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  • Matomo vs Plausible vs Fathom: Which Privacy‑First Analytics Tool is Best for Your Business?

Matomo vs Plausible vs Fathom: Which Privacy‑First Analytics Tool is Best for Your Business?

Marko SavranSeptember 4, 2025September 4, 2025

Choosing a web analytics platform can be daunting for marketing managers and small business owners, especially in an era of heightened privacy concerns. Google Analytics might be the default choice, but issues around data privacy and complexity have many businesses seeking alternatives. Fortunately, there are several privacy-first analytics tools that promise to provide actionable insights without compromising compliance or usability. In this article, we’ll compare three popular contenders — Matomo, Plausible, and Fathom Analytics — and break down their features, pros, cons, and ideal use cases. Our goal is to help you determine which of these tools is the best fit for your business needs.

Each of these platforms takes a different approach to analytics, from Matomo’s all-in-one, enterprise-ready feature set to Plausible’s lightweight simplicity and Fathom’s sleek, privacy-focused approach. Let’s dive into each tool and see how they stack up.

Matomo Analytics

Matomo (formerly known as Piwik) is one of the oldest and most robust alternatives to Google Analytics. It’s a full-featured web analytics platform that you can host on your own server or use via Matomo’s cloud service. Matomo’s mission is to give you 100% data ownership and privacy compliance while delivering enterprise-grade analytics capabilities. In many ways, Matomo feels like the “self-hosted Google Analytics,” offering a comprehensive range of reports and tools for those who need deep insights into user behavior.

Matomo Dashboard

Matomo’s interface will feel familiar to anyone who has used GA’s classic version: a multi-menu dashboard with extensive options and plugins available. It’s not as minimal as Plausible or Fathom, but it provides a treasure trove of data for those willing to explore its features. This makes Matomo ideal for businesses that want detailed analytics similar to what Google Analytics used to offer, but with the added benefit of keeping all data on servers you control. However, with great power comes a bit of complexity – Matomo can be overwhelming for newcomers and requires more setup and maintenance effort. Insert Matomo dashboard screenshot here

Key Features

  • Comprehensive Analytics Suite: Matomo offers an extensive array of reports and metrics (hundreds of dimensions) covering everything from basic pageviews and bounce rates to advanced metrics like user lifetime value. You can analyze full visitor journeys, including paths through your site and conversion funnels.
  • Advanced Tools (Heatmaps, Session Recording, & More): Out of the box (or via optional plugins), Matomo provides capabilities like heatmaps (visual click/scroll maps of your pages), session recordings (replays of visitor sessions), form analytics, A/B testing, goal conversion tracking, and e-commerce analytics. These enterprise-level features help you get granular insight into user behavior.
  • Custom Dashboards & Reports: You can tailor the Matomo dashboard with widgets and create custom reports. This flexibility means you see the metrics that matter most to you in one place. It’s great for power users who have specific analytics reporting needs.
  • Built-in Tag Manager: Non-developers can appreciate Matomo’s integrated Tag Manager, which allows you to add tracking codes and marketing tags to your site through a GUI, without manual coding. This simplifies event tracking and campaign measurement for marketers.
  • Privacy & Compliance Features: True to its privacy-first ethos, Matomo includes robust privacy controls. You can anonymize IP addresses, honor Do-Not-Track, require cookie consent, and configure data retention to comply with GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, and other laws. Matomo can operate cookieless if configured, meaning you can potentially avoid cookie banners while still gathering useful data.
  • Data Ownership and Access: If you self-host Matomo, you own all the raw data. Matomo even lets you access unsampled raw data for custom analysis – for example, by querying the database directly or using its API to pull detailed reports. This is a big plus for companies that want to integrate analytics data with data warehouses or BI tools. Even on the cloud service, your data isn’t shared with third parties.
  • Integrations and Extensions: Matomo has a rich plugin marketplace and integrates with over 100 platforms and content management systems (from WordPress and Magento to various CRM and CMS tools). You can extend functionality easily — whether you need SEO insights, media analytics, or intranet analytics, there’s likely a plugin for it.

