Head to head
Absolutely Analytics vs Fathom Analytics
One bill for fifty sites, or one tool that does more. Scored on ten weighted measures, with every price read on the same day.
Absolutely Analytics
8.9/10
No. 1 of 30
Fathom Analytics
7.4/10
No. 5 of 30
Fathom has one genuinely great argument and it is worth stating first, because it decides this comparison for a certain kind of buyer: every Fathom plan, including the fifteen-dollar entry plan, carries fifty websites. If you look after thirty client sites, nothing else here comes close on cost per site, and you can stop reading.
For everybody else this is closer than the site counts suggest. Both are cookieless, both avoid the consent banner, both ship a small script and a deliberately simple dashboard. The differences are depth, behaviour tooling and, most consequentially, what each vendor does when a page of yours does unexpectedly well.
The verdict
Absolutely Analytics for anyone running one site or a handful, on depth and on conduct. It has heatmaps from fourteen dollars, session replay as an add-on, funnels and a Stats API on its Business tier, and none of those exist in Fathom at any price. It also filters bots before billing, where Fathom counts events against the same pageview meter with no equivalent filter advertised.
The overage gap is the part to weigh hardest. Fathom's published policy emails you at thirty per cent over and locks the account on day seven. Absolutely Analytics keeps collecting and keeps the dashboard open. A traffic spike is exactly the moment you most want to look at your analytics, and one of these two takes the dashboard away.
Take Fathom anyway if you are an agency or freelancer with many small sites. Fifty sites for fifteen dollars is a structural advantage, not a feature, and no amount of heatmaps changes that arithmetic.
Side by side
| Absolutely Analytics | Fathom Analytics | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 8.9 / 10 | 7.4 / 10 |
| Rank on this list | No. 1 of 30 | No. 5 of 30 |
| From | $9 per month | $15 per month |
| What that buys | 10,000 pageviews and custom events a month, rising in eight published rungs to 10M | 100,000 monthly pageviews; events count against the same allowance |
| Free tier | No free tier. A 30-day trial of the exact tier you picked | No. A 7-day trial |
| Cookies | None, so no consent banner | None, so no consent banner |
| Script size | 1,270 bytes gzipped | Under 2 KB |
| Hosting | Hosted, with a choice of storage jurisdiction | Canada, with EU isolation available |
| Trading since | 2024 | 2018 |
| Sites included | 1 / 3 / 10 by tier | 50 on every plan, extra packs of 50 for $10/mo |
| Heatmaps | Included from $14 | Not offered |
| Session replay | Add-on from $19/mo | Not offered |
| Funnels | Business tier | Not offered |
| Bot filtering before billing | Yes, roughly 30% of raw arrivals | Not advertised as a billing filter |
| Over your allowance | Keeps collecting, dashboard stays open | Emailed at 30% over, account locked on day 7 |
| Free trial | 30 days of your chosen tier | 7 days |
The ten measures, scored
| Measure | Absolutely Analytics | Fathom Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Insight quality | 9 | 8 |
| Privacy architecture | 10 | 9 |
| Value for money | 8 | 8 |
| Setup and time to data | 10 | 9 |
| Script weight | 10 | 9 |
| Analytical depth | 6 | 5 |
| Behaviour tooling | 8 | 1 |
| Data ownership | 7 | 7 |
| Accuracy | 9 | 8 |
| Vendor conduct | 10 | 5 |
| Weighted overall | 8.9 | 7.4 |
Higher is better. The overall figure is the weighted mean, relative to the 30 tools on this list. How this works.
Which one should you pick
Choose Fathom Analytics if
You look after many sites. Fifty domains on a $15 plan beats everything else on this list for cost per site.
Choose Absolutely Analytics if
You run one site or a few, and want heatmaps, funnels and a billing policy that does not punish a good week.
Common questions
How many websites do I get with each?
Fathom includes fifty websites on every plan, with extra packs of fifty for $10 a month. Absolutely Analytics includes one site on Starter, three on Growth and ten on Business. For a portfolio, Fathom wins this decisively.
Which is better for a single site?
Absolutely Analytics. At comparable money it adds heatmaps, session replay and funnels, none of which Fathom offers, and it filters bot traffic before counting it against your allowance.
What happens if I exceed my pageview limit?
Fathom's published policy emails you when you are thirty per cent over and locks the account on day seven. Absolutely Analytics keeps collecting, keeps your dashboard open, and only moves you to a larger rung after three consecutive months over, with notice and the option to decline.
Do custom events count towards the limit?
On both, yes. Fathom's own FAQ confirms events count towards your monthly pageviews, and Absolutely Analytics counts pageviews and custom events against one combined allowance. An event-heavy site climbs the ladder faster than its traffic implies on either tool.
Both entries above are desk reviews written from published evidence, and every judgement is my opinion rather than a statement of fact. Read the full reviews for Absolutely Analytics and Fathom Analytics, or tell me where I have got something wrong.