What is Fathom Analytics best at?

Simple, privacy-first web analytics from one of the companies that invented the category. There are no cookies, the realtime dashboard fits on one page, and a single $15 plan covers up to 50 websites with events, UTM tracking and two-factor authentication. Pulsetic focuses on a different question: not how many people visited, but how fast the website was for them and whether it was up at all.

How much does Fathom Analytics cost?

$15 per month for 100,000 pageviews across up to 50 websites, with higher tiers as traffic grows. There is a 7-day trial but no free plan. Pulsetic starts free, and paid plans start at $9 a month with 10,000 RUM pageviews, 10 uptime monitors and status pages.

Does Fathom measure page speed or Core Web Vitals?

No. Fathom has no performance reporting at all: no load times, no Core Web Vitals, no error tracking. It measures traffic, not experience. Pulsetic records LCP, CLS, INP, FCP and load time percentiles (p50, p75, p95) from real visits.

Can Fathom tell me when my website is down?

Not anymore. Fathom offered uptime monitoring for years, then removed the feature on October 1, 2023 to focus on analytics. It has no status pages or alerting today. Pulsetic checks your website as often as every 30 seconds from up to 15 regions, and alerts you by email, webhook, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Telegram, SMS, WhatsApp or phone call.

Is Pulsetic a drop-in replacement for Fathom Analytics?

No. Pulsetic does not track goals, custom events, funnels or UTM campaigns, so if your work depends on conversion reporting, keep Fathom for it. Both scripts are small and cookieless, so many teams run the two side by side: Fathom for marketing questions, Pulsetic for performance and uptime.

Does Pulsetic's tracking script use cookies?

No. Like Fathom, Pulsetic sets no cookies and writes nothing to localStorage. It goes a step further: there is no client-side visitor identifier at all, because Pulsetic does not need to count unique visitors. The script sends up to two small performance beacons per pageview, with no sampling.

Can I self-host Fathom or Pulsetic?

Neither, in practice. Pulsetic is a hosted service only, and Fathom's self-hosted option, Fathom Lite, is legacy software that last saw a release in January 2023. The upside of hosted: there is no server to patch or upgrade, and uptime monitoring from up to 15 external regions is not something a single self-hosted box could do anyway.

When should I switch from Fathom to Pulsetic?

When the questions you are asking change: you care less about where visitors came from and more about why the website felt slow, whether Core Web Vitals pass, and who tells you when it goes down. Fathom answered that last question until 2023, then stepped away from it. Pulsetic answers all three, includes status pages, and has a free plan to start. If you need both sets of answers, the two scripts coexist happily.

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Pulsetic vs Fathom: the breakdown

Credit where due: Fathom Analytics helped invent privacy-first analytics. There are no cookies, the realtime dashboard fits on one page, and a single $15 plan covers up to 50 websites, with your stats kept for as long as you stay a customer.

But Fathom tells you how many people visited, not what they experienced. There is no performance data at all: no load times, no Core Web Vitals, no error tracking. And Fathom removed its uptime monitoring feature in October 2023, so nothing warns you when your website goes down.

That’s why people searching for a Fathom alternative land on Pulsetic: the same lightweight, cookieless approach, spent on measuring real load times, Core Web Vitals and downtime, with status pages included.

Let’s compare the two.

See what visitors experienced

Fathom counts pageviews and referrers but has no speed or Core Web Vitals data. Pulsetic measures LCP, CLS, INP, FCP and load time percentiles (p50, p75, p95) from real visits.
Know when you’re down

Fathom used to monitor uptime, then retired the feature in 2023 to focus on analytics. Pulsetic watches your website from outside and emails you before customers start asking. Checks run as often as every 30 seconds from up to 15 regions, and alerts can also reach you on Slack, SMS, WhatsApp or a phone call.
A status page out of the box

Pulsetic bundles status pages on a domain you own, with customization, subscriber emails, incident updates and maintenance windows. With Fathom you would still need a second tool for the whole uptime side of the job.

“Pulsetic has transformed my website monitoring experience with its intuitive interface and real-time tracking capabilities. I love how effortlessly I can keep tabs on my site’s performance, ensuring everything runs smoothly!”
Koen Kanters

Senior Software Engineer at ASML

Pricing: Pulsetic vs Fathom

Free plans

Fathom has no free tier: after the 7-day trial you pick a paid plan. Pulsetic keeps a real free plan with 10 monitors, status pages and 1,000 RUM pageviews a month, commercial use allowed.
Paid plans

Fathom starts at $15 for 100,000 pageviews across up to 50 websites. Pulsetic’s alternative to Fathom starts at $9 for 10,000 RUM pageviews plus 10 uptime monitors and status pages, and matches 100,000 pageviews at $19 a month.
Data retention

Fathom keeps your stats for as long as you remain a customer, which is genuinely generous. Pulsetic keeps RUM analytics for up to 5 years, depending on the plan, with uptime history alongside.