Pros

  • Extremely Feature-Rich: Matomo covers almost every analytics need. From simple traffic stats to advanced user behavior analysis, it’s all available. This makes Matomo a one-stop shop for analytics, similar in scope to Google Analytics Universal/GA4 (and in some areas even beyond).
  • Data Ownership & Flexibility: You can host Matomo on your own servers for free, ensuring full control over your data. This self-hosting option means you’re not locked into a vendor and can comply with strict internal data policies. (If self-hosting isn’t your thing, the Matomo Cloud offers a convenient hosted solution — so you get flexibility either way.)
  • Privacy Compliance: Matomo is built with privacy in mind. It offers tools to make your tracking GDPR-compliant and respect user privacy preferences. For organizations operating in regulated industries or regions with tough privacy laws, Matomo provides peace of mind that analytics won’t get you in trouble.
  • Highly Customizable & Extendable: The plugin ecosystem and custom reporting capabilities allow Matomo to adapt to many different use cases. Need to track a specific metric or integrate with another system? Matomo likely has an integration or plugin for it. This adaptability is a major advantage for businesses with specialized analytics needs.
  • Community and Support: Being a mature platform, Matomo has an active community and extensive documentation. There are forums, guides, and even professional support plans available. If you ever have an issue or question, you’re likely to find an answer quickly. This community-driven aspect can be reassuring when adopting a new tool.

Cons

  • Complex Setup and Maintenance: Matomo’s power comes with complexity. Installing and self-hosting requires technical knowledge (server setup, database maintenance, updates, etc.), and even the cloud version will present you with a lot of configuration options. It’s not as plug-and-play as some simpler tools. If you’re not technically inclined, you may need IT support to get the most out of Matomo.
  • Steep Learning Curve: For users who just want basic web stats, Matomo can feel like overkill. Its interface has lots of menus and options. Training your team to use and interpret Matomo’s wealth of data might take time. In contrast, a simpler dashboard like Plausible or Fathom might be easier for a non-analyst to grasp immediately.
  • Resource Intensive: The Matomo tracking code (~20 KB) and the volume of data collected are heavier than the ultra-lightweight scripts of Plausible or Fathom (which are under 2 KB). On very speed-optimized sites, this added weight is minor but worth noting. Also, because Matomo collects a lot of detail, the backend storage and processing can be demanding (especially if you have a high-traffic site — you’ll need to allocate server resources for it). In some cases, ad-blockers and privacy tools may also block Matomo’s default tracking script, potentially causing you to miss some visits unless you use workarounds like Matomo’s proxy tracking feature.
  • Cost at Scale (for Cloud Users): While self-hosting is free, not every small business wants to manage their own server. Matomo’s Cloud hosting isn’t cheap compared to other analytics services. The pricing scales with traffic and can become a significant expense for large sites. Additionally, some advanced features (like certain add-on plugins, e.g., form analytics or media analytics) might cost extra in the Matomo marketplace. In short, if you want the convenience of Matomo Cloud with all the bells and whistles, be prepared for the price to rise as your needs grow.

Pricing

  • Self-Hosted: Matomo’s software is open-source and free to use if you host it yourself. You’ll incur costs for your own server infrastructure and maintenance, but you won’t pay license fees no matter how many sites or hits you track. This is great for those who have the technical capability and want predictable costs.
  • Matomo Cloud: The hosted Matomo service offers plans starting at roughly $23 per month for up to 50,000 monthly pageviews (with annual discounts available). Pricing then increases for larger traffic brackets — for example, 100k hits/month is higher, and so on. While the cloud cost is higher than Plausible or Fathom at the entry level, remember that Matomo Cloud includes the full feature set. It could be worth it if you need those advanced features without the hassle of self-hosting. A free trial is typically available, so you can test the waters.

Plausible Analytics

Plausible Analytics is a newer player in the analytics space, but it has quickly gained popularity among bloggers, startups, and privacy-conscious businesses. The philosophy behind Plausible is extreme simplicity and privacy. It provides all the essential web stats you need in a clean, minimal interface, while deliberately avoiding the complex features (and potential bloat) of tools like Google Analytics or Matomo. Plausible is proudly open-source and developed by a small team in the EU, and it’s marketed as a lightweight, “privacy-first” alternative that does not use cookies or collect personal data.

