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PulsevsFathom

Pulse vs Fathom

Fathom is a polished, closed-source cookieless analytics product from a Canadian company, with an optional EU data-isolation setting.

 PulsePulseFathomFathom
Starting price
Free Hobby tier; paid plans — see pricing
From $15/mo (100k pageviews)
Cookies
None
None
Consent banner (EU)
Not needed
Not needed
Open source
Frontend + client open (AGPL)
No — closed source
Data residency
Switzerland / EU
EU isolation option
Company jurisdiction
Belgium (EU)
Canada (Conva Ventures)

Fathom and Pulse are both simple and cookieless with no consent banner. Fathom is a well-regarded closed-source product from a Canadian team with an EU-isolation option; Pulse is open (AGPL) with a public live demo, run by an EU company on Swiss/EU infrastructure. See Pulse pricing. Prices for Fathom were checked against their public pricing page on 2026-07-21 and can change — confirm the current figure with the vendor.

See the live demo

01 · Why teams pick Pulse

What Pulse does that Fathom doesn’t

Fathom nails the simple-and-cookieless brief, and its EU-isolation option keeps European traffic in Europe. Two things separate Pulse: Fathom is closed source, whereas Pulse’s dashboard and tracking client are open (AGPL) and there is a public, no-login live demo you can inspect; and Fathom is a Canadian company while Pulse is operated by an EU company (Belgium) with data on Swiss/EU infrastructure. If EU jurisdiction or verifiable open code matters to you, that is the deciding line.

An EU company, under EU law

Pulse is operated by Ciphera BV, a Belgian company. Your analytics provider — and your GDPR and NIS2 jurisdiction — sits inside the EU, not offshore.

About Ciphera

Swiss / EU data residency

Every byte of visitor data lives on Swiss and EU infrastructure — no transfer to the US, and no dependence on US-jurisdiction cloud providers.

EU web analytics

No cookies, no consent banner

Pulse sets no cookies and does not fingerprint visitors, so it is exempt from ePrivacy consent — no banner, and it counts every visitor, not just the ones who opt in.

How cookieless works

Open client, public live demo

The dashboard and tracking script are open (AGPL) on GitHub, and a real, no-login demo runs on our own traffic. You can verify every claim, not just take our word.

Open the live demo

02 · The honest case

When Fathom is the better choice

Fathom is a mature, well-supported product with a loyal following.

  • You want a proven, done-for-you closed-source tool from an established team and don’t need open code.
  • Fathom’s dashboard, bot filtering or email reports fit how you work after trying both.
  • Its EU-isolation option meets your residency needs and a Canadian jurisdiction is acceptable to you.

If none of the above is a dealbreaker, Pulse gives you cookieless, banner-free analytics from an EU company with Swiss/EU data residency — and you can check it yourself on the live demo.

Keep reading

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Switch from Fathom without the banner

Start free on the Hobby tier — one script tag, no cookies, no consent banner. Or open the live demo first and see Pulse running on real traffic.

Cookie-free · GDPR compliant · EU company

See the live demo