Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

puppeteer VS Fathom Analytics

Compare puppeteer VS Fathom Analytics and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

puppeteer logo puppeteer

Puppeteer is a Node library which provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium...

Fathom Analytics logo Fathom Analytics

Simple, trustworthy website analytics (finally)
  • puppeteer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-02
  • Fathom Analytics Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-12-16

puppeteer features and specs

  • Headless Browsing
    Puppeteer allows headless browsing, which means you can automate and test web applications without opening a browser user interface, resulting in faster execution and lower resource usage.
  • Full Browser Control
    Enables full control over Chrome or Chromium browsers, allowing for comprehensive browser testing and automation, including taking screenshots, generating PDFs, and capturing web pages.
  • Rich API
    Offers a rich set of APIs that can control browsers, manage cookies, intercept network requests, and handle various browser events, making it versatile for different use cases.
  • Active Community
    Highly active open-source community with regular updates and a plethora of plugins and extensions, providing robust support and continuous improvements.
  • Compatibility
    Supports the latest JavaScript features and works seamlessly with popular libraries and frameworks, providing a modern development experience.

Possible disadvantages of puppeteer

  • Restricted to Chrome/Chromium
    Puppeteer is primarily designed to work with Chrome and Chromium browsers, limiting cross-browser testing capabilities compared to other tools that support multiple browsers.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running multiple instances of headless browsers can be resource-intensive in terms of CPU and memory usage, potentially affecting performance on limited hardware.
  • Learning Curve
    Requires some learning curve for developers unfamiliar with browser automation or the Puppeteer API, making initial setup and usage potentially time-consuming.
  • Lacks JavaScript Redaction
    Unlike some other tools, Puppeteer does not natively support JavaScript error redaction, which means developers must manage error handling and debugging themselves.
  • Not Ideal for GUI Tests
    Since Puppeteer is headless by default, it might not be ideal for GUI end-to-end tests that require visual validation, requiring additional tools or configurations to enable full browser displays.

Fathom Analytics features and specs

  • Privacy-Focused
    Fathom Analytics prides itself on being privacy-focused, ensuring that user data is not sold or shared, and complies with privacy laws such as GDPR, CCPA, and PECR.
  • Simplicity
    The platform offers a user-friendly interface that's easy to navigate and understand, making it accessible for users who might not be familiar with complex analytics software.
  • Fast Setup
    Fathom Analytics boasts a quick and straightforward setup process, allowing users to start tracking their website's data within minutes.
  • Lightweight Script
    The tracking script Fathom uses is lightweight, ensuring that it doesn't significantly slow down your website's load times.
  • Data Ownership
    Users have full ownership and control over their data, providing peace of mind about how information is managed and used.
  • Transparent Pricing
    Fathom offers clear and competitive pricing without hidden fees, making budgeting for analytics services straightforward.

Possible disadvantages of Fathom Analytics

  • Limited Features
    Compared to more comprehensive analytics platforms like Google Analytics, Fathom Analytics offers fewer features, which might not meet the needs of users who require in-depth analysis.
  • Customization
    There are fewer customization options available for reports and dashboards, limiting the ability to tailor the platform to specific business needs.
  • Integration
    Fathom Analytics lacks extensive integration capabilities, which can be a drawback for users who rely on seamless integration with a wide variety of tools.
  • Market Penetration
    Being a relatively newer and smaller player in the web analytics market, Fathom Analytics has less brand recognition and fewer community resources compared to giants like Google Analytics.

Analysis of puppeteer

Overall verdict

  • Puppeteer is considered a strong choice for developers seeking a robust and efficient way to automate browser tasks. It is particularly favored in situations where headless browser actions are required due to its rich feature set and its solid support from both the community and its active development team. However, it may not be the best choice for those looking for cross-browser testing since it focuses specifically on Chrome or Chromium.

Why this product is good

  • Puppeteer is a Node.js library that provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium browsers. It is widely appreciated for its speed, reliability, and comprehensive feature set that makes it easy to automate tasks like web scraping, automated testing, and taking screenshots. Users benefit from the ability to programmatically control browser actions, which can be useful for testing user interactions and rendering dynamic content.

Recommended for

  • Web scraping projects that need to render dynamic web pages or deal with JavaScript-heavy sites.
  • Automated testing scenarios that involve simulating user interactions and verifying UI changes.
  • Performance analysis and monitoring of JavaScript execution in a controlled environment.
  • Developers who need to generate PDFs or capture screenshots from web pages programmatically.

puppeteer videos

Puppeteer - Video Review

More videos:

  • Review - GameSpot Reviews - Puppeteer
  • Review - CGR Undertow - PUPPETEER review for PlayStation 3

Fathom Analytics videos

FATHOM ANALYTICS REVIEW 🌟 INSTALL 💸 $100 (OPEN SOURCE)

More videos:

