Fathom is a hosted, cookieless traffic dashboard that added a Search Console mode in February 2026. SiteLine is cookieless traffic analytics with a Search Console copy that it stores and keeps while you subscribe. If you only want to see this quarter's queries next to your pageviews, Fathom already does that. If you want to compare against a month Google has deleted, only a stored copy can.
The short answer
Fathom's Search Console data is a live view. SiteLine's is a stored archive. Both are cookieless, both are hosted, and neither does session replay or heatmaps. The practical differences are price per pageview, whether history survives Google's window, and agent access.
Price, as of October 2026
Fathom's pricing page starts at $15 a month for up to 100,000 monthly pageviews and 50 sites, then climbs by traffic: $60 for 1 million, $200 for 10 million. Pageviews and custom events share one allowance. There is a 7-day trial, but it asks for a card up front. Yearly billing is two months free. The analytics API, email reports and event and revenue tracking are in every plan, and Fathom says you keep full analytics history while subscribed.
SiteLine's pricing is $4.99 for 1 million events, $19.99 for 10 million, and $99.99 plus $2.99 per extra million on Scale. The meter is the same shape as Fathom's: a pageview or a custom event is one event. So the fair comparison is 1 million events at $4.99 against $60, and 10 million at $19.99 against $200. The trial is 7 days with no card.
That gap does not make Fathom poor value for what it is. It includes 50 sites and a long-standing product. But if you are choosing on cost per event, it is not close.
Comparison
| SiteLine | Fathom | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price (Oct 2026) | $4.99 for 1M events | $15 for 100,000 pageviews |
| 1M / 10M volume (Oct 2026) | $4.99 / $19.99 | $60 / $200 |
| Trial | 7 days, no card | 7 days, card required |
| Search Console | Imported daily, 16-month backfill, 25,000 rows per day per report, kept while subscribed | Dashboard mode via read-only Google access; shows what Google returns now |
| Search Console lag | About two days, refreshed every 4 hours for the latest 7 days | Fathom says 2 to 3 days |
| Unique visitor key | Truncated IP (/24, /48) + user agent + daily salt | SHA-256 of IP, user agent, site and a daily salt that rotates at midnight UTC |
| Ad-blocker workaround | DIY reverse proxy | Custom domains were discontinued in 2023 |
| EU handling | Hosted; see /docs/privacy | EU isolation routes EU visitors through a proxy and anonymises before data reaches the US |
| Agent access | Two read-only MCP servers on every tier | Analytics API in every plan; no MCP in the pages I read |
Sources: Fathom pricing, Search Console docs, data and hashing, custom domains changelog.
How Fathom's Search Console mode works
You connect it under Settings, Integrations, with read-only access, then pick the property. A cog beside Google in the Referrers box swaps referrers for a Search Terms box, and the totals bar shows clicks, impressions, CTR and position (Fathom's changelog). Date comparisons work. Fathom's docs say the data takes 2 to 3 days to appear and that public share URLs do not show it, though password-protected and share-link dashboards do.
That is a clean design for a traffic tool, because Google as a referrer is exactly where you want the query list. It also means the window ends where Google's does. Google's own help says Search Console keeps data for the last 16 months. Fathom's docs, as far as I read them, do not describe storing the rows themselves, so I would assume the overlay is bounded by that window. To see exactly which of your months expire next, use the GSC data expiry calculator.
SiteLine stores each day as it imports it: query, page, query plus page, country, device and search appearance, capped at 25,000 rows per day per report. Neither tool can join a query to a visit, because Google does not give you that join.
Ad blockers and first-party loading
This is where older comparisons, including an earlier version of this one, got Fathom wrong. Fathom's custom domains were its way to look first-party, and the company discontinued them in 2023 because blockers like uBlock learned to block them. Existing custom domains kept working, and Fathom said a different approach was coming. I could not find a current docs page that names one, so I am not claiming Fathom has a bypass today.
SiteLine's answer is simply to give you a proxy recipe for nginx, Caddy, Cloudflare or Vercel. That is work you do, and a determined blocker can still match the script path you choose. Blocker loss is separate from consent loss. The cookie banner traffic loss calculator estimates the consent side, and analytics blocked by adblockers covers the other.
Choose Fathom if
- You manage many small client sites. 50 sites in the entry plan is hard to beat, and SiteLine has no agency features beyond unlimited domains on a shared event pool.
- You want the Search Console view inside the same dashboard clients already read, and you do not need data beyond Google's window.
- You like Fathom's email reports, saved views and shared dashboards.
- You are happy with traffic analytics and do not need an AI agent to read your numbers.
Choose SiteLine if
- Year-over-year query comparisons matter and you do not want to lose month 17.
- Your volume is above 100,000 events a month and the per-event price matters.
- You want Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT to query Search Console history and on-site analytics over MCP, read-only, on the cheapest plan.
- You do not mind running your own proxy.
What neither does
Neither product records sessions, builds heatmaps, or follows a person across days. SiteLine will not restore days Google deleted before you connected, and Fathom cannot either. If product funnels per user are the job, see SiteLine vs Mixpanel. For the traffic-only comparison with its closest hosted peers, Plausible vs Fathom and Fathom vs Simple Analytics cover it.
FAQ
Does Fathom store Search Console data past 16 months?
Fathom's documentation describes connecting read-only and showing search terms, clicks, impressions, CTR and position in the dashboard. It says nothing I could find about keeping rows beyond what Google serves. Google itself keeps the last 16 months. SiteLine stores each imported day and keeps it while you subscribe.
Is Fathom's SHA-256 hash different from SiteLine's?
Close in spirit. Fathom hashes IP, user agent, site and a daily salt that rotates at midnight UTC. SiteLine does the same with the IP truncated to /24 for IPv4 and /48 for IPv6 before hashing. In both, a visitor on Monday and Tuesday counts twice.
Can I move my Fathom history into SiteLine?
No. SiteLine has no importer for other tools' traffic history. You would start the count fresh and keep your Fathom export if you need the old numbers. The Search Console backfill is separate and runs from Google, not from Fathom.
What does the 7-day trial need?
SiteLine's trial needs no card, and during the trial analytics visibility is capped at about 50,000 events. Fathom's trial also runs 7 days but wants a card, billed once it ends.