Feature comparison

Fathom Analytics

Free plan / trial

Free Plan

7-day trial

Price (USD/mo)

$9

$15

Monitoring

Check time

30 sec (Team plan)

n/a

Real User Monitoring (RUM)

✕

Multi-step browser checks

✕

Choice of regional data centers

n/a

SSL monitoring

✕

Keyword monitoring

✕

Ping / ICMP monitoring

✕

Port monitoring

✕

TCP monitoring

✕

Domain monitoring

✕

Cron / heartbeat monitoring

✕

Custom HTTP requests

✕

Customized responses

✕

Downtime screenshots

✕

Chart annotations

✕

API

Built-in AI assistant (chat)

✕

MCP server

✕

n8n integration

✕

Cloudflare IP allowlisting

n/a

Monitoring data retention

3 mo to 5 yr by plan

n/a

Status Pages

Incident updates

✕

Status updates for subscribers via email

✕

Maintenance windows

✕

Status badges

✕

Customized domain

✕

Customized colors

✕

Customized logo

✕

Remove branding

✕

Customized status page layout

✕

CSS customization

✕

Custom email sender & templates

✕

AI writing assistant

✕

Page translations

✕

Password-protected status page

✕

SSO-protected status page

✕

Notifications

Email alerts

✕

SMS alerts

✕

Phone call alerts

✕

WhatsApp alerts

✕

Slack alerts

✕

MS teams alerts

✕

Discord alerts

✕

Telegram alerts

✕

Mattermost alerts

✕

Webhooks alerts

✕

Zapier alerts

✕

Twilio alerts

✕

Datadog integration

✕

Integration with SIGNL4

✕

Analytics

See response times

n/a

Response time by location

n/a

Custom date range reports

Scheduled email reports

Web Analytics & RUM

Cookieless tracking

Core Web Vitals (field data)

✕

Load time percentiles (p50/p75/p95)

✕

JS error tracking

✕

Realtime visitors

Traffic breakdowns (pages, geo, devices)

Country-level geo

Goals / custom events

✕

Events, no funnels

Analytics data retention

3 mo to 5 yr by plan

Forever

Self-hostable

✕

Security

Two-factor authentication

Single Sign-On (SAML)

✕

Role-based access

Not documented

Support

Chat

✕

Human Support

AI Support

✕

Helpdesk Articles

Email Support

Comparison based on publicly available information as of October 2026. Features and pricing change frequently, so please verify current details on each provider’s website.

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And there’s more in Pulsetic’s free plan…

See where your website is loading slowly

We’ll check your website’s response times from different locations around the world, so you know if there’s an issue in a particular region.
Alerts wherever you want them

When your website fails a check and a second location confirms it, Pulsetic alerts you by email or webhook.
Never let your SSL expire again

We’ll let you know when it’s time to update your SSL certificate, so you can renew it before customers see error messages.

Fathom counts your visits. Pulsetic measures the experience and watches your uptime.

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Frequently asked questions

What is Fathom Analytics best at?

Simple, privacy-first web analytics from one of the companies that invented the category. There are no cookies, the realtime dashboard fits on one page, and a single $15 plan covers up to 50 websites with events, UTM tracking and two-factor authentication. Pulsetic focuses on a different question: not how many people visited, but how fast the website was for them and whether it was up at all.
How much does Fathom Analytics cost?

$15 per month for 100,000 pageviews across up to 50 websites, with higher tiers as traffic grows. There is a 7-day trial but no free plan. Pulsetic starts free, and paid plans start at $9 a month with 10,000 RUM pageviews, 10 uptime monitors and status pages.
Does Fathom measure page speed or Core Web Vitals?

No. Fathom has no performance reporting at all: no load times, no Core Web Vitals, no error tracking. It measures traffic, not experience. Pulsetic records LCP, CLS, INP, FCP and load time percentiles (p50, p75, p95) from real visits.
Can Fathom tell me when my website is down?

Not anymore. Fathom offered uptime monitoring for years, then removed the feature on October 1, 2023 to focus on analytics. It has no status pages or alerting today. Pulsetic checks your website as often as every 30 seconds from up to 15 regions, and alerts you by email, webhook, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Telegram, SMS, WhatsApp or phone call.
Is Pulsetic a drop-in replacement for Fathom Analytics?

No. Pulsetic does not track goals, custom events, funnels or UTM campaigns, so if your work depends on conversion reporting, keep Fathom for it. Both scripts are small and cookieless, so many teams run the two side by side: Fathom for marketing questions, Pulsetic for performance and uptime.
Does Pulsetic's tracking script use cookies?

No. Like Fathom, Pulsetic sets no cookies and writes nothing to localStorage. It goes a step further: there is no client-side visitor identifier at all, because Pulsetic does not need to count unique visitors. The script sends up to two small performance beacons per pageview, with no sampling.
Can I self-host Fathom or Pulsetic?

Neither, in practice. Pulsetic is a hosted service only, and Fathom's self-hosted option, Fathom Lite, is legacy software that last saw a release in January 2023. The upside of hosted: there is no server to patch or upgrade, and uptime monitoring from up to 15 external regions is not something a single self-hosted box could do anyway.
When should I switch from Fathom to Pulsetic?

When the questions you are asking change: you care less about where visitors came from and more about why the website felt slow, whether Core Web Vitals pass, and who tells you when it goes down. Fathom answered that last question until 2023, then stepped away from it. Pulsetic answers all three, includes status pages, and has a free plan to start. If you need both sets of answers, the two scripts coexist happily.