Plausible Dashboard

Using Plausible feels refreshingly straightforward. When you log in, you’re greeted with a single-page dashboard that shows your website’s key metrics at a glance – no need to drill down into multi-level menus. For many small business owners and marketers, this is exactly what they want: quick answers to questions like “How many people visited my site? Where did they come from? What are my top pages?”. Plausible delivers those insights without any fluff. It’s also built to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations out of the box, meaning you typically don’t need those annoying cookie consent banners when using Plausible. Insert Plausible dashboard screenshot here

Key Features

  • Lightweight Script: Plausible’s tracking code is extremely small (less than 1 KB). This means adding Plausible to your site has virtually zero impact on page load times. Faster website = better user experience and SEO, so this is a big win compared to heavier analytics scripts.
  • Cookieless & GDPR-Compliant Tracking: By design, Plausible doesn’t use cookies or track any individual personal information. It anonymizes data (for instance, it uses hashed IP addresses just for de-duplication and then discards them). Because of this privacy-by-default approach, using Plausible helps you comply with privacy laws without extra effort. You likely won’t need to show cookie consent pop-ups solely for analytics, which your visitors will appreciate.
  • Simple Real-Time Dashboard: All your important metrics are shown on one intuitive dashboard that updates in real time. You can see current visitors on your site, pageviews, bounce rate, top sources of traffic, top pages, and even goal conversions all on this single page. The interface is clean and distraction-free, designed to be understandable at a glance (even on a quick check from your phone).
  • Event and Goal Tracking: Plausible supports custom events and goal conversions with a very straightforward setup. You can track actions like sign-ups, button clicks, outbound link clicks, or form submissions. UTM parameters are first-class citizens in Plausible, making campaign tracking easy. There’s also a basic funnel analysis view to see how many people complete a goal out of those who started it.
  • Multiple Domains & Shared Dashboards: With one Plausible account, you can track multiple websites and even share read-only access to your stats. For example, you might generate a public link for a client or team member to view analytics without needing a login. This is handy for agencies or those running several sites.
  • Self-Hosted or Hosted Options: Flexibility is a key feature. Because Plausible is open-source, you have the option to self-host it on your own server (for free) if you prefer to keep all data in-house. For those who don’t want to manage infrastructure, Plausible offers a managed cloud service (with data hosted in the EU). Either way, your data remains yours and isn’t shared for advertising purposes.
  • Integrations and Plugins: Plausible provides official plugins for easy integration with platforms like WordPress, as well as support for tracking on various frameworks (there are simple snippets or guides for using Plausible with React, Angular, etc.). It also integrates with Google Search Console to pull search keyword data into your dashboard, and you can schedule email reports or even send stats to Slack – useful for keeping your team in the loop.

Pros

  • Extremely Easy to Use: Plausible’s simplicity is arguably its biggest strength. There’s practically no learning curve – if you can browse a website, you can understand Plausible’s analytics. Marketing teams and small business owners with little analytics experience can get valuable insights without feeling overwhelmed.
  • Privacy-First Approach: No cookies, no tracking of personal identifiers, and fully compliant with GDPR/CCPA from the start. You don’t have to worry about legal complexities or user backlash over privacy – Plausible takes care of that. This can also enhance your brand’s reputation (you’re showing visitors you value their privacy).
  • Super Lightweight Performance: The tiny script size and efficient design mean your website’s speed won’t suffer. Plausible was built to avoid the performance hit often associated with analytics. In a world where every millisecond counts for user experience, this is a noteworthy advantage.
  • Transparent and Open-Source: Plausible’s code is open-source, which means anyone can inspect how it works. This transparency builds trust – you know exactly what’s (not) being tracked. It also means a community of developers contributes to making Plausible better. If needed, you could even customize the code to your needs when self-hosting.
  • Focus on Core Metrics: By concentrating on just the essential metrics and charts, Plausible provides a very clear picture of your website’s performance. For many small businesses, clarity is more valuable than quantity of data. You get the numbers that matter without digging through noise. It’s a bit like having a tidy, curated report rather than a cluttered dashboard.
  • Low Maintenance (Cloud Version): If you use Plausible’s hosted service, setup is as easy as copying a snippet into your site header or using a plugin. There’s no need to manage servers or worry about updates – the Plausible team handles all that. You get the simplicity of SaaS while still enjoying privacy benefits.

