Events-based pricing
Rybbit
$19/mo
- 7-day free trial, card charged after the trial
- Session replay available on Pro plan
- Funnels, user journeys, and error tracking included
- Self-hosting option available (free)
Comparison
Rybbit vs Fathom
Both are privacy-first, but Rybbit is open source with session replay, funnels, and self-hosting that Fathom doesn't offer.
7-day free trial. Cancel anytime.
Why consider Rybbit over Fathom?
Fathom Analytics is a well-respected privacy-first analytics tool known for its clean interface and cookie-free tracking. It's a solid choice for websites that need simple traffic metrics without the complexity of Google Analytics. But Fathom is intentionally limited to basic web analytics: no session replay, no funnel analysis, no user journey visualization, and it's entirely closed-source with no self-hosting option.
Rybbit shares Fathom's commitment to privacy and simplicity but extends far beyond basic web metrics. You get session replay to see exactly how users interact with your site, funnel analysis to identify conversion bottlenecks, user journey visualization with Sankey diagrams, Web Vitals monitoring, and error tracking. This means you can see how visitors convert, where they drop off, and what issues they encounter, on top of the raw visit counts.
Transparency is another major difference. Rybbit is fully open source under the AGPL v3 license: you can inspect every line of code and self-host on your own infrastructure. Fathom is proprietary and cloud-only, so you're trusting their claims about data handling without the ability to verify. If you love Fathom's privacy-first approach but need deeper analytics, code transparency, and the freedom to self-host, Rybbit gives you all of that.
Comparison
Which is right for you?
Choose Rybbit if...
- You want open-source software you can audit and self-host
- You need session replay, funnels, and user journey visualization
- You want a 7-day free trial to evaluate before committing
- You need error tracking and Web Vitals monitoring
- You prefer events-based pricing over pageview-based
- You want full code transparency (AGPL v3)
Choose Fathom if...
- You want the smallest possible tracking script (2KB)
- You prefer a more established product with a longer track record
- You only need basic pageview and conversion tracking
- You don't want to worry about self-hosting or infrastructure
Feature by feature
Why choose Rybbit over Fathom?
| Capability |  | Fathom |
|---|---|---|
| Analytics Features | ||
| Real-time analytics | ||
| Custom events | With attributes | Basic |
| Funnels | ||
| User journeys (Sankey) | ||
| Conversion goals | ||
| UTM tracking | ||
| Public dashboards | ||
| Advanced Features | ||
| Session Replay | ||
| User profiles | ||
| Web Vitals monitoring | ||
| Error tracking | ||
| Real-time globe view | ||
| Autocapture | ||
| Privacy & Open Source | ||
| Cookie-free tracking | ||
| No personal data collection | ||
| Daily rotating salt | ||
| Open source | ||
| Self-hostable | ||
| Technical & Pricing | ||
| Script size | 18KB | ~2KB |
| Bypasses ad blockers | ||
| API access | ||
| Starting price | $19/mo | $15/mo |
Pricing
Pricing comparison
Pageview-based pricing
Fathom
$15/mo
- Starts at 100k pageviews/month
- No free tier available
- All features included on every plan
- Cloud-only, no self-hosting option
Fathom vs Rybbit, in depth
Two privacy-first tools, two philosophies
Fathom deserves real credit: it's one of the founders of the privacy-analytics category, and it has run as a profitable, independent company for years while bigger players came and went. If you're leaving Google Analytics for something cookieless and simple, Fathom is a legitimate destination. We've said as much in our roundup of the best Google Analytics alternatives.
The two products just make different bets. Fathom bets that most site owners want one clean page of traffic numbers from the most stable, boring vendor possible, and deliberately stops there. Rybbit starts from the same privacy foundation (cookieless tracking, no personal data, visitor hashes rotated daily) but bets that once you see the numbers move, you'll want to know why. Which bet is right depends on you, not on either product being wrong.
Deliberate simplicity vs. behavioral depth
Fathom's simplicity is a feature, not a gap: pageviews, referrers, UTM tracking, and conversion goals on a single screen, with a tracking script around 2KB. If that's the whole job, Fathom does it very well.
Rybbit covers the same dashboard basics, then adds the layer Fathom deliberately leaves out: session replay to watch real sessions, funnels to find where signups stall, user journey (Sankey) visualization, error tracking, Web Vitals monitoring, and user profiles. Rybbit's script is bigger (~18KB) because it does more. That's the honest trade. There's also an ownership difference with no trade-off attached: Rybbit is open source and can be self-hosted for free, while Fathom is closed-source and SaaS-only: there is no way to run it on your own infrastructure.
Pricing shape: a pageview slider vs. events with everything included
Fathom prices on a pageview slider: you pick a monthly pageview tier and pay more as traffic grows. At 500k pageviews it's $45/month. There's a 7-day trial but explicitly no free tier (“Do you have a lower/free option? Nope” is a real answer on their FAQ). The generous parts are real, too: every plan includes at least 50 sites (extra sites are $10/month per 50), data is retained forever, and paying annually gets you two months free. For an agency running dozens of low-traffic sites, that 50-site allowance is genuinely hard to beat.
Rybbit prices on events instead, starting at $19/month for 100k eventswith a 7-day trial. Every feature, including session replay, funnels, and error tracking, is on every plan, so you never move up a tier to get a capability. And if the subscription ever stops making sense, the open-source version is a real exit: self-host it and pay nothing. Fathom, being closed-source, can't offer that pressure valve.
Switching from Fathom to Rybbit
Rybbit's historical-data importers currently cover Plausible, Umami, and Simple Analytics; there is no Fathom importer yet. So the switch is the classic parallel run:
- Add the Rybbit tracking scriptalongside Fathom's. The two don't conflict, and data appears in minutes.
- Recreate your Fathom events and conversions as Rybbit goals and custom events.
- Compare a few weeks of numbers. Since both tools are cookieless and resistant to ad blockers, expect them to track closely. This is mostly a sanity check, not a reconciliation project.
- Remove the Fathom script when you're confident. Your history stays in your Fathom account for reference as long as you keep it.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Resources
Related resources
Rybbit vs PlausibleCompare two privacy-first analytics platformsRybbit vs Simple AnalyticsFeature-rich vs minimal analyticsRybbit vs UmamiTwo open-source analytics tools comparedGetting started with RybbitSet up Rybbit in under 5 minutesSelf-hosting guideDeploy Rybbit on your own infrastructurePricingSimple, transparent pricing for every team size
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