switchpoint

Analytics · 2026

Fathom·vs·Google Analytics

Two solid choices in analytics. Here's how they stack up on pricing, fit, and trade-offs — so you can decide in a minute.

Reviewed by Switchpoint Editors ·

Take on Google Analytics

GA4 isn't a worse Universal Analytics — it's a different product that solves a different problem (ML-driven attribution at scale). For 90% of small sites, that complexity is a tax with no benefit. Plausible or Fathom gives you the 5 numbers you actually look at, with a privacy story you can put on your homepage.

Contender A

Fathom

Privacy-first analytics with a single dashboard.

Best for

Solo founders and small teams.

Pricing

From $15/mo for 100K pageviews.

Pros

  • Privacy-friendly
  • Clean UI

Trade-offs

  • Less depth than PostHog

Contender B

Google Analytics

Free web analytics from Google.

Best for

Sites that need free, deep web analytics tied to Google Ads.

Pricing

Free.

Pros

  • Free
  • Tight ad integration
  • Scales to enterprise

Trade-offs

  • GA4 is hard to learn
  • Sampling on big datasets
  • Privacy/GDPR friction

The matrix

Side-by-side

Best for

Fathom

Solo founders and small teams.

Google Analytics

Sites that need free, deep web analytics tied to Google Ads.

Pricing

Fathom

From $15/mo for 100K pageviews.

Google Analytics

Free.

Top strength

Fathom

Privacy-friendly

Google Analytics

Free

Biggest trade-off

Fathom

Less depth than PostHog

Google Analytics

GA4 is hard to learn

The verdict

Which should you pick?

If…Pick Fathom

Solo founders and small teams.

If…Pick Google Analytics

Sites that need free, deep web analytics tied to Google Ads.

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