Cons

  • Limited Advanced Features: Plausible intentionally limits its scope to keep things simple. If you’re looking for features like user-level behavior tracking, detailed segmentation (e.g., analyzing the behavior of a specific cohort of users over time), multi-step funnels, heatmaps, or session replays, you won’t find those here. Plausible tells you the “what” (e.g., how many clicked X) but not deeply “why” through qualitative insights – those advanced analytics needs would require a different tool or an upgrade to something like Matomo or more specialized software.
  • Less Customization: The dashboard in Plausible is what it is – you can’t add new widgets or create custom reports beyond what’s provided. While this is fine for most users (and keeps things from getting confusing), it means Plausible might not satisfy power users who want to slice and dice data in custom ways. You more or less have to accept the preset metrics and charts.
  • No Raw Data or User Profiles: Plausible only stores aggregate data, not individual user profiles. You can’t drill down to see a particular visitor’s journey or export unsampled hit-level data. For most privacy-focused use cases that’s by design, but it does mean you give up some analytical depth. If your team likes to do heavy data analysis or integrate analytics data into a data warehouse, Plausible could be limiting.
  • Pricing Scales with Traffic: Although Plausible is affordable for small sites, the hosted version’s cost increases as your pageviews grow (since plans are based on monthly traffic). For example, $9/month covers up to 10k pageviews; higher plans cover more. This is fair, but if you have a very popular site, costs might become significant compared to a fixed-cost self-hosted solution. (Of course, you can self-host Plausible for free if you have the resources, which mitigates this con for those willing to do so.)

Pricing

  • Self-Hosted: Free. You can download Plausible’s open-source code and run it on your own server without licensing fees. This requires some technical know-how (setting up a server, database, etc.), and you’ll be responsible for maintenance and updates, but it can be cost-effective for those with the ability. You also get unlimited usage when self-hosting – no limits on pageviews.
  • Hosted Cloud: Plausible’s cloud service offers simple, transparent pricing based on your site’s traffic. Plans start at $9 per month for up to 10,000 monthly pageviews. As your traffic grows, you’d upgrade to the next tier (for instance, up to 100k pageviews is $19/month, and so on). All features are included in every plan (you don’t pay extra for additional features, just for capacity). There’s typically a free trial (no credit card required) to test the service. For many small businesses, $9 or $19 a month is a small price for hassle-free analytics, but it’s good to be aware of the cost if you anticipate rapid growth.

Fathom Analytics

Fathom Analytics is another privacy-focused web analytics tool that, in many ways, is akin to Plausible. It was one of the early contenders in the simple analytics movement, emphasizing easy-to-understand stats, zero tracking of personal data, and compliance with privacy laws. Fathom is known for its beautiful interface and developer-friendly approach, as well as a few unique touches that set it apart (like built-in uptime monitoring). It’s a fully hosted solution (the core was open-source initially, but the official product is a managed service) and is used by a wide range of sites, from solo bloggers to big enterprises, who want insights into their traffic without compromising privacy.

Fathom Analytics Dashboard

If you value simplicity, Fathom will likely catch your eye. The dashboard is elegant and straightforward – often described as “just the right number of features”. It generally shows realtime visitor count, pageviews, top pages, referrers, and device data, with the ability to drill down a bit into each. The design has a clean, modern aesthetic (dark mode styling) that many find pleasing. Beyond looks, Fathom is engineered to be lightweight and unintrusive. It doesn’t slow down your site, and it works to avoid the pitfalls that traditional analytics have with ad-blockers. In fact, one of Fathom’s claims to fame is that it bypasses most ad-blockers by default, meaning you capture more complete data (ethically). Let’s look at what Fathom offers. Insert Fathom Analytics dashboard screenshot here

