forever, or the hosted cloud starts at $9 a month. Keep Fathom if you only want clean, hosted web analytics with zero ops and its EU-isolation routing.
why people leave Fathom Analytics
“You start with a free trial and then pay a fair, sustainable monthly price based on your average monthly page views.”
Fathom's pricing page
“Fathom does not use cookies, so you do not need a cookie consent banner under GDPR.”
Fathom's privacy docs
“EU isolation and custom domains are not available on self-hosted Fathom Lite, only on the hosted version.”
Fathom's docs
Fathom Analytics vs smolanalytics
| Fathom Analytics | smolanalytics | |
|---|---|---|
| Cookieless, no banner | yes | yes |
| What it measures | web analytics only | web + product analytics from one snippet |
| Funnels, retention, cohorts | no | yes, all included |
| Self-host option | hosted only (Lite is maintenance-mode) | one static Go binary, free forever (MIT) |
| Getting an answer | read the dashboard | ask in plain English, a verdict on what to fix |
| Ask from your editor | no | MCP, your own AI answers free, computed not guessed |
| Free tier | no, trial then paid | free self-host, or $9 flat cloud |
when to keep Fathom
- You only want clean, hosted web analytics and you value Fathom's polish, its single-page dashboard, and its EU-isolation routing, with zero ops on your side.
- You do not need funnels, retention, or cohorts, and you are happy paying a hosted plan rather than running anything yourself. Fathom does that job well.
Self-host in 30 seconds
# cookieless too, plus funnels and retention, and you own it docker run -p 8080:8080 -v $PWD/data:/data \ -e SMOLANALYTICS_DB=/data/smolanalytics.data \ ghcr.io/arjun0606/smolanalytics # dashboard + MCP at http://localhost:8080
Same cookieless, no-banner privacy, plus funnels and retention and a free self-host. Point Claude or Cursor at it and ask anything: no model to pay for, no number it can make up.
questions
Is smolanalytics a good Fathom Analytics alternative?
Yes, if you want product analytics or a free self-host on top of Fathom's privacy stance. Fathom is a paid, hosted, cookieless web-analytics tool with a clean single dashboard and no free tier, only a trial. smolanalytics is also cookieless with no consent banner, but adds product analytics (funnels, retention, paths, cohorts) from the same one snippet, leads with a daily verdict on what to fix, and lets you ask questions in plain English from a dashboard bar or your own editor over MCP. It is a single MIT-licensed Go binary you can self-host free. Keep Fathom if you only want clean hosted web analytics with zero ops.
Is smolanalytics cookieless like Fathom?
Yes. smolanalytics has a cookieless mode with no consent banner required, the same privacy stance Fathom is known for. It does not set cookies and does not need a GDPR consent popup. The difference is scope: Fathom stays web analytics only, while smolanalytics also does product analytics (funnels, retention, cohorts) from the same snippet, and you can run it yourself for free.
Can I self-host smolanalytics? Fathom cannot.
Yes. Fathom's current product is hosted only; its old open-source Fathom Lite is in maintenance mode and lacks the modern dashboard, EU isolation, and custom domains. smolanalytics is a single static Go binary with no external database, MIT licensed, up in about 30 seconds with docker run, storing roughly 7 bytes per event. Self-hosting is free forever, or the hosted cloud starts at $9 a month with a 14-day trial and no card.
What does Fathom do that smolanalytics doesn't?
Fathom offers EU-isolation routing (processing EU traffic in the EU) and a fully managed, polished hosted product with zero ops, which some teams want above all. smolanalytics is self-hostable so you place your own data where you like, but it does not ship Fathom's exact managed EU-isolation routing. smolanalytics also deliberately skips session replay, heatmaps, and experiments, the same way Fathom does, so both stay lightweight.
Get the verdict, not another dashboard.
Drop one snippet, ask in your editor, own your data. 14-day full trial, no credit card.