head to head · open source
Plausible vs Fathom Lite
Plausible has 29,752 GitHub stars, 1,928 forks, 60 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Fathom Lite has 8,034 stars, 388 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. Plausible leads on adoption by 270% (29,752 vs 8,034 stars). Plausible is written in Elixir under AGPL-3.0; Fathom Lite is written in Go under MIT. Plausible has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Fathom Lite 5%. Plausible was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (analytics, google-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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Plausible | Fathom Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 8.0K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Elixir | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-03-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 388 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Plausible if
- You weight community size — 30K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Elixir
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Fathom Lite if
- You want the Fathom Lite feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Fathom Lite fits your workflow better
About Plausible
Plausible Analytics Live Demo Open Source Docs Contributing Plausible Analytics is an open source, privacy first web analytics tool. Lightweight, cookie free alternative to Google Analytics. Available in managed cloud or self hosted community edition. 🔐 Privacy focused 🛡️ GDPR, CCPA, PECR compliant 📊 Simple, fast dashboard 🪶 Lightweight script 🇪🇺 Made and hosted in the EU Why Plausible? Here's what makes Plausible a great Google Analytics alternative and why we're trusted by thousands of paying subscribers to deliver their website and business insights: Clutter free Plausible provides simple web analytics…
read the full Plausible overview →
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 →
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 Plausible or Fathom Lite more popular?
Plausible has 29,752 GitHub stars and Fathom Lite has 8,034. Plausible has the larger community by that measure.
Are Plausible and Fathom Lite free?
Both are open source. Plausible is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Fathom Lite under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Plausible and Fathom Lite?
Plausible is written in Elixir and Fathom Lite in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Plausible or Fathom Lite?
Choose Plausible if you want the larger community (29,752 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Fathom Lite if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.