head to head · open source
Fathom Lite vs Aptabase
Fathom Lite has 8,020 GitHub stars, 383 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Aptabase has 1,815 stars, 138 forks, 59 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Fathom Lite leads on adoption by 342% (8,020 vs 1,815 stars). Fathom Lite is written in Go under MIT; Aptabase is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Fathom Lite has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Aptabase 8%. Aptabase was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (analytics, privacy), 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.
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Side by side
| Fathom Lite | Aptabase | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.0K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-03-18 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 383 | ⑂ 138 |
| 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 Aptabase if
- You want the Aptabase feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Aptabase fits your workflow better
About Fathom Lite
Fathom Lite is the original open source, self hosted edition of Fathom Analytics — a simple, privacy focused website analytics tool written in Go with a Preact dashboard, released under the MIT licence for people who want to run their own analytics server rather than buy a hosted service.
read the full Fathom Lite overview →
About Aptabase
Aptabase is an open source, privacy first analytics project for mobile, desktop, and web apps. It is written in TypeScript and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. The project describes itself as an alternative to Firebase and Google Analytics for teams that need usage insights without detailed personal identifiers.
read the full Aptabase overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Fathom Lite or Aptabase more popular?
Fathom Lite has 8,020 GitHub stars and Aptabase has 1,815. Fathom Lite has the larger community by that measure.
Are Fathom Lite and Aptabase free?
Both are open source. Fathom Lite is licensed under MIT and Aptabase under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Fathom Lite and Aptabase?
Fathom Lite is written in Go and Aptabase in TypeScript. 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 Aptabase?
Choose Fathom Lite if you want the larger community (8,020 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Aptabase if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.