head to head · open source
Fathom Lite vs firebase-ios-sdk
Fathom Lite has 8,020 GitHub stars, 383 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. firebase-ios-sdk has 6,661 stars, 1,789 forks, 444 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Fathom Lite leads on adoption by 20% (8,020 vs 6,661 stars). Fathom Lite is written in Go under MIT; firebase-ios-sdk is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. Fathom Lite has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, firebase-ios-sdk 27%. firebase-ios-sdk 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.
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Side by side
| Fathom Lite | firebase-ios-sdk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.0K | ★ 6.7K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-03-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 383 | ⑂ 1.8K |
| 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 firebase-ios-sdk if
- You want the firebase-ios-sdk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and firebase-ios-sdk 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 firebase-ios-sdk
Firebase Apple Open Source Development is the open source repository that holds the source code for the Apple platform Firebase libraries, and it is intended for iOS and other Apple platform developers who build apps on the Firebase platform and want to read, build, or vendor that client code directly.
read the full firebase-ios-sdk overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Fathom Lite or firebase-ios-sdk more popular?
Fathom Lite has 8,020 GitHub stars and firebase-ios-sdk has 6,661. Fathom Lite has the larger community by that measure.
Are Fathom Lite and firebase-ios-sdk free?
Both are open source. Fathom Lite is licensed under MIT and firebase-ios-sdk under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Fathom Lite and firebase-ios-sdk?
Fathom Lite is written in Go and firebase-ios-sdk in C++. 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 firebase-ios-sdk?
Choose Fathom Lite if you want the larger community (8,020 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose firebase-ios-sdk if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.