Fathom Analytics vs Northbeam in 2026: Privacy-first web analytics vs enterprise attribution modeling
One is a $15/month cookieless analytics tool you install with a single script tag. The other is a sales-led media mix modeling platform built for DTC brands spending $50k or more a month on paid media.
Fathom Analytics
Northbeam- Fathom is cookieless and requires no consent banner under GDPR, PECR, or CCPA. Northbeam uses a first-party pixel plus server-side tracking and does not market itself as cookieless.
- Northbeam combines multi-touch attribution with media mix modeling, letting brands measure channels with no user-level tracking like streaming and podcast ads. Fathom has no attribution modeling of any kind.
- Fathom is self-serve with a 7-day free trial starting at $15/month. Northbeam has no public pricing and requires a sales conversation across all three tiers.
- Fathom retains data forever on every plan. Northbeam does not publicly document a retention policy, since its output is a modeled attribution view rather than a raw event log.
- Northbeam includes a BI connector to Power BI, Tableau, and Looker on Scale and Enterprise plans. Fathom has no BI connector but includes API access on every plan.
- Northbeam onboarding takes two to four weeks for pixel implementation and model calibration. Fathom setup is a single script tag with data flowing immediately.
- Fathom includes at least 50 sites on every plan, making it practical for agencies managing many small client properties. Northbeam is priced and built for a single brand managing significant paid spend.
Fathom Analytics and Northbeam both sit in the Analytics & Reporting category, but they solve almost entirely different problems. Fathom is a cookieless, GDPR-first web analytics tool: install one script, get a clean dashboard of pageviews, referrers, and conversion events, and never think about a consent banner again. Northbeam is a media mix modeling and multi-touch attribution platform for ecommerce brands trying to figure out which ad channel actually drove a sale, after iOS 14 and cookie deprecation broke platform-reported ROAS. Fathom starts at $15 a month with self-serve signup. Northbeam requires a sales call and an onboarding process that typically runs two to four weeks before you see attribution data. The comparison only makes sense once you know which question you are actually trying to answer: how many people visited my site, or which ad dollar produced the sale.
The tools at a glance
Fathom Analytics
Simple, GDPR-compliant web analytics with cookieless tracking, forever data retention, and no consent banners.
Fathom Analytics is a privacy-first web analytics platform that collects no cookies and no personal data, so it works without a GDPR, CCPA, or PECR consent banner. Setup is a single script tag, and the dashboard covers pageviews, referrers, countries, devices, and custom conversion events. Over a million sites use it, including properties for IBM, GitHub, and Tailwind CSS.
Every plan includes API access, at least 50 sites, and forever data retention, so historical traffic never expires regardless of plan tier. There is no free tier, but the 7-day trial is enough to check whether your page view volume fits the pricing.
What Fathom does not do is attribution modeling. It tells you where traffic came from at the referrer level, but it has no concept of multi-touch credit assignment across paid channels, no media mix modeling, and no ad platform connectors. For teams whose question is simply "how is my site traffic doing," that is a feature, not a gap.
| Feature | All plans From $15/mo |
|---|---|
| Pricing model | Based on monthly page views |
| Sites included | 50+ |
| Data retention | Forever |
| API access | ✓ |
| Cookieless / no consent banner | ✓ |
| Self-serve signup | ✓ |
| Free trial | 7 days |
Northbeam
Multi-touch attribution and media mix modeling platform for DTC and ecommerce brands managing spend across paid social, search, and streaming channels.
Northbeam is built for direct-to-consumer brands spending real budget across Meta, Google, TikTok, and streaming, who no longer trust platform-reported ROAS because every platform takes credit for the same conversion. It combines multi-touch attribution with media mix modeling, so brands get both a granular per-touchpoint view and a statistical estimate of channel contribution that also covers channels with no user-level tracking, like podcast and TV spend.
Onboarding requires pixel implementation, ad-platform connector setup, and historical data import, typically taking two to four weeks before the models have enough data to be reliable. There is no self-serve tier: Growth, Scale, and Enterprise are all sold through a sales conversation, and most brands need a meaningful monthly ad spend before the ROI justifies the cost.
