+++
title = "Reviving Ana as Fathom: simple & transparent website analytics"
date = 2018-05-12
+++

> Update (Mar 2019): I am [leaving Fathom Analytics](/blog/2019/stepping-down-fathom-maintainer/).

> Update (Mar 2020): After my departure, the open-source version of Fathom was discontinued. I've started [Koko Analytics](https://www.kokoanalytics.com/) as a proper open-source alternative.

As I was browsing my Twitter feed a few weeks ago, I came across the following tweet by Paul Jarvis.

[![Paul's tweet about Fathom](/media/2018/paul-fathom-tweet.jpg)](https://twitter.com/pjrvs/status/985874315563286528)

I had the same idea in late 2016 when I set out to build my own open-source website analytics alternative called [Ana](https://github.com/usefathom/fathom/blob/db170276fb6081a8e4ca67594480dbd4fb290c06/README.md). It even got some traction back then and a handful of users are running it on their own servers already.

Sadly, I got sidetracked and didn't spend any more time on it during the last few months. I still firmly believe in the idea though.

Too many websites simply slam a Google Analytics tracking snippet in their footer and then barely look at it. There should be a simpler, faster and more private option available.

Knowing Paul as a super knowledgeable power-user of our [Mailchimp for WordPress plugin](https://www.mc4wp.com/), I replied to him that I would love to help out, if at all possible. And it was!

Together, we are setting out to build **website analytics that is simple, transparent and that respects your visitor's privacy**. We're a few weeks in at this point and already running a beta version of it on our personal sites:

![Fathom dashboard for this site](/media/2018/fathom-preview.png)

We're developing Fathom Analytics out in the open; here's Fathom on GitHub. Expects lots of development happening over the next few weeks.

The plan is to create an open-source version that you can self-host on your own servers, free of charge. A hosted offering will be available if you want us to take care of running the software & keeping it online.





