Back to the reportAPI experiment, not consumer appOpenAI API, run 1

Q03: Plausible vs Fathom vs Simple Analytics - which one should I choose for a small blog?

OpenAI Responses API + web_search, model gpt-6-luna, requested 2026-10-31T15:41:16Z, 11.64 s, intent: comparison

MentionedRecommendedLinked to your site

Stored answer

**For most small blogs, I’d choose Plausible**: it’s a good fit if you want a clean dashboard with useful basics—traffic sources, popular pages, and campaign tracking—without a lot of setup. Its 30-day trial doesn’t require a card. ([plausible.io](https://plausible.io/docs/subscription-plans?utm_source=openai)) | Choose… | If you care most about… | |---|---| | **Plausible** | A balanced, easy-to-read blog dashboard; it’s also open source, with a self-hosted option. | | **Fathom** | A polished, simple service with lots of sites included. It starts at **$15/month** for up to 100,000 monthly pageviews, but its trial is 7 days and requires a card. ([usefathom.com](https://usefathom.com/pricing)) | | **Simple Analytics** | Trying it free for a hobby blog: its free plan allows up to 5 sites, but only keeps **one month of history** and requires a badge. Paid pricing starts at **£20/month** at 100,000 pageviews. ([simpleanalytics.com](https://www.simpleanalytics.com/pricing)) | **My quick rule:** - Want a capable paid default? **Plausible.** - Want the easiest experience and don’t mind paying? **Fathom.** - Want to start free, and a 30-day history limit is fine? **Simple Analytics.** One caveat: Plausible’s plan depends partly on features and team size, while Fathom’s $15 plan includes 50 sites—so if you run multiple blogs, compare the plan details before deciding. ([plausible.io](https://plausible.io/docs/subscription-plans?utm_source=openai))

Marked yellow: the target brand; underlined: competitors, as found by the matching rules in targets.yaml. The text is exactly what the API returned.

What the rules extracted

Brand	Named	Recommended (rule)	Own site cited	Context
Plausible (target)	yes x8	yes	yes	For most small blogs, I’d choose Plausible: it’s a good fit if you want a clean dashboard with useful basics—traffic sources, popular pages, and campaign tracking—without a lot of setup.
Fathom	yes x5	no	yes
Simple Analytics	yes x4	no	yes
Matomo	no	no	no
Umami	no	no	no
GA4 (Google Analytics)	no	no	no

Ordered list: no; bullet list: yes; table: yes. No ranking is inferred from list order.
No brand in the set recommended (rule-based): no.
No URLs cited in the answer: no.
Target domain cited in the answer: yes; among all sources the engine consulted: yes.

Search queries the engine issued

Plausible Analytics pricing features official
Fathom Analytics pricing features official
Simple Analytics pricing features official
site:plausible.io/pricing Plausible pricing 10k pageviews
site:plausible.io/blog Plausible pricing monthly pageviews pricing 2026
site:simpleanalytics.com/pricing Simple Analytics £20 100k pageviews pricing

URLs cited in the answer (3)

Links the engine attached to its answer text.

Domain	Page
plausible.io	Plausible pricing and subscription plans \| Plausible docs https://plausible.io/docs/subscription-plans
usefathom.com	Pricing — plans from $15/month - Fathom Analytics https://usefathom.com/pricing
simpleanalytics.com	Pricing - Simple Analytics https://www.simpleanalytics.com/pricing

Other sources the engine consulted (41)

Returned by the search step but not attached to the answer text.

