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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.

PulsevsFathom
Starting price
Pulse
Free Personal tier; paid plans — see pricing
Fathom
From $15/mo (100k pageviews)
Cookies
Pulse
None
Fathom
None
Consent banner (EU)
Pulse
Not needed
Fathom
Not needed
Open source
Pulse
Frontend + client open (AGPL)
Fathom
No — closed source
Data residency
Pulse
Switzerland / EU
Fathom
EU isolation option
Company jurisdiction
Pulse
Belgium (EU)
Fathom
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), run by an EU company with data hosted in Switzerland. 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.

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01 · Why teams pick Pulse

How Pulse compares to Fathom

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) on GitHub; and Fathom is a Canadian company while Pulse is operated by an EU company (Belgium) with data hosted in Switzerland. 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 data residency

Every byte of visitor data lives on infrastructure hosted in Switzerland — 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, verifiable code

The dashboard and tracking script are open (AGPL) on GitHub, so you can read exactly what runs instead of taking our word for it.

See what is open

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 Personal tier — one script tag, no cookies, no consent banner. Or open the live demo first and see Pulse running.

View live demo

Cookie-free · Open-source client · No personal data stored