Medama vs Open Web Analytics
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted web analytics options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Medama
Privacy-focused website analytics with no cookies
VS
Open Web Analytics
Self-hosted web analytics with click and heatmap tracking
| Feature | Medama | Open Web Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 74 · Good | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Web Analytics | Web Analytics |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Go | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 645 | ★ 2,690 |
| First released | 2024 | 2008 |
| Replaces | Google Analytics | Google Analytics |
What are Medama and Open Web Analytics?
Medama
Medama is a lightweight, privacy-focused website analytics tool that operates without cookies and complies with privacy regulations. It is designed to be fast and simple to self-host.
- Cookieless tracking
- SQLite storage
- Lightweight script
- Privacy compliant
Open Web Analytics
Open Web Analytics (OWA) is a long-standing self-hosted web analytics framework that tracks visitors, click streams, and heatmaps. It can be embedded in WordPress and MediaWiki.
- Click stream tracking
- Heatmaps
- WordPress integration
- Visitor profiles
Medama vs Open Web Analytics: key differences
Medama is written in Go, while Open Web Analytics is built with PHP. Licensing differs — MIT for Medama versus GPL-2.0 for Open Web Analytics. Medama is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Open Web Analytics. Open Web Analytics is the more established project (first released 2008), while Medama arrived in 2024. Open Web Analytics has the considerably larger community, at 2,690 GitHub stars versus 645.
Why pick each one
Choose Medama if…
- Easy single-binary deploy
- Very lightweight
Watch out for
- Newer project
- Smaller feature set
Choose Open Web Analytics if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.7k GitHub stars)
- Written in PHP
Frequently asked questions
Is Medama or Open Web Analytics better?
Neither is universally better. Open Web Analytics has the larger community, while Medama is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Medama and Open Web Analytics free and open-source?
Yes. Medama is licensed under MIT and Open Web Analytics under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Medama and Open Web Analytics with Docker?
Medama: yes. Open Web Analytics: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Medama or Open Web Analytics?
Medama has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Open Web Analytics. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.