Budget scenario planning, creative-level analytics, and a BI connector to Power BI, Tableau, or Looker are available from the Scale plan up. This is not a web analytics tool in the Fathom sense; it has no interest in pageviews or bounce rate, only in which channel and creative actually produced revenue.
| Feature | Growth Contact sales | Scale Contact sales | Enterprise Contact sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-touch attribution | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Media mix modeling | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Budget scenario planning | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data refresh cadence | Daily | Near real-time | Near real-time |
| BI connector | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dedicated CSM | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Fathom Analytics | Northbeam |
|---|---|---|
| Core focus | Web traffic analytics (pageviews, referrers, devices, conversions) | Multi-touch attribution and media mix modeling for paid channels |
| Self-serve signup | Yes | No (sales-led only) |
| Cookieless tracking | Yes | No (first-party pixel plus server-side tracking) |
| Consent banner required | No | Yes |
| Data retention | Forever | Not publicly disclosed |
| API access | Yes (all plans) | Not publicly documented |
| Multi-touch attribution | No | Yes |
| Media mix modeling | No | Yes (Scale and Enterprise) |
| Budget scenario planning | No | Yes (Scale and Enterprise) |
| BI / dashboard connector | No | Yes (Scale and Enterprise, connects to Power BI, Tableau, Looker) |
| White-label delivery | No | Yes |
| Dedicated onboarding or CSM | No | Yes (Scale and Enterprise) |
| Starting price | $15/mo | Contact sales |
Which should you choose?
Fathom AnalyticsFathom AnalyticsNorthbeamNorthbeamFathom AnalyticsNorthbeamThese two tools rarely compete for the same buyer. Fathom answers "how is my website traffic doing" with the least possible friction and no data collection you have to justify to a privacy officer. Northbeam answers "which ad dollar produced this sale" for brands with enough spend and data volume to make attribution modeling statistically meaningful. A brand could reasonably run both at once: Fathom for lightweight site analytics, Northbeam for paid media attribution, since neither tool tries to do the other's job.
Bottom line
Sign up for Fathom's 7-day trial if you want a privacy-compliant view of site traffic without touching an ad-attribution problem. Book a Northbeam demo if you are spending meaningful budget across paid channels and platform-reported ROAS numbers no longer add up. Most teams evaluating this pair have already answered which problem they have; the tools are not really substitutes for each other.
Frequently asked questions
Can Fathom Analytics replace Northbeam for ad attribution?
No. Fathom reports referrer-level traffic sources but has no multi-touch attribution modeling, no media mix modeling, and no ad platform connectors. If you need to know which ad channel drove a conversion after a user touched multiple campaigns, Fathom cannot answer that question; Northbeam is built specifically for it.
Does Northbeam require a consent banner for European visitors?
Yes, in most implementations. Northbeam uses a first-party pixel and server-side tracking rather than marketing itself as cookieless, so most legal teams will still require a GDPR consent banner. Fathom, by contrast, collects no personal data and needs no banner at all.
Is Northbeam worth it for a smaller ecommerce brand?
Usually not yet. Northbeam's own guidance is that brands under roughly $50,000 in monthly ad spend will not generate enough conversion volume for the attribution models to be statistically reliable. Smaller brands are better served by a lighter tool like Fathom for site analytics and their ad platforms' native reporting until spend scales up.
How long does it take to see data after signing up for each tool?
Fathom shows data within minutes of adding the script tag to your site. Northbeam typically takes two to four weeks, since onboarding involves pixel implementation, ad-platform connector setup, and historical data import before the attribution models are calibrated.
Can an agency use Fathom Analytics for client reporting the way it might use Northbeam?
Fathom is built for exactly this: every plan includes at least 50 sites, making it practical for an agency to manage many client properties on one account. Northbeam is priced and structured around a single brand's paid media spend, and its enterprise-only pricing makes it a much less natural fit for multi-client agency reporting.