Umami
Simple, fast, privacy-focused website analytics
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 for…
- 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
Not a great fit for…
- 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.
A cloud-only alternative is Ahrefs Web Analytics (cloud-only, free tier).
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.
Common pitfalls: exposing admin without auth hardening, losing data without DB backups, and forgetting to exclude your own visits.
Comparisons featuring Umami
Fathom vs Umami
Fathom (hosted) is the polished managed privacy analytics product with vendor support and a higher pageview-tier floor. Umami is the open-source / self-host path (plus Umami Cloud) for developers who want ownership and lower marginal cost at scale.
Read moreGoogle Analytics vs Umami
Choose Umami when you want open-source, self-hostable (or Umami Cloud) web analytics with a simple dashboard and cookieless options. Choose GA4 when you need free Google ecosystem depth — Ads, Search Console, BigQuery — and can accept cookie/consent complexity.
Read morePlausible vs Umami
Both are strong privacy-first alternatives to GA4 with lightweight scripts. Plausible offers a polished managed cloud product plus an open-source self-hosted edition. Umami is MIT-licensed, developer-led, and often cheapest if you self-host — with Umami Cloud as a managed option.
Read more
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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