matomo vs fathom-analytics
Matomo vs Fathom Analytics — features, pricing, and which to choose for your SEO workflow in 2026.
Quick Verdict
If you're looking to move away from Google Analytics, two paths emerge: the comprehensive open-source route with Matomo, or the minimal privacy-first approach with Fathom Analytics. Both promise data ownership and GDPR compliance, but they serve completely different needs.
Matomo offers a full-featured analytics suite comparable to Google Analytics Universal, while Fathom deliberately strips away complexity to focus on essential metrics. The choice comes down to whether you need powerful analysis tools or prefer simplicity above all else.
Feature Comparison
Matomo delivers enterprise-grade analytics with heat maps, session recordings, A/B testing, funnel analysis, and detailed SEO reporting. You get goal tracking, e-commerce analytics, custom dimensions, and advanced segmentation capabilities. The platform includes tag management, form analytics, and media analytics — essentially everything you'd expect from a comprehensive analytics solution. Fathom Analytics intentionally limits itself to core traffic metrics: page views, unique visitors, referrers, and top pages. There's no user tracking, no cookies, and no complex reports. You get clean charts showing traffic trends, top content, and traffic sources, but no behavioral analysis or conversion tracking beyond basic goal monitoring. The feature gap is massive. Matomo can replace Google Analytics entirely for complex analysis needs, while Fathom provides only high-level traffic insights. If you need to understand user behavior, track conversions, or analyze marketing campaigns, Matomo is the only viable option here.
Pricing Comparison
Matomo wins on budget flexibility with a genuinely free self-hosted option that includes all core features. Their cloud hosting starts at $23/month for 50,000 hits, scaling to enterprise pricing for high-traffic sites. The self-hosted version requires technical setup but costs only server expenses. Fathom starts at $14/month for 100,000 page views, reaching $74/month for 1 million views. While cheaper at entry level, you're paying for simplicity rather than features. There's no free tier and no self-hosting option — you're locked into their pricing structure regardless of your technical capabilities. For most websites under 100,000 monthly views, Fathom costs less initially. But Matomo's free self-hosted option makes it unbeatable for budget-conscious users willing to manage their own installation.
Best For
Choose Matomo when you need comprehensive analytics, want to replace Google Analytics entirely, require detailed SEO reporting, or need features like heat maps and session recordings. It's perfect for agencies, e-commerce sites, and businesses that rely on data-driven decisions. The self-hosted option makes it ideal for organizations with strict data compliance requirements or tight budgets. Choose Fathom Analytics when you want dead-simple analytics without complexity, prioritize ease of use over detailed insights, or just need basic traffic monitoring. It's perfect for bloggers, small businesses, and anyone who found Google Analytics overwhelming. The privacy-first approach appeals to European businesses focused on GDPR compliance without technical overhead.
The Verdict
Matomo dominates this comparison for most serious use cases. Unless you specifically want ultra-simple analytics and don't mind paying monthly fees for basic metrics, Matomo offers dramatically more value. The free self-hosted option alone makes it hard to justify Fathom's subscription model, and the feature difference is too significant to ignore for any business that needs actual insights from their data.