Key Features

  • One-Page Real-Time Dashboard: Similar to Plausible, Fathom presents all key metrics on a single page in real time. At a glance, you’ll see the number of current visitors on your site, total visits (with trends compared to the previous period), average time on site, bounce rate, and your top content/pages, referrers, and countries. You can switch the timeframe (today, last 7 days, 30 days, etc.) easily. The interface is designed to be immediately understandable, even if you’re not an analytics expert.
  • Lightweight and Fast: Fathom’s tracking script is roughly 1.5 KB – extremely small. It loads asynchronously, so it won’t block your page from loading. This means you get the insights without any performance penalty. Your site’s visitors won’t even notice the analytics running in the background.
  • Ad-Blocker Resistant Tracking: A standout feature of Fathom is its approach to bypassing ad-blockers while still respecting privacy. Fathom sends tracking data through a generic domain and can even be configured with a custom subdomain for your site. To an ad-blocker, it doesn’t look like “analytics” and thus isn’t as easily blocked. The result: you’ll capture a higher percentage of visits (many other analytics tools miss some data because an estimated 20-30% of users run ad-blocking). This gives you more accurate numbers on your dashboard, which is crucial for decision-making.
  • No Cookies & Full Privacy Compliance: Fathom collects analytics without storing any personal info. Like Plausible, it uses anonymized, aggregated data only. It complies with GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy, PECR and other privacy laws right out of the gate. For you, this means no cookie consent banner needed for analytics, and no worrying about whether your website analytics are violating privacy regulations. Fathom has even undergone independent security audits and maintains a SOC 2 Type II compliance, underscoring their commitment to data security and privacy.
  • Unlimited Data Retention: Some analytics services purge or sample data after a certain period or once volumes get high – not Fathom. They offer forever data retention. You can look back to any date since you started collecting data with Fathom and get the full history of your traffic. This is great for year-over-year comparisons and long-term trend analysis.
  • Custom Events & Goals: While Fathom keeps it simple by default, it does support tracking custom events and goal completions. With a little bit of added script or using their API, you can track things like form submissions, e-commerce purchase counts, or any other action you care about. These events will show up in your dashboard, allowing you to see conversions alongside your traffic.
  • Uptime Monitoring: One unique bonus feature Fathom provides is built-in uptime monitoring for your website. If you choose to enable this, Fathom will periodically check if your site is up and can alert you if it goes down. It’s a handy add-on – basically you get a light uptime monitor service for free as part of your analytics. This demonstrates Fathom’s ethos of catering to website owners’ needs in a convenient package.
  • Easy Setup and Integrations: Fathom is very simple to install – just add a single script tag (or use their WordPress plugin or integrations for other platforms) and you’re done. No complex configuration needed. They also provide a straightforward API and even a Google Sheets integration for pulling your stats into a spreadsheet if you want. Sharing your dashboard with others is easy too (you can invite team members or create public share links for certain data).

Pros

  • User-Friendly & Beautiful Interface: Fathom has a polished dashboard that’s both visually appealing and easy to navigate. Many users describe it as a “joy to use”. Everything is labeled in plain language, and the data visualization is simple but effective. This lowers the barrier for non-technical users to actually engage with website analytics regularly.
  • Strong Privacy and Compliance Stand: Fathom is uncompromising on privacy. You (and your website visitors) can trust that no personal data is being misused. For businesses that brand themselves on respecting user privacy, using Fathom aligns perfectly with that promise. It’s also one less legal headache since it automatically ticks the compliance checkboxes in multiple jurisdictions.
  • Complete and Accurate Data: Thanks to its anti-adblocker approach and bot filtration, Fathom tends to capture clean, accurate traffic data. You won’t be as worried that you’re missing a chunk of visitors due to scripts being blocked. The numbers you see are likely very close to reality, which means more confidence in making decisions based on those analytics. Also, spam and bot traffic is filtered out, so your stats aren’t skewed by non-humans.
  • Performance-Friendly: Using Fathom won’t slow down your site. The script is ultra small and efficient. In fact, if you’re replacing Google Analytics with Fathom, you might even notice a slight speed improvement on your pages. Faster site speed can contribute to better SEO and user engagement, so this is a technical benefit that has business implications.
  • Extra Value Features: The inclusion of uptime monitoring and easy metric comparison (you can click on metrics to overlay them on the traffic graph) adds value beyond basic analytics. It shows the creators understand what website owners might need. Getting an email if your site goes down, or quickly comparing today’s visitors vs. yesterday’s on the graph, are little conveniences that make the tool more useful day-to-day.
  • Responsive Support and Ethos: Fathom is a small, independent company, and they pride themselves on great customer support and an ethical business model. Users often praise the responsiveness of the founders and team if you have questions or issues. There are no ads, no selling of data – you are the customer, not the product. This can give you peace of mind about the relationship you have with your analytics provider.

