Fathom Lite — Privacy-First Self-Hosted Web Analytics

Introduction

Fathom Lite is an open-source, privacy-focused web analytics platform that provides simple pageview and visitor tracking without using cookies or collecting personal data. Built with Go on the backend and Preact on the frontend, it offers a lightweight alternative to Google Analytics for developers and site owners who prioritize visitor privacy.

What Fathom Lite Does

• Tracks pageviews, unique visitors, average time on page, and bounce rate
• Operates without cookies, making it GDPR and CCPA compliant by design
• Provides a clean single-page dashboard with site-level metrics
• Supports multiple sites from a single installation
• Stores all data locally in SQLite or PostgreSQL with no third-party data sharing

Architecture Overview

Fathom Lite is a single Go binary with an embedded Preact frontend. The server handles both the tracking endpoint (a small JavaScript snippet posts events) and the dashboard UI. Data is stored in SQLite for simple deployments or PostgreSQL for production scale. The tracking script is under 1 KB, minimizing impact on page load times. No cookies are set, and IP addresses are hashed and discarded.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Deploy via Docker or download the pre-built binary for Linux, macOS, or Windows
• Configure via environment variables: FATHOM_DATABASE_DRIVER, FATHOM_SERVER_ADDR, FATHOM_SECRET
• Run fathom user add --email=you@example.com --password=secret to create the admin account
• Place behind a reverse proxy (Nginx, Caddy) with HTTPS for production
• Use PostgreSQL instead of SQLite for sites with high traffic volume

Key Features

• Cookie-free tracking that requires no consent banners
• Sub-1 KB tracking script with minimal page load impact
• Multi-site support from a single dashboard
• Simple REST API for programmatic access to analytics data
• Single binary deployment with no external service dependencies

Comparison with Similar Tools

• Plausible Analytics — similar privacy focus with more features (goals, funnels); Fathom Lite is simpler and lighter
• Umami — Node.js-based privacy analytics; Fathom Lite is a single Go binary with fewer dependencies
• Matomo — full-featured PHP analytics suite; Fathom Lite trades features for simplicity and privacy
• Google Analytics — comprehensive but tracks personal data; Fathom Lite collects no PII

FAQ

Q: Is Fathom Lite the same as Fathom Analytics (the commercial service)? A: No. Fathom Lite is the open-source project. Fathom Analytics is a separate commercial SaaS product by the same original creators.

Q: Does Fathom Lite support goal or event tracking? A: Fathom Lite focuses on pageview analytics. For event tracking and goals, consider Plausible or Umami as alternatives.

Q: How does it track unique visitors without cookies? A: Fathom Lite uses a hash of the visitor's IP address and User-Agent, rotated daily. The raw IP is never stored.

Q: Can I migrate from Google Analytics to Fathom Lite? A: Fathom Lite does not import historical data from Google Analytics. It starts collecting fresh data from the moment the tracking script is added.

Sources

• https://github.com/usefathom/fathom
• https://usefathom.com/lite