  • Review - Fathom Analytics, One-Click DigitalOcean installation guide

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to puppeteer and Fathom Analytics)
Automated Testing
100 100%
0% 0
Analytics
0 0%
100% 100
Browser Testing
100 100%
0% 0
Web Analytics
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare puppeteer and Fathom Analytics

puppeteer Reviews

Top Selenium Alternatives
Puppeteer offers more direct and tighter integration with Chrome or Chromium through the DevTools Protocol, unlike Selenium which abstracts the browser interaction through WebDriver, making it more versatile across different browsers but potentially less optimized for specific browser internals like those Puppeteer accesses in Chrome.
Source: bugbug.io
Best Data Scraping Tools
It is completely free. Puppeteer is well backed and supported by Google Chrome and hence replacing Selenium and PhantomJS. It automatically installs an efficient, compatible Chromium binary in its setup, therefore reducing the burden of keeping track on your browser.
Puppeteer vs Selenium
If you're looking for a better alternative, try Endtest. It has Puppeteer's speed, it supports Selenium's browsers AND it has all the features that they're missing.
Source: dev.to
Introduction to Headless Browser Testing
The Puppeteer API can be used to take screenshots, create PDFs, navigate pages, and fetch information from pages. We’ll write some example code to see Puppeteer in action.

Fathom Analytics Reviews

Top 5 Plausible Analytics Alternatives in 2024
This differentiates Fathom Analytics from alternatives that collect vast amounts of customers’ personal information.
Source: www.putler.com
Top 9 Plausible Analytics alternatives in 2024
Fathom Analytics is known for its emphasis on privacy, providing website analytics without invasive tracking methods. It maintains user data integrity, ensuring compliance with regulations like GDPR.
Source: usermaven.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, puppeteer should be more popular than Fathom Analytics. It has been mentiond 106 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

puppeteer mentions (106)

  • Top React Testing Libraries in 2025
    Puppeteer is a headless browser automation tool built on Chromium. It allows developers to simulate user interactions, capture screenshots, and perform UI tests with a high degree of accuracy. Puppeteer is particularly useful for testing cross-browser compatibility and visual elements in React applications. Its robust API enables precise control over browser actions, making it a valuable tool for UI testing and... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • End-to-End SEO Testing with Playwright and Lighthouse
    Vitest is a next-generation JavaScript testing framework powered by Vite. It’s an excellent alternative to Jest, offering native TypeScript support, a fast setup, and solid performance. However, while it has an experimental headless browser, it’s not ideal for advanced scenarios like running SEO audits in CI/CD pipelines. Instead, we can pair Vitest with Pupetter, a more mature tool for headless browser automation. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • The Puppeteer Language Experiment
    This project tests how the browser language can be changed with Puppeteer. It implements multiple options to set the language of Chrome and checks each option against BrowserLeaks to see how it affected the JavaScript proeprties and HTTP headers available by the browser. For more information, see my article The Puppeteer Language Experiment on DEV.to. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Scrapy Vs. Crawlee
    In Crawlee, you can scrape JavaScript rendered websites using the built-in headless Puppeteer and Playwright browsers. It is important to note that, by default, Crawlee scrapes in headless mode. If you don't want headless, then just set headless: false. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Sometimes things simply don't work
    I am not in any way associated with the developers at puppeteer, but if you are looking for a way to contribute, they are open source. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
View more

Fathom Analytics mentions (60)

  • 10 of the Best Web Analytics Tools for React Websites
    Marketed as the simple, lightweight, privacy-first alternative to Google Analytics, Fathom provides essential insights into website traffic and visitor behavior without compromising user privacy. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • SEO tools I used to grow my sites to 20k+ visitors/month
    Fathom is privacy first analytics for the web. According to their site, Fathom is a Google Analytics alternative that doesn’t compromise visitor privacy for data. We revolutionized website analytics by making them easy to use and respectful of privacy laws (like GDPR and more). - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Tell HN: My Favorite Tools
    A few apps that are a joy to use: https://ia.net/writer for writing. https://usecontrast.com/ for checking contrast. https://sipapp.io/ for picking colors. https://nova.app/ for editing code. https://cleanshot.com/ for screenshots. https://getpixelsnap.com/ for measuring elements on screen. https://netnewswire.com/ for reading things via RSS. https://panic.com/transmit/ for file transfers. https://usefathom.com/... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • 11 Ways to Optimize Your Website
    There are many good, lightweight, and open-source alternatives to Google Analytics, such as Plausible, Matomo, Fathom, Simple Analytics, and so on. Many of these options are open-source, and can be self-hosted. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: Is Google Analytics that useful?
    Have you looked at Fathom[0] or GoatCounter? [0] https://usefathom.com/ [1] https://www.goatcounter.com/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing puppeteer and Fathom Analytics, you can also consider the following products

Selenium - Selenium automates browsers. That's it! What you do with that power is entirely up to you. Primarily, it is for automating web applications for testing purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that.

Plausible.io - Plausible Analytics is a simple, open-source, lightweight (< 1 KB) and privacy-friendly web analytics alternative to Google Analytics. Made and hosted in the EU, powered by European-owned cloud infrastructure 🇪🇺

Cypress.io - Slow, difficult and unreliable testing for anything that runs in a browser. Install Cypress in seconds and take the pain out of front-end testing.

Google Analytics - Improve your website to increase conversions, improve the user experience, and make more money using Google Analytics. Measure, understand and quantify engagement on your site with customized and in-depth reports.

Playwright - Playwright is automation software for Chromium, Firefox, Webkit using the Node.js library having a single API in place.

Simple Analytics - The privacy-first Google Analytics alternative located in Europe.