Plausible vs Fathom vs ezStats: The Privacy-Analytics Tier Compared (2026)

Disclosure first: ezStats is our product. Plausible and Fathom are excellent tools we respect, plenty of sites should pick them over us, and this comparison says exactly which sites those are. If we shade anything, the comment section exists.

The short answer: pick Plausible for one simple site, Fathom for many small sites, and ezStats when your analytics needs to connect to SEO, AI visibility, and behavior data. The rest of this post is the evidence.

All three share the same foundation: cookieless, privacy-first analytics with no individual visitor profiles, usually no analytics consent banner needed, and a script light enough that your page speed doesn't notice. Any of the three is a sane escape from GA4. The differences are about everything beyond the traffic counts.

The core comparison

Where each one honestly wins

Plausible wins on: price for one site, EU data residency, open source and self-hosting, and the cleanest single-screen experience in the category. It also deserves credit the older comparisons miss: it shows which AI tools send you traffic, integrates Search Console, and tracks scroll depth. If "simple analytics, maximum privacy credibility" is the whole job, Plausible is the pick.

Fathom wins on: many sites for little money. Fifty sites on a $15 plan with an all-sites rollup is unbeatable economics for portfolio owners, hobbyists with a domain habit, and freelancers watching a dozen small properties. Fast, polished, reliably boring in the best way.

ezStats wins on: everything after the traffic count. If your next questions are "what are we ranking for, what are competitors doing, where do people click, which companies visited, and does ChatGPT mention us," the simple tier answers none of them, and the usual fix is two or three more subscriptions. ezStats bundles the SEO suite, AI visibility tracking across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity, heatmaps, org-level company ID, and a bot report that shows the 30-40% of traffic the others silently filter, plus an MCP server so an AI agent can install and query it.

The price comparison done honestly

Naive version: Plausible $9 beats ezStats $29. Real version depends on what you'd buy:

• Just traffic numbers, one site → Plausible $9 wins, full stop
• Just traffic numbers, many sites → Fathom $15 wins, full stop
• Traffic + rank tracking + AI visibility → Plausible $9 + an SEO tool ($50-129) + an AI visibility tool ($79) vs ezStats Starter $29 or Connect $79. The bundle wins on price and on having one data model instead of three

There's no configuration where paying for ezStats makes sense if you'll never use the SEO/AI/behavior layer. We'd rather say that here than process your churn later.

Switching notes

All three are a one-snippet install and can run alongside GA4 (or each other) during evaluation. Numbers will differ slightly between any two tools, mostly from bot-filtering differences; on sites we measure, automated traffic runs 30-40% of raw hits, so stricter filtering means lower, truer counts. ezStats imports 12 months of GA4 history on Connect; a quick way to preview the AI layer before committing is the free, no-login AI Visibility Score.

FAQ

Is Plausible or Fathom better? For one site on minimum budget with EU hosting and open-source values, Plausible ($9/mo). For many small sites, Fathom ($15/mo for up to 50 sites). They're closer to each other than to anything else; pick on site count and hosting philosophy.

What's the difference between ezStats and Plausible or Fathom? Same cookieless, privacy-first analytics foundation; ezStats adds the layers the simple tier deliberately skips: a full SEO suite, AI visibility tracking (whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity mention your brand), click heatmaps, organization-level company identification, and a classified bot report.

Do Plausible and Fathom track ChatGPT traffic? Plausible shows AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity among traffic sources. Fathom shows the referrers without an AI grouping. ezStats classifies AI as a dedicated channel per platform and adds the other direction: whether the assistants mention you at all.

Which is cheapest? Plausible at $9/mo for one site; Fathom at $15/mo for up to 50 sites; ezStats free for one site, $29/mo with SEO and AI visibility tracking. If you'd otherwise add separate SEO ($50-129) and AI visibility ($79) tools, the ezStats bundle is cheapest overall.

Are these tools GDPR-friendly without a cookie banner? All three are cookieless with no individual profiles, and in most cases can run without an analytics consent banner. Final compliance depends on jurisdiction and on the other scripts your site runs.

Can I migrate between them easily? Yes; each is a single-snippet install, so the standard pattern is running the new tool in parallel for a week, comparing trends, and removing the old snippet. Fathom and ezStats also import Google Analytics history.