PostHog vs Plausible vs Fathom 2026 Compared

The pricing here inverts what you would expect. The heaviest tool of the three, PostHog, is the one with a free tier, at 1 million events a month, while the two lightweight options, Plausible and Fathom, charge from day one after a trial. That is because they answer different questions: Plausible and Fathom give you clean website traffic stats, PostHog gives you in-product behavior (funnels, session recording, feature flags). This guide puts the verified prices side by side and explains which job each is for. Prices were checked against vendor pages on May 26, 2026.

1. Headline prices and free tiers

Tool	Free tier	Entry paid	Meter
PostHog	1M events/mo free[1]	Then per-event (~$0.00005/event)[1]	Events
Plausible	None (30-day trial)[2]	$9/mo at 10k pageviews[2]	Pageviews
Fathom	None (30-day trial)[3]	$15/mo at 100k pageviews[3]	Pageviews

PostHog is the only one with a permanent free tier, at 1 million events per month, after which per-event pricing kicks in and tapers down at higher volume^[1]. Plausible has no free plan but is the cheapest paid option at $9/mo for 10,000 pageviews, with Growth at $14 and Business at $19 at that volume^[2]. Fathom starts at $15/mo but covers 100,000 pageviews at entry and scales to $200/mo at 10 million^[3].

2. Two different jobs

The split that matters: Plausible and Fathom answer "how much traffic and from where," while PostHog answers "what do users do inside my product."

• Plausible / Fathom: pageviews, referrers, top pages, goals, in one clean dashboard with no cookie banner needed^[2][3].
• PostHog: event tracking, funnels, session recording, feature flags, and experiments for in-product behavior^[1].

So this is rarely a three-way decision. It is "simple traffic tool or deep product analytics," and only then which simple tool.

3. Events vs pageviews

The pricing meters reflect the jobs. PostHog counts events, because product analytics tracks many discrete actions per user, so a busy app generates events fast and you move off the free million quickly^[1]. Plausible and Fathom count pageviews, a simpler unit that scales with traffic, which keeps their pricing easy to predict from your site's monthly pageviews^[2][3].

Practical consequence: estimate your monthly pageviews for Plausible or Fathom, and your monthly event count for PostHog, before comparing prices, because the units are not the same. Model the combined bill with the AI stack cost calculator.

4. Privacy and simplicity

All three lean privacy-friendly, which is part of why founders shortlist them over heavier incumbents. Plausible and Fathom are built around cookieless, lightweight tracking that avoids consent banners and keeps the dashboard to the numbers that matter, which is exactly the appeal for a marketing site^[2][3]. PostHog is more powerful and correspondingly more to configure, since session recording and event capture are richer features that need more setup and governance^[1].

For conversion work on a landing page, the simple tools plus the landing page conversion calculator are usually enough; reach for PostHog when you need to see the in-app funnel itself.

5. Which to pick

• Cheap, simple website stats: Plausible at $9/mo (10k pageviews).
• Simple stats, higher traffic at entry: Fathom at $15/mo (100k pageviews).
• Deep product analytics, can start free: PostHog's 1M-events free tier.
• Privacy-first marketing site: Plausible or Fathom, no cookie banner.
• Both jobs: a simple tool for the site plus PostHog inside the app.

Re-verify each pricing page before committing; analytics tools change tiers and pageview brackets often. For the heavier product-analytics field, see PostHog vs Mixpanel vs Amplitude pricing and the best analytics tools for micro-SaaS roundup.

All pricing figures verified against official pricing pages as of 2026-05-26.

Frequently asked questions

Is PostHog, Plausible, or Fathom cheapest?

It depends on what you need. For lightweight, privacy-friendly site stats, Plausible is the cheapest at $9 per month for up to 10,000 pageviews, while Fathom starts at $15 per month for up to 100,000 pageviews, both verified May 2026 and both without a permanent free tier. PostHog is different: its product analytics has a genuinely free tier of 1 million events per month, then tapers into per-event pricing, so it can be free at low volume but is metering events rather than pageviews. If you only want simple traffic stats, Plausible is cheapest; if you want deep product analytics that can start free, PostHog wins on the free tier.

What is the difference between PostHog and Plausible or Fathom?

They do different jobs. Plausible and Fathom are simple, privacy-first web analytics: pageviews, sources, top pages, and goals, with no cookie banners needed and a clean single dashboard. PostHog is a full product analytics platform: event tracking, funnels, session recording, feature flags, and experiments, aimed at understanding in-product behavior, not just traffic. So the choice is not three of a kind. It is two simple traffic tools versus one deep product-analytics suite, and you pick based on whether you need website stats or in-app behavioral analytics.

Do Plausible and Fathom have a free tier?

No, both offer a 30-day free trial rather than a permanent free plan, per their pricing pages in May 2026. Plausible starts at $9 per month for up to 10,000 pageviews and Fathom at $15 per month for up to 100,000 pageviews, with prices rising as your pageview volume grows. If you want analytics that can stay free indefinitely at low volume, PostHog's product analytics includes 1 million events per month free, though it tracks events rather than pageviews and is a heavier tool. Choose a paid simple tool or PostHog's free tier depending on your needs.

Which analytics tool is best for a privacy-conscious solo founder?

For pure privacy-first website analytics, Plausible or Fathom are the natural picks: both are lightweight, avoid cookie banners by design, and give a clean traffic dashboard, with Plausible cheaper at $9 per month and Fathom at $15 per month. If you need to understand in-product behavior with funnels, session recordings, and feature flags, PostHog is the more capable choice and can start on its free 1-million-event tier, though it is a heavier platform. Many solo founders run a simple tool like Plausible for marketing-site stats and add PostHog only when they need real product analytics inside the app.