Plausible vs. Fathom vs. Simple Analytics vs. Abner: A Full Comparison

The short answer is that the right tool depends on what you need analytics to do for you. Plausible, Fathom, and Simple Analytics are web analytics tools. They tell you how many people visited your site, where they came from, what they clicked, and how long they stayed. Abner does all of that and adds a layer that the others do not: an MCP server and REST API that let you query your analytics directly from Claude, other LLMs, AI agents, or your own scripts — an engine, not just a dashboard.

If you run a content site, a blog, or a marketing site, that difference does not matter much. Plausible, Fathom, or Simple Analytics will serve you well and at a lower price. But if you want your analytics queryable by an AI agent or a script instead of only a dashboard you click through, that distinction is the most important factor in this comparison.

This article covers all four tools honestly, including their weaknesses, and ends with a clear decision framework.

Plausible Analytics

Plausible launched in 2019 and has built the largest community of the four tools in this comparison. It is open source under the AGPL license, which means you can inspect the code, contribute to it, and self-host it on your own infrastructure. The cloud-hosted version stores data on Hetzner servers in Germany.

Who it is best for. Developers, founders, and technical teams who want EU-hosted analytics, an active open source community, and the option to self-host. Plausible is the most feature-complete web analytics tool in this group.

Pricing. Plausible prices by monthly pageview volume. Starter is $9/month for 10,000 pageviews, $19/month for 100,000 pageviews, $69/month for 1 million pageviews. Pricing climbs from there. If you run a high-traffic site, the cost at scale is higher than Fathom's flat-rate model.

Data hosting. Hetzner, Frankfurt, Germany. EU data residency by default, no configuration needed.

Open source. Yes, AGPL. Self-hosted via Docker. The Plausible team actively maintains the self-hosted version and releases updates regularly.

Key features. Custom events and goals, funnel analysis, email digests, multi-site support, public shareable dashboards, a REST API, referral spam filtering, entry and exit page reports, custom properties for event attributes.

Genuine strength. The community and feature velocity. Plausible ships updates frequently, has detailed documentation, and has a public roadmap. If there is a feature you need, there is a reasonable chance it is either already built or actively discussed. The goals and funnel tracking is more detailed than Simple Analytics and more accessible to non-technical users than building everything via custom events.

Genuine weakness. No revenue metrics at all. Plausible is a web analytics tool and does not attempt to be anything else. If you need to connect traffic data to Stripe revenue, you are building that bridge yourself in a spreadsheet. Pricing also increases meaningfully at higher pageview tiers, so large-traffic sites pay considerably more than $9/month.

Fathom Analytics

Fathom is a Canadian company that launched its current product in 2018. It is closed source, and unlike Plausible, there is no self-hosted option. Fathom's pitch is simplicity and flat-rate pricing: one price covers unlimited sites.

Who it is best for. Agencies and consultants managing analytics across many client sites, and anyone who values straightforward billing over feature breadth. At $14/month for unlimited sites with 100,000 pageview included, Fathom is the most cost-effective choice for multi-site use cases.

Pricing. $14/month for 100,000 pageviews, unlimited sites. Overages are charged at $0.00001 per additional pageview, which is essentially $1 per 100,000 extra pageviews. The flat-rate-all-sites model is a genuine differentiator for agencies.

Data hosting. Fathom is a Canadian company. It offers an EU isolation option that routes data through EU servers to satisfy EU data residency requirements. Note that EU isolation is not the default; it must be enabled and adds some latency because traffic from outside the EU is still routed to EU infrastructure. Fathom's EU isolation option is available with Fathom plans (check current pricing for details).

Open source. No. Closed source.

Key features. Unlimited sites, email reports, uptime monitoring, referrer spam filtering, a REST API, public shareable dashboards, custom events.

Genuine strength. Flat-rate unlimited sites at $14/month is excellent value if you manage multiple properties. The pricing model means your bill does not change based on how many client sites you add. Fathom's EU isolation option is also valuable for agencies with European clients who care about data residency.

Genuine weakness. Feature velocity is slower than Plausible. Fathom does not publish a public roadmap, so it is harder to know what is coming or when. No SaaS metrics.

Simple Analytics

Simple Analytics is a Dutch company with EU-hosted infrastructure. As the name suggests, it optimizes for simplicity above all else. The interface is intentionally minimal. The feature set is intentionally narrow.

Who it is best for. Non-technical founders, bloggers, and small teams who want analytics that are easy to read at a glance without any configuration. If you have tried other analytics tools and found them overwhelming, Simple Analytics is designed for you.

