head to head · open source
Fathom Lite vs Countly
Fathom Lite has 8,034 GitHub stars, 388 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. Countly has 5,924 stars, 986 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Fathom Lite leads on adoption by 36% (8,034 vs 5,924 stars). Fathom Lite is written in Go under MIT; Countly is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence. Fathom Lite has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Countly 17%. Countly was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (analytics), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Fathom Lite | Countly | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.0K | ★ 5.9K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-03-18 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 388 | ⑂ 986 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Fathom Lite if
- You weight community size — 8.0K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Countly if
- You want the Countly feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Countly fits your workflow better
About Fathom Lite
Fathom Lite simple website analytics ============================== Fathom Lite is a previous and open source version of Fathom Analytics (a paid, hosted Google Analytics alternative). It was the very first version of our software, and has been downloaded millions of times! While we are no longer adding features to this Lite version, we will be continuing to maintain it long term and fix any bugs that come up. Fathom Lite vs Fathom (hosted) Today’s Fathom Analytics is a hosted product with simple pricing based on monthly pageviews. The same core capabilities are included on every plan: for example API access, up…
read the full Fathom Lite overview →
About Countly
🔗 Quick links Countly Website Countly Server installation guide Countly SDKs, download and documentation links Countly Community on Discord User Guides for Countly features 🌟 What is Countly? Countly is a privacy first, AI ready analytics and customer engagement platform built for organizations that require full data ownership and deployment flexibility . Unlike traditional SaaS only analytics tools, Countly can be deployed on premises or in a private cloud , giving you complete control over your data, infrastructure, compliance, and security. Teams use Countly to: Understand user behavior across mobile, web…
read the full Countly overview →
More in Data & Analytics
Related comparisons
More Web & Product Analytics projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Web & Product Analytics field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Fathom Lite or Countly more popular?
Fathom Lite has 8,034 GitHub stars and Countly has 5,924. Fathom Lite has the larger community by that measure.
Are Fathom Lite and Countly free?
Both are open source. Fathom Lite is licensed under MIT, and Countly has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Fathom Lite and Countly?
Fathom Lite is written in Go and Countly in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Fathom Lite or Countly?
Choose Fathom Lite if you want the larger community (8,034 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Countly if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.