TL;DR:
Google Analytics 4 is free and deep but sets cookies, usually needs a consent banner, and feeds Google's ad ecosystem. Fathom is cookieless, flat-priced across unlimited sites, and needs no banner, from $15/mo. For teams that want Fathom's privacy plus revenue attribution and a per-visitor journey, Open Analytics leads at $9/mo.
Fathom markets itself as the simple, private replacement for Google Analytics, so the two are a natural head-to-head. GA4 wins on price (free) and depth; Fathom wins on privacy, no consent banner, and flat multi-site pricing. Here is the honest split, and where Open Analytics leads for teams that want more than aggregate numbers.
At a glance
| Open Analytics | Fathom | Google Analytics 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $9/mo | $15/mo unlimited sites | Free |
| Cookies / banner | None | None | Cookies, banner usually needed |
| Meters | Events | Pageviews | Events |
| Revenue attribution | Yes, to source | No | Ecommerce events you build |
| Per-visitor journey | Yes | No (aggregate) | Limited |
| Data ownership | Yours (AGPL) | Fathom-hosted | Google's ecosystem |
Where each one wins
- 01
Open Analytics
That's usFathom's privacy and no banner, plus revenue attribution and a per-visitor journey neither GA4 nor Fathom gives simply.
Price: From $9/mo for 50,000 events (a pageview or anything you tag), 3-day free trial.
Strengths
- Revenue attributed back to the visit and source that earned it
- Built-in MCP server: ask your analytics in plain English
- Realtime journeys, funnels and Core Web Vitals in one script
- Open source (AGPL) and self-hostable
Trade-offs
- Newer than Plausible or Fathom
- Meters events, so tagged conversions count
- No free plan, only the trial
- 02
Fathom
The simplest cookieless replacement for GA if you run several sites.
Price: From $15/mo, unlimited sites.
Strengths
- No cookie banner
- Unlimited sites flat
- Imports from UA and GA4
Trade-offs
- Aggregate-only
- No revenue to source
- Pageview-metered
Free and deep, if cookies, a banner and Google's ecosystem are acceptable.
Price: Free (GA4 360 is sales-negotiated).
Strengths
- Free at almost any scale
- Deepest free feature set
- Attribution modelling
Trade-offs
- Sets cookies, usually needs a banner
- Loses visitors who decline
- Data in Google's ad ecosystem
Prices were checked against each product's own pricing page on 2026-08-07 and change often. Read the current plan, and the meter it counts, before you commit.
Open Analytics is the events-metered, revenue-aware option with an AI-queryable dataset. Try it free for three days.
Start free trialFrequently asked questions
- Is Fathom better than Google Analytics?
- For privacy, no consent banner and flat multi-site pricing, yes. Google Analytics 4 wins on price (free) and raw depth. If you want Fathom's privacy but also a per-visitor journey and revenue tied to its source, Open Analytics offers both from $9/mo.
- Does Fathom need a cookie banner?
- No. Fathom is cookieless and collects no personal data, so it needs no consent banner. Google Analytics 4 sets cookies and generally does require one, and visitors who decline drop out of your numbers, which is a main reason teams switch to Fathom or another cookieless tool.
- Is Google Analytics free and Fathom paid?
- Yes. GA4 is free at almost any scale; Fathom starts at $15/mo for unlimited sites. The trade is that GA4's price is paid in cookies, a consent banner, and data flowing into Google's ecosystem, while Fathom's subscription is the whole business model.