Loamly vs Fathom Analytics: Which Tracks AI Traffic Better?

I use Fathom Analytics. Have for years. It's a genuinely good product.

So when people ask me "should I use Loamly or Fathom?" I give them an honest answer: it depends on what problem you're solving.

This isn't a hit piece. Fathom does things Loamly doesn't. But for AI traffic detection specifically, there are real differences worth understanding.

The Core Difference

Fathom is a privacy-first Google Analytics alternative. It tracks pageviews, referrers, and conversions without cookies. Clean dashboard, GDPR compliant, fast.

Loamly is an AI visibility platform. It tracks how ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini see your brand—both the traffic they send and what they say about you.

Different tools, different problems.

Does Fathom Detect AI Traffic?

Short answer: partially.

Fathom captures AI traffic through standard referrer tracking. When someone clicks a link in Perplexity's response, Fathom sees "perplexity.ai" in your referrers list. Same with Gemini when it passes headers correctly.

But here's what the research shows:

AI Platform	Referrer Reliability	Fathom Detection
Perplexity	80-90% consistent	Works well
Gemini	60-70% consistent	Partial
ChatGPT	30-40% (copy-paste dominant)	Mostly missed
Claude	60-70% consistent	Partial

The problem is ChatGPT. Users don't click links in ChatGPT—they copy and paste URLs into their browser. When you copy-paste, there's no referrer header. That traffic shows up as "Direct" in Fathom, indistinguishable from someone typing your URL directly.

According to Digiday's analysis, ChatGPT drives 77.97% of all AI referral traffic globally. If you're missing most of it, you're missing most of the picture.

What Fathom Does Well

Credit where it's due:

Privacy-first by design: No cookies, no personal data, no consent banners needed. If privacy is your primary concern, Fathom delivers.

Simple dashboard: One page, all metrics. No training required. The contrast with GA4's complexity is stark.

$15/month starting price: Affordable for small sites. Transparent pricing with no surprise upsells.

Forever data retention: Your historical data never gets deleted.

Regex filtering: You can create custom filters to isolate AI traffic using patterns like .*perplexity.*|.*gemini.*. This requires manual setup but it works.

What Fathom Doesn't Do

No dedicated AI traffic channel: AI referrals mix with other referrers. You have to manually filter them every time you want to analyze AI traffic.

No ChatGPT copy-paste detection: The ~70% of ChatGPT traffic that arrives without referrer headers appears as Direct. Fathom has no way to identify it.

No AI brand monitoring: Fathom tells you when AI platforms send traffic. It doesn't tell you what those platforms are saying about your brand when users don't click through.

No GEO optimization guidance: No recommendations for improving your AI visibility.

This isn't a criticism—these features are outside Fathom's scope. It's an analytics tool, not an AI visibility platform.

The Hidden ChatGPT Traffic Problem

This is the part most people don't realize.

When ChatGPT recommends your product to a user, that user often:

1. Reads the recommendation
2. Opens a new browser tab
3. Types your URL or copies it from ChatGPT
4. Visits your site directly

In Fathom, this entire journey is invisible. You see a new visitor arrive via "Direct" with no context about why they came or what prompted the visit.

According to Semrush data, ChatGPT users spend over 12 minutes per session on average. If you're seeing unexplained spikes in Direct traffic with unusually high engagement, ChatGPT might be the reason—but Fathom can't confirm it.

What Loamly Does Differently

I built Loamly specifically to solve the problems Fathom wasn't designed to address:

AI traffic detection across all platforms: Not just referrer-based. We use behavioral signals, user-agent analysis, and pattern matching to identify AI-driven visits even when referrer headers are missing.

Brand monitoring: We query ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity directly to understand how they describe your brand, who they recommend as alternatives, and where you rank in their mental model.

GEO Score: A composite metric showing your overall AI visibility health across all platforms.

Competitive intelligence: See how often AI platforms mention your competitors instead of you, and understand why.

Who Should Use Fathom

Fathom is the right choice if:

• Privacy compliance is your top priority
• You want simple, aggregate traffic metrics
• You're replacing Google Analytics and don't need AI-specific insights
• Your audience primarily discovers you through traditional search or direct visits
• You're comfortable manually filtering AI referrers using regex

Who Should Use Loamly

Loamly is the right choice if:

• You need to understand your AI visibility specifically
• ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Claude are meaningful traffic sources (or should be)
• You want to know what AI platforms say about your brand
• You're optimizing content for AI discoverability
• You need actionable recommendations for improving AI visibility

Can You Use Both?

Yes, and some organizations do.

Fathom for general website analytics (privacy-compliant, simple, affordable). Loamly for AI visibility specifically (brand monitoring, traffic detection, optimization).

There's minimal overlap. Fathom measures your site. Loamly measures your AI presence.

The Honest Trade-offs

Fathom trade-offs:

• Simple means limited. No user-level data, no cohort analysis, no AI-specific features.
• ChatGPT traffic blind spot is real and significant.
• Manual configuration required for AI traffic isolation.

Loamly trade-offs:

• Not a general analytics replacement. You still need something for pageviews and standard metrics.
• Newer product with a narrower focus.
• Overkill if AI visibility isn't strategically important to you.

Real Talk: When AI Traffic Matters

AI traffic currently represents about 1% of total web traffic. Sounds small.

But the quality metrics tell a different story:

• AI-referred users convert at 1.66% for sign-ups vs 0.15% from organic search (11x higher)
• Average session duration: 9.7 minutes (ChatGPT) vs 5 minutes (organic search)
• Lower bounce rates, higher pages-per-session

If you're a content site, SaaS product, or B2B company where discovery matters, that 1% is punching way above its weight in conversion value.

My Recommendation

Use Fathom if privacy-first analytics is your primary need and AI visibility is secondary.

Use Loamly if understanding your AI presence—what platforms say about you and how much traffic they send—is strategically important.

Use both if you want comprehensive coverage without compromise.

The worst option is using GA4 and ignoring AI traffic entirely. At least Fathom gives you partial visibility. Loamly gives you the full picture.

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Try the free AI visibility check at loamly.ai/check. See exactly how ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini perceive your brand—no signup required.