Should you build your own Fathom Analytics?
Privacy-focused website analytics with simple dashboards
A simple privacy analytics clone is very buildable; the paid service is hosted compliance posture, uptime, data retention, and polished reporting.
ENOriginal research content in English. Original prompt preserved in English.
Build me a privacy-first web analytics service to replace Fathom Analytics. Requirements:
- Node + Express + better-sqlite3, one small app I deploy on my VPS behind
Caddy or nginx.
- The tracker: a single script tag under 2 KB that sends pageview beacons
(path, referrer, screen width) with navigator.sendBeacon. No cookies.
- Count unique visitors without storing personal data: hash IP + user agent
with a salt that rotates daily, then drop the raw values.
- Filter obvious bots against a user-agent blocklist before counting.
- Dashboard page: pageviews, uniques, top pages, top referrers over 7/30/365
days, one Chart.js line chart plus tables. Protected by a single bearer
token from .env, no user accounts.
- Retention: raw events kept 30 days, daily rollups kept forever, pruned by a
nightly node-cron job.
- No cookies, no personal data at rest, no telemetry of its own.
- Out of scope: email reports, team seats, billing. One site, or a short site
list in config.
- README: deploy steps, adding the script tag, and a plain note that this is
polite analytics, not a legal compliance product.The prompt opens pre-filled in your agent. Review it before running. · this prompt is generated from the build plan · improve it via PR
What would building your own look like?
Collect pageviews/events via JS, aggregate metrics, show simple dashboards, and send reports.
What you will need
- hosted backend
- tracker script
- database
- domain/SSL
- backups
- bot filtering
They pay to avoid maintaining analytics infrastructure and privacy copy themselves.
xmanaged infrastructure
xprivacy/compliance messaging
xemail reports
xuptime
xsupport
xbilling
Prefer something ready-made?
UmamiSimple privacy analytics with enough events and goals to avoid paying for simplicity.Open source↗
Plausible Community EditionThe closest philosophical match, except you operate the Compose file.Open source↗
GoatCounterA smaller privacy dashboard for people who truly meant simple.Open source↗View all 3 alternatives to Fathom Analytics →· Licença, instalação e limitações em cada alternativa.
How much does Fathom Analytics cost?
- Monthly billing
- $15/mo$15/mo
- Per year
- $180/yr$180/yr
- Annual billing
- $150/yr17% cheaper than paying monthly
- On a Brazilian card, with 3.5% IOF
- R$78.39/moR$784/yr
Saved to My list. You will see a notice on this site when the price changes.
You complete the purchase on Fathom Analytics’s site. Vibe Radar does not handle payments.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | What is included |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100k pageviews | $15/workspace≈ $15 | $12.50/workspace≈ $12.50 | Up to 100,000 monthly pageviews; up to 50 sites included |
| 200k pageviews | $25/workspace≈ $25 | $20.83/workspace≈ $20.83 | Up to 200,000 monthly pageviews; up to 50 sites included |
| 500k pageviews | $45/workspace≈ $45 | $37.50/workspace≈ $37.50 | Up to 500,000 monthly pageviews; up to 50 sites included |
| 1m pageviews | $60/workspace≈ $60 | $50/workspace≈ $50 | Up to 1,000,000 monthly pageviews; up to 50 sites included |
| 2m pageviews | $100/workspace≈ $100 | $83.33/workspace≈ $83.33 | Up to 2,000,000 monthly pageviews; up to 50 sites included |
| 5m pageviews | $140/workspace≈ $140 | $116.67/workspace≈ $117 | Up to 5,000,000 monthly pageviews; up to 50 sites included |
| 10m pageviews | $200/workspace≈ $200 | $166.67/workspace≈ $167 | Up to 10,000,000 monthly pageviews; up to 50 sites included |
| 15m pageviews | $290/workspace≈ $290 | $241.67/workspace≈ $242 | Up to 15,000,000 monthly pageviews; up to 50 sites included |
| 20m pageviews | $380/workspace≈ $380 | $316.67/workspace≈ $317 | Up to 20,000,000 monthly pageviews; up to 50 sites included |
| 25m pageviews | $470/workspace≈ $470 | $391.67/workspace≈ $392 | Up to 25,000,000 monthly pageviews; up to 50 sites included |
Free tierno free tier
Billing termsmonthly + annual (2 months free); 7-day trial; auto-renews until canceled
Additional costsCustom events and API calls count toward pageviews; extra sites cost an additional unpublished fee. Two consecutive months over the limit trigger an offered upgrade rather than immediate throttling.
verified 2026-10-20 · source ↗
Is it cheaper to build or buy Fathom Analytics?
Adjust the numbers: hours to build, your hourly rate, running costs and the subscription price.
Over 24 months, subscribing is cheaper.
Starting hours estimated from the analysis (weekend). Does not price what you give up (support, integrations, security).
Can I rebuild Fathom Analytics?
Yes. A competent AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) can build a usable personal Fathom Analytics replacement in one session with the prompt on this page. It runs on your own machine or server with no subscription.
How much does Fathom Analytics cost?
Fathom Analytics costs about $15/mo (Standard, checked 10/20/2026), which is $150 per year. That’s what you save by replacing it with one prompt.
What do I lose by replacing Fathom Analytics?
Honestly: managed infrastructure; privacy/compliance messaging; email reports; uptime; support; billing. If any of those are load-bearing for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Fathom Analytics?
Yes: Umami (Simple privacy analytics with enough events and goals to avoid paying for simplicity.) Plausible Community Edition (The closest philosophical match, except you operate the Compose file.) GoatCounter (A smaller privacy dashboard for people who truly meant simple.) All 3 curated free alternatives are at https://viberadar.si/fathom-analytics/alternatives. The prompt is for when you want it exactly your way.