Domain	Page
github.com	https://github.com/plausible/analytics https://github.com/plausible/analytics
simpleanalytics.com	https://www.simpleanalytics.com/features https://www.simpleanalytics.com/features
feasible.lol	https://feasible.lol/compare/pricing/ https://feasible.lol/compare/pricing/
comparecrest.com	https://comparecrest.com/software/plausible-analytics/ https://comparecrest.com/software/plausible-analytics/
ingest.plausible.io	https://ingest.plausible.io/contact https://ingest.plausible.io/contact
analytics-alternatives.com	https://analytics-alternatives.com/simple-analytics-review-2026/ https://analytics-alternatives.com/simple-analytics-review-2026/
simpleanalytics.com	https://www.simpleanalytics.com/ https://www.simpleanalytics.com/
wordpress.org	https://wordpress.org/plugins/simpleanalytics/ https://wordpress.org/plugins/simpleanalytics/
plausible.io	https://plausible.io/open-source-website-analytics https://plausible.io/open-source-website-analytics
a-propos-travel.com	https://www.a-propos-travel.com/media/pages/mentions-legales/eb01412c09-1704352415/plausib https://www.a-propos-travel.com/media/pages/mentions-legales/eb01412c09-1704352415/plausible-privacy-focused-g
reddit.com	https://www.reddit.com/r/BestGitHubRepos/comments/1wj3ceh/plausible_analytics_a_cookiefree https://www.reddit.com/r/BestGitHubRepos/comments/1wj3ceh/plausible_analytics_a_cookiefree_privacyfirst_web/
reddit.com	https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/1gkubpc https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/1gkubpc
reddit.com	https://www.reddit.com/r/laravel/comments/1rp850c/comparison_of_analytics_options_for_lara https://www.reddit.com/r/laravel/comments/1rp850c/comparison_of_analytics_options_for_laravel_apps/
sec.gov	https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1947821/000194782123000001/formc.pdf https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1947821/000194782123000001/formc.pdf
reddit.com	https://www.reddit.com/r/umamiengine/comments/1vmocs0/umami_analytics_vs_plausible_analyti https://www.reddit.com/r/umamiengine/comments/1vmocs0/umami_analytics_vs_plausible_analytics_which_is/
exhibitor-manual-004.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com	https://exhibitor-manual-004.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/Production/exb_doc/2017/34477/Fat https://exhibitor-manual-004.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/Production/exb_doc/2017/34477/Fathom_io_Company_Profi
reddit.com	https://www.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/14a69u1/site_analytics_for_open_source_projec https://www.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/14a69u1/site_analytics_for_open_source_project/
clsac.org	https://www.clsac.org/uploads/5/0/6/3/50633811/stonebraker.pdf https://www.clsac.org/uploads/5/0/6/3/50633811/stonebraker.pdf
reddit.com	https://www.reddit.com/r/analytics/comments/1so7ior/plausible_pricing_plans/ https://www.reddit.com/r/analytics/comments/1so7ior/plausible_pricing_plans/
reddit.com	https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/lxj0gi https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/lxj0gi
f.hubspotusercontent20.net	https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/506424/App%20Partner%20Assets/Fathom/Fathom%20-%2 https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/506424/App%20Partner%20Assets/Fathom/Fathom%20-%20Customer%20Informat
reddit.com	https://www.reddit.com/r/BusinessVault/comments/1ohe73t https://www.reddit.com/r/BusinessVault/comments/1ohe73t
en.wikipedia.org	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plausible_Analytics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plausible_Analytics
reddit.com	https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/1fjo4jm https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/1fjo4jm
reddit.com	https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1xdpvp2/i_checked_what_chatgpt_claude_and_google_te https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1xdpvp2/i_checked_what_chatgpt_claude_and_google_tell/
static1.squarespace.com	https://static1.squarespace.com/static/67dba9f2cebf973b4dbb7a29/t/67e34b40fb4f3a483bbfd176 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/67dba9f2cebf973b4dbb7a29/t/67e34b40fb4f3a483bbfd176/1742949187464/Simpl
reddit.com	https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/1j3inkp https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/1j3inkp
reddit.com	https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/1h9dw71 https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/1h9dw71
youtube.com	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcrARtzlz_4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcrARtzlz_4
youtube.com	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nbzq5m3Ob4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nbzq5m3Ob4
arxiv.org	https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17652 https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17652
ingest.plausible.io	https://ingest.plausible.io/plausible-umami-fathom-simple-analytics https://ingest.plausible.io/plausible-umami-fathom-simple-analytics
plausible.io	https://plausible.io/blog/launching-plausible https://plausible.io/blog/launching-plausible
plausible.io	https://plausible.io/docs/change-plan https://plausible.io/docs/change-plan
simpleanalytics.com	https://www.simpleanalytics.com/web-analytics-tools https://www.simpleanalytics.com/web-analytics-tools
plausible.io	https://plausible.io/docs https://plausible.io/docs
plausible.io	https://plausible.io/terms https://plausible.io/terms
plausible.io	https://plausible.io/when-not-to-use-plausible https://plausible.io/when-not-to-use-plausible
plausible.io	https://plausible.io/docs/metrics-definitions https://plausible.io/docs/metrics-definitions
websocket.plausible.io	https://websocket.plausible.io/contact https://websocket.plausible.io/contact
assets.simpleanalytics.com	https://assets.simpleanalytics.com/documents/terms/2021-01-23.pdf https://assets.simpleanalytics.com/documents/terms/2021-01-23.pdf

Record

Raw API response (unmodified JSON inside a small envelope): raw/20261031T154115Z/openai__q03.json
SHA-256 of the stored file: ddb69469ec7bff23... (verified when this page was built: yes)
Tokens in/out: 25035 / 577; search calls: 3; estimated cost $0.0324
Settings: {"endpoint": "https://api.openai.com/v1/responses", "tools": ["web_search"], "reasoning_effort": "low", "max_output_tokens": 6000, "store": false, "user_location": "not set", "system_instructions": "none", "temperature": "not settable on this model; API default"}