Umami
Simple, fast, privacy-focused website analytics
Last updated
- Free
- GDPR-friendly
- Cookieless
- Self-hosted
- Open source
Quick answer
Quick answer
Umami is the best fit if you want open-source, self-hostable web analytics with a clean UI and minimal script weight — often cheaper than SaaS at scale if you can host it. Skip it if you need managed support, advanced ecommerce, or product analytics — Plausible Cloud or PostHog are stronger there.
Features
- ✓Cookieless
- ✓GDPR-friendly
- ✓Realtime data
- ✓Custom events
- —Funnels
- —Heatmaps
- —Session recordings
- —A/B testing
- —Product analytics
- —Revenue tracking
- ✓Self-hostable
- ✓Open source
Who is it for?
Good fit if…
- Developers comfortable self-hosting on Vercel, Railway, Docker, or VPS
- Teams wanting simple dashboards without GA4 complexity
- Side projects and startups optimizing for low cost at moderate traffic
- Privacy-conscious sites needing cookieless tracking options
Consider other analytics tools if…
- Non-technical teams without anyone to deploy and maintain infrastructure
- Enterprise requirements for SLAs, SSO, and dedicated support
- Deep marketing integrations (Google Ads, BigQuery pipelines)
- Session replay, heatmaps, feature flags — use Hotjar or PostHog
Simplicity & scope
Umami focuses on essential web metrics: pageviews, referrers, browsers, countries, and custom events via a small API. The dashboard is fast and readable — closer to Plausible than Matomo or GA4 in scope.
That focus keeps the codebase and script lean. You will not get ecommerce funnels, tag manager complexity, or warehouse export — by design.
For personal sites, docs, and SaaS marketing pages, Umami often answers the only questions you actually check weekly.
Open source & self-hosting
Umami is MIT-licensed and widely deployed via Docker, cloud templates, and Umami Cloud (managed offering). Self-hosting means your analytics DB lives where you put it — useful for side projects avoiding recurring SaaS fees.
Community support is strong; enterprise support is not the model. Plan for upgrades, database backups, and monitoring yourself on self-hosted.
Umami Cloud provides a middle path if you like the product but not the ops.
Privacy posture
Umami supports cookieless tracking and avoids invasive fingerprinting in default configurations — aligning with privacy-first marketing. Because you can self-host, data never needs to leave your VPC.
Compliance still requires correct configuration, privacy policy updates, and regional rules — especially if you log authenticated user IDs in custom events.
Pair with legal review if you track logged-in user behavior.
Pricing
Self-hosted Umami is free software — cost is hosting (often $5–20/month on small VPS or free tiers on hobby PaaS). Umami Cloud offers managed hosting with tiered pricing on umami.is — compare against Plausible if you prefer not to ops.
At high pageview volume, self-hosted Umami can undercut per-pageview SaaS bills if your time is cheap. At low volume, Plausible Cloud's $9 tier may be less hassle.
Use our pricing calculator to compare Umami (hosting-only estimate) vs paid SaaS tools.
| Tier | Limit | Price / month |
|---|---|---|
| Hobby (up to 100K events) | 100,000 | Free |
| Pro (up to 1M events) | 1,000,000 | $20 |
| Business (up to 10M events) | 10,000,000 | $200 |
Cloud pricing as of Aug 2026. Self-hosted is free. Events include pageviews and custom events.
Use the pricing calculator to compare costs at your traffic level.
Setup & implementation
Typical setup (self-hosted Docker):
- Deploy Umami with Docker Compose or a one-click template (Railway, etc.).
- Create an admin account and add your website ID.
- Insert the Umami tracking script on your site.
- Optionally configure custom events via
umami.track(). - Lock down admin URL and enable backups on your database.
Expect 30–90 minutes for Docker on a VPS; faster on managed PaaS templates.
Common pitfalls: exposing admin without auth hardening, losing data without DB backups, and forgetting to exclude your own visits.
Comparisons featuring Umami
Often compared with
Limitations
- Self-hosting is the default power path — not ideal for non-technical teams.
- Feature set is intentionally narrow — no replay, flags, or deep funnels.
- No official Google Ads integration or BigQuery export.
- Enterprise support and compliance documentation lighter than Matomo Cloud.
- Script performance benchmark pending on AnalyticsVS.
Frequently asked questions
- Umami vs Plausible?
- Plausible for managed privacy analytics with vendor support. Umami when you want open source and self-hosting control, often at lower marginal cost.
- Is Umami hard to self-host?
- Docker deployments are straightforward for developers. Non-developers should use Umami Cloud or pick Plausible/Fathom instead.
- Can Umami replace GA4?
- For simple traffic reporting on marketing sites, often yes. For ads integration, app analytics, and enterprise reporting, no.
- Does Umami use cookies?
- Umami supports cookieless modes. Verify your specific configuration and legal requirements.
Sources & review status
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