head to head · open source
Fathom Lite vs OpenWebAnalytics
Fathom Lite has 8,034 GitHub stars, 388 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. OpenWebAnalytics has 2,697 stars, 488 forks, 115 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Fathom Lite leads on adoption by 198% (8,034 vs 2,697 stars). Fathom Lite is written in Go under MIT; OpenWebAnalytics is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. Fathom Lite has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, OpenWebAnalytics 18%. OpenWebAnalytics was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | OpenWebAnalytics | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.0K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-03-18 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 388 | ⑂ 488 |
| 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 OpenWebAnalytics if
- You want the OpenWebAnalytics feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and OpenWebAnalytics 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 OpenWebAnalytics
Open Web Analytics Server Open Web Analytics is an open source alternative to commercial web analytics tools such as Google Analytics. This software allows you to stay in control of the data you collect about the user of your websites or applications. This repository installs the OWA Server and Javascript tracking client which can easily be added to web pages. To add OWA tracking to a WordPress based website install the OWA integration plugin or see this repository. To add OWA tracking to any PHP application use the OWA PHP SDK Features Track visitors, pageviews, e commerce transactions, and configurable actions…
read the full OpenWebAnalytics overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Fathom Lite or OpenWebAnalytics more popular?
Fathom Lite has 8,034 GitHub stars and OpenWebAnalytics has 2,697. Fathom Lite has the larger community by that measure.
Are Fathom Lite and OpenWebAnalytics free?
Both are open source. Fathom Lite is licensed under MIT and OpenWebAnalytics under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Fathom Lite and OpenWebAnalytics?
Fathom Lite is written in Go and OpenWebAnalytics in PHP. 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 OpenWebAnalytics?
Choose Fathom Lite if you want the larger community (8,034 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose OpenWebAnalytics if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.