Pricing. $9/month for 100,000 pageviews, $19/month for 1 million pageviews. Unlike Plausible, Simple Analytics includes 100,000 pageviews at the lowest tier rather than 10,000.

Data hosting. Netherlands, EU-hosted.

Open source. Partially. The tracking script and some parts of the product are open source. The backend is not.

Key features. Pageviews, unique visitors, referrers, top pages, time on page (approximated via scroll depth events), email reports, a REST API, CSV export, custom events.

Genuine strength. The simplest interface of the four tools. A non-technical founder can read the Simple Analytics dashboard without any training. There is no configuration required to get value from it on day one.

Genuine weakness. The fewest features of the four. Custom events are basic, there is no funnel analysis, and the conversion tracking is limited. No SaaS metrics.

Abner

Abner is built around a different idea than the other three tools: it is an engine, not a dashboard. It is the only tool in this comparison that ships an MCP server and a REST API, so you can query your analytics directly from Claude, other LLMs, AI agents, or your own scripts, instead of only reading a web dashboard.

Who it is best for. Developers and technical teams who want to query their analytics programmatically — from an AI assistant, a script, or an internal tool — rather than only clicking through a dashboard.

Pricing. Starter $19/month, Pro $49/month, Business $99/month. 14-day free trial, no credit card required.

Data hosting. GCP infrastructure in the United States. Abner stores no personal data: IP addresses are hashed with a daily-rotating salt and never stored, no cookies are set, and no fingerprinting is performed. Because no personal data is retained, data residency is less of a compliance concern than with tools that store identifying information. That said, if your legal team or your customers require EU-hosted analytics infrastructure, the other three tools are better fits.

Open source. No.

Key features. Web analytics: unique visitors, pageviews, sessions, pageviews-per-visitor, top pages, referrer sources, UTM tracking, device and browser breakdown, country/region/city, real-time visitor count, and custom events — queryable through the dashboard, the REST API, or the MCP server. An MCP server (6 tools) and REST API for pulling metrics, breakdowns, realtime data, and Web Vitals into AI agents or scripts. Web Vitals (Core Web Vitals) collection via a lazy-loaded 1.9KB script. Tracking script core is 1.8KB.

Genuine strength. The only tool here built to be queried by AI agents and scripts, not just browsed in a dashboard. If you want an LLM to answer "what were my top referrers last week" or pull Web Vitals data into a report automatically, Abner is built around that use case.

Genuine weakness. Higher starting price than Plausible and Simple Analytics. US-hosted infrastructure may be a concern for founders or legal teams with strict EU data residency requirements. Abner is a younger product than Plausible or Fathom, so the community and ecosystem are smaller.

Feature Comparison Matrix

How to Choose

The decision comes down to four questions. Answer them in order.

1. Do you need EU data hosting?

If yes, use Plausible (Germany) or Simple Analytics (Netherlands). Fathom offers EU isolation (check current pricing for details). Abner is US-hosted.

2. Do you manage analytics for multiple client sites?

If yes, Fathom's $14/month flat rate for unlimited sites is almost certainly the most cost-effective option. No other tool in this comparison offers a similar model.

3. Do you want to query your analytics from code, a script, or an AI agent instead of only browsing a dashboard?

If yes, Abner is the only tool here built for that. It ships an MCP server and a REST API so you can pull traffic data, breakdowns, and Web Vitals directly into Claude, another LLM, or your own tooling.

4. Do you want open source or a self-hosted option?

If yes, Plausible is the clear answer. It is AGPL, actively maintained, well-documented, and straightforward to run via Docker.

If none of the above filters apply and you just want simple, clean analytics at the lowest price, Simple Analytics at $9/month for 100,000 pageviews offers the cleanest interface of the four.

Can You Use More Than One?

Yes, and some founders do. A practical combination is Abner for programmatic, API/MCP-driven analytics alongside Plausible when strict EU data hosting is required for compliance. Running two lightweight tracking scripts adds roughly 3 to 5KB to each page load, which is manageable when both scripts are loaded asynchronously and the alternatives involve heavier payloads.

The main cost is the overlap in web analytics data. You would be paying for two sets of visitor counts and traffic source data. Whether that duplication is worth the tradeoff depends on your compliance requirements and how much you rely on querying your data programmatically.

All four tools are honest alternatives to Google Analytics for privacy-conscious teams. The differences between them are real but narrow on the web analytics side. Where they diverge sharply is in what they do beyond counting page views. That is where your use case determines the answer.

Plausible and Simple Analytics are the right default for most content sites and marketing pages. Fathom is purpose-built for agencies. Abner is purpose-built for teams that want their analytics queryable by AI agents and scripts, not just a dashboard.