If you're comparing Plausible and Fathom, you've already made the right call: you want privacy-first analytics without the mess of Google Analytics 4. Both are solid tools. But before you commit, it's worth understanding where they actually differ, and where a third option covers ground that neither one does.
What all three have in common
Plausible, Fathom, and Palace are all built around the same foundation. No cookies, which means no GDPR consent banner. Lightweight scripts, all under 2KB compared to GA4's ~70KB. Simple dashboards showing the metrics you actually look at: visitors, pageviews, referrers, countries, devices. EU-hosted data. No personal data collected by default. None of them send your visitors' data to Google.
If those are your baseline requirements, all three get you there. The differences show up in pricing, feature depth, and what each tool actually does beyond the basics.
Plausible
Plausible is open-source and self-hostable, the only one of the three that offers this. If full data sovereignty is a hard requirement, that matters. The hosted version starts at $9/month for up to 10,000 monthly pageviews.
It handles custom events, goal tracking, and public dashboard sharing well. For developers comfortable managing infrastructure, the self-hosted option is genuinely free and gives complete control.
The constraint is that Plausible is designed around pageview tiers. Higher tiers unlock more sites and team seats rather than new features. Data retention is capped at up to 3 years on mid-tier plans. If your traffic grows or your team expands, your costs climb in steps rather than smoothly.
Fathom
Fathom is a fully-managed product with no self-hosting and no open-source. It starts at $15/month for up to 100,000 pageviews, which is more generous than Plausible at entry level if you have real traffic. Every plan gets all features, and data retention is unlimited.
The key limitations: no team seats at all (it's a single-user product), a cap of 50 sites, and no UTM management built in. You can track UTM parameters that arrive via URL, but there's nowhere to create or manage your campaign links. It's a clean, well-built product for solo operators who don't need campaign workflows.
Where Palace goes further
Plausible and Fathom were both built around pageview counting. They do that well, but they weren't designed with marketing teams or agencies in mind. Palace was built by a software engineer and a marketer together. That combination means every feature exists because it helps someone actually make a decision, not because it was easy to ship. Simple enough for a marketer to use on day one. Powerful enough for a developer to build on.
That shows up in a few specific places.
Teams and agencies. Fathom has no team functionality; it's single-user. Plausible limits seats and sites at lower tiers. Palace gives you unlimited websites and unlimited team seats on every plan, including the free tier. If you're an agency managing analytics across client accounts, or a marketing team where multiple people need access, Palace is the only one of the three built for that from the start.
UTM dashboard and link management. Plausible and Fathom can read UTM parameters that arrive on your site, but neither has a place to create or manage tracking links. Palace has a dedicated UTM dashboard built in: you create and manage your campaign links inside the same tool you use to analyse them. One less tool to juggle.
Built-in link shortener. Palace is the only one of the three with a link shortener included. Short links that carry UTM parameters, managed alongside your analytics.
Permanent free tier. Palace's free plan covers 100,000 events with no expiry date. Plausible and Fathom both offer 30-day trials that require a paid plan to continue.
Usage-based pricing. Palace charges based on what you use rather than locking you into pageview tiers. Traffic growth scales your costs proportionally instead of bumping you to the next band.
How they compare
| Feature | Palace | Plausible | Fathom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $0/mo (100K events free) | $9/mo (10K pageviews) | $15/mo (100K pageviews) |
| Free tier | Permanent | 30-day trial | 30-day trial |
| All features on every plan | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Data retention | Unlimited | Up to 3 years | Unlimited |
| Websites | Unlimited | Up to 3 (mid-tier) | Up to 50 |
| Team seats | Unlimited | Up to 3 (mid-tier) | None |
| UTM dashboard | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Built-in link shortener | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Self-hosting | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Open source | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Cookieless | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Frequently asked questions
Do all three require a cookie consent banner? No. All three are cookieless by design, so GDPR's cookie consent requirement doesn't apply to any of them.
Is the Palace free tier actually permanent? Yes. 100,000 events per month at no cost, no expiry, no credit card required. Plausible and Fathom both require a paid plan after their 30-day trials end.
What's the difference between tracking UTMs and having a UTM dashboard? All three tools read UTM parameters that arrive on your site via URL. That's standard. A UTM dashboard lets you create, manage, and organise your campaign links inside the analytics tool itself. Palace has this built in; Plausible and Fathom do not.
Which is best for an agency managing multiple client sites? Palace. Unlimited sites and unlimited seats on every plan, including free. Plausible limits both at lower tiers. Fathom has no team support.
Can I import my Google Analytics history when switching? No analytics tool currently imports GA4 historical data. You start fresh from installation. Most teams find that after a month of clean data in a simpler tool, the GA4 history stops mattering, particularly given that GA4 data is often unreliable due to ad blocking, consent gaps, and sampling.
Is Palace suitable for non-technical marketers? Yes, that's a core part of how it was designed. The interface is immediately usable by someone running campaigns without developer help. The API and event tracking are flexible enough for developers to build on. You don't have to choose between accessible and powerful.
Palace Analytics is built for agencies and marketing teams who need more than a pageview counter: campaign link management, unlimited sites and seats, and a dashboard that works for marketers and developers alike. Start free. The first 100,000 events are on us.