Cons

  • No Self-Hosted Option (Proprietary SaaS): Unlike Matomo or Plausible, Fathom does not offer a fully up-to-date open-source version for self-hosting. (They had an open-source “Fathom Lite” in the early days, but the main product is now closed-source). This means you must use Fathom’s paid service to get the latest features and support. For some organizations, not having the on-premise option could be a drawback – especially if they require all software to be internally hosted for compliance.
  • Limited Advanced Analytics: Fathom, by design, keeps it simple. Similar to Plausible, it doesn’t provide advanced analytics features like detailed segmentation, user flow visualization, or built-in A/B testing. If you need very in-depth analysis or a wide variety of reports, Fathom might fall short. It gives you the fundamentals but not much beyond. (For many small businesses, this is fine; just be aware of the trade-off.)
  • SaaS Pricing Model: While Fathom’s pricing is reasonable for what you get, it’s slightly higher at the entry level compared to Plausible. The base plan starts at $15/month (vs Plausible’s $9/month) but covers up to 100k pageviews (versus Plausible’s 10k). Depending on your traffic, Fathom could be more cost-effective or less. In any case, as with any SaaS analytics, as your traffic scales up, you’ll eventually pay more. There is no free tier beyond the trial, so very budget-conscious folks might consider this a con (though Fathom’s value proposition is strong for the price).
  • Fewer Third-Party Integrations: Fathom’s focus on simplicity means it doesn’t natively integrate with as many tools or offer as many add-ons as something like Matomo. For instance, there’s no official Fathom “plugin marketplace.” You get what’s built-in and that’s mostly it. This isn’t a problem for most users, but if you were hoping for, say, a CRM integration that automatically feeds identified user data into analytics (not really Fathom’s philosophy due to privacy) or other fancy tie-ins, you might be out of luck.

Pricing

  • Hosted Service: Fathom is available as a hosted SaaS product with straightforward pricing. Plans start at $15 per month (billed monthly, or a bit cheaper per month if paid annually). That base plan includes up to 100,000 pageviews per month across your sites, which for many small-to-midsize sites is plenty. If you have more traffic, higher tiers are available (for example, $95/month for up to 2 million pageviews, and so on). All plans include all features (unlimited websites, uptime monitoring, etc.), with the only limit being the number of pageviews. Fathom offers a 7-day free trial so you can try it out on your site and see the insights before committing.
  • No Self-Host Free Option: Since the official Fathom product isn’t open-source in its current form, there isn’t a free self-hosted edition for production use. The team decided to focus on the hosted model to ensure they can provide a quality, maintained service. So, essentially, Fathom’s pricing = the cost of its SaaS plans. Keep this in mind if you were looking to avoid recurring costs by hosting your own solution; in that case, Plausible or Matomo might be better fits.

Which Analytics Tool Should You Choose?

All three analytics platforms — Matomo, Plausible, and Fathom — have their merits, and the “best” choice ultimately depends on your business’s priorities:

  • If you need enterprise-level analytics with granular detail, custom reporting, and a high degree of flexibility (and you have the resources to handle a more complex tool), Matomo is a fantastic choice. It will give you all the power of Google Analytics and more, minus the privacy concerns. Matomo shines for larger organizations, e-commerce sites, or any scenario where detailed data analysis is critical. Just be ready for the technical complexity that comes with that power.
  • If you value simplicity and privacy above all, and your analytics needs are modest (think key website metrics without the deep dive), Plausible Analytics is hard to beat. It’s perfect for small businesses, content websites, startups, and even personal blogs. You’ll get a quick, clear snapshot of how your site is doing, without wading through extraneous data. Plus, you can tout your use of a privacy-friendly tool to your users.
  • If you want something similarly simple to Plausible but prefer a hosted solution with a few extra perks, Fathom Analytics is an excellent option. It’s great for marketing agencies, startups, and SMBs who want clean data (thanks to ad-blocker resilience) and an attractive UI that anyone on the team can use. The uptime monitoring and overall polish of the product are nice bonuses. You’ll be paying for the service, but in return you get convenience and reliability from a team dedicated to this product.

In many cases, you could use any of these tools and be happy — they all focus on user privacy and ditch the unnecessary complexities of Google Analytics 4. Some businesses even use them in combination (for example, running Matomo for in-depth analysis and Plausible for quick top-level stats).

Tip: Whichever you lean toward, take advantage of the free trials and free versions. Spin up Matomo on a test server, or try Plausible/Fathom’s trial on your site for a couple of weeks. Seeing the data firsthand will give you a feel for which dashboard and metrics presentation you prefer. The best analytics tool is the one whose insights you will actually use to improve your website and marketing efforts.

By choosing a privacy-first analytics solution, you’re not only respecting your visitors’ data – you’re also likely getting more honest and focused insights. Whether it’s Matomo, Plausible, or Fathom, you’ll be joining a movement of modern businesses that believe analytics can be done in an ethical, user-friendly way. Happy data-driven decision making!

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