Umami

Overview

Umami is an open-source, privacy-centric web analytics solution designed to be a simpler, lighter alternative to Google Analytics. Built for developers and privacy-conscious businesses, it provides essential website insights without tracking users across the web or collecting personal data. The platform differentiates itself by removing the need for cookie banners entirely, as it does not use cookies or local storage to track visitors, making it compliant with GDPR and CCPA out of the box.

Founded as a response to the increasing complexity and privacy concerns of major analytics platforms, Umami offers a streamlined dashboard that anyone on a team can understand at a glance. While it started as a pure web analytics tool, it has evolved to include product-focused features like custom events, funnels, and retention tracking. It is available as a fully managed cloud service or as a self-hosted solution that can be deployed via Docker, giving users complete control over their data infrastructure.

Key Features

Privacy-First Architecture

Umami is architected from the ground up to respect user privacy, which simplifies compliance for business owners. Unlike traditional analytics that rely on invasive cookies and persistent identifiers, Umami generates anonymous, ephemeral IDs based on the user’s IP and user agent. These are salted and hashed, meaning individual users cannot be identified or tracked across different days or websites.

For marketing and legal teams, this architecture is a significant advantage. It eliminates the requirement for complex cookie consent banners (such as “Accept All Cookies” popups) for analytics purposes. The platform collects essential metrics—pageviews, referral sources, and device types—without storing personal information, ensuring immediate compliance with strict regulations like GDPR in Europe and CCPA in California.

Flexible Hosting & Data Ownership

One of Umami’s defining features is its dual-deployment model. Organizations can choose between Umami Cloud, a fully managed, high-performance service, or the open-source self-hosted version. The self-hosted option is particularly valuable for developers and data-sensitive industries; it can be deployed via Docker Compose in minutes.

This flexibility allows technical teams to retain 100% ownership of their analytics data. By hosting Umami on their own infrastructure (such as AWS, DigitalOcean, or a private server), companies avoid sending user data to third-party processors. This creates a closed-loop data environment ideal for healthcare, finance, or enterprise internal tools where data leakage is a critical concern.

Product Insights & Custom Events

While primarily known for web analytics, Umami includes robust features for tracking product usage and conversion. Users can instrument Custom Events to track specific interactions like “Sign Up,” “Cart Checkout,” or “Button Click” using simple CSS classes or JavaScript calls. The data collected extends beyond vanity metrics into actionable product insights.

Teams can utilize these events to build Funnels and Retention reports directly in the dashboard. For example, a SaaS product manager can visualize the drop-off rate between a landing page visit, a signup form click, and a successful registration. The platform also supports UTM tracking and revenue analysis, allowing marketing teams to attribute conversions to specific campaigns and measure the monetary value of user journeys.

Pricing

Umami offers a straightforward pricing model split between its Cloud service and its open-source version. The Hobby plan for the Cloud service is free forever and includes up to 100,000 events per month, 3 websites, and 6 months of data retention. This tier is generous enough for most personal portfolios, blogs, and early-stage indie projects.

For growing businesses, the Pro plan costs $20/month. This tier increases limits significantly to 1 million events per month, unlimited websites, and 5 years of data retention. It also unlocks email support and allows for unlimited team members. Overage fees are transparently priced at $0.00002 per additional event.

Alternatively, the Self-Hosted version is completely free (MIT License). Users can download the source code and run it on their own servers without paying any licensing fees to Umami, though they are responsible for their own infrastructure costs and maintenance.