Open Web Analytics vs Umami
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted web analytics options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Umami
Simple, fast, privacy-focused web analytics
| Feature | Open Web Analytics | Umami |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 99 · Excellent |
| Category | Web Analytics | Web Analytics |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,690 | ★ 38,981 |
| First released | 2008 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Google Analytics | Google Analytics |
What are Open Web Analytics and Umami?
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
Umami
Umami is a simple, fast, privacy-focused alternative to Google Analytics that collects no personal data and uses no cookies. It targets developers and site owners wanting easy, ethical analytics. It is deployed via Docker.
- Cookie-free privacy analytics
- Clean modern dashboard
- Multi-site and multi-user
- Tiny tracking script
Open Web Analytics vs Umami: key differences
Open Web Analytics is written in PHP, while Umami is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Open Web Analytics versus MIT for Umami. Open Web Analytics is the more established project (first released 2008), while Umami arrived in 2020. Umami has the considerably larger community, at 38,981 GitHub stars versus 2,690.
Why pick each one
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
Choose Umami if…
- Very easy to self-host
- Privacy-friendly
- Clean interface
Watch out for
- Fewer features than Matomo
- Requires a database
Frequently asked questions
Is Open Web Analytics or Umami better?
Umami is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Open Web Analytics if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Open Web Analytics and Umami free and open-source?
Yes. Open Web Analytics is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Umami under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Open Web Analytics and Umami with Docker?
Open Web Analytics: yes. Umami: yes.