Fathom Lite is a self-hosted website analytics tool built with Go and Preact that prioritizes simplicity and privacy.
The tool addresses the need for straightforward website analytics without relying on complex solutions like Google Analytics. It operates as a privacy-focused alternative that collects visitor data and presents it through a dashboard. The backend is written in Go while the frontend uses Preact, allowing it to run on your own infrastructure rather than depending on a third-party service.
Fathom Lite suits developers and site owners who want to self-host their analytics infrastructure and prefer not to rely on managed services. It works well for projects where you have server capacity available and want direct control over your data. The README positions this as an older version of the paid Fathom Analytics product; the hosted version offers a cookie-free approach, real-time dashboards with live visitor tracking, API access, custom events and ecommerce tracking, email reports, CSV exports, and support for multiple sites per account. By contrast, Fathom Lite uses cookies, lacks API access, does not support custom events or ecommerce tracking, and is typically deployed as a single installation. The hosted version also includes EU data isolation, global CDN infrastructure, and ongoing feature development, whereas Fathom Lite receives only maintenance and bug fixes.
The project is maintained long-term with a commitment to fixing bugs that arise, though no new features are being added to this version. The README explicitly states that active feature development has moved to the hosted product while this open-source iteration remains supported as-is.
