SHSelfHostIndex

Fathom Lite vs Metabase

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted web analytics options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FA Fathom Lite Simple, open-source website analytics VS ME Metabase Open-source business intelligence and dashboards
FeatureFathom LiteMetabase
CategoryWeb AnalyticsWeb Analytics
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguageGoClojure
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentbinary, dockerdocker, bare-metal, binary
GitHub stars★ 8,013★ 48,597
First released20182015
ReplacesGoogle AnalyticsTableau, Looker

Why pick each one

Choose Fathom Lite if…

  • Very easy to run
  • Privacy-friendly
  • Lightweight
Fathom Lite details

Choose Metabase if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 48.6k GitHub stars
  • Written in Clojure
Metabase details

Frequently asked questions

Is Fathom Lite or Metabase better?

Neither is universally better. Metabase has the larger community, while Fathom Lite is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Fathom Lite and Metabase free and open-source?

Yes. Fathom Lite is licensed under MIT and Metabase under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Fathom Lite and Metabase with Docker?

Fathom Lite: yes. Metabase: yes.

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