Plausible vs Umami

Who This Page Is For

You’re comparing these two tools because you want privacy-first, cookie-free analytics and you’re deciding between:

• Paid managed hosting (Plausible Cloud at $9/month) vs free self-hosting (Umami)
• Commercial support (Plausible) vs community-driven (Umami)
• ClickHouse performance (Plausible) vs PostgreSQL simplicity (Umami)

Both are open-source, both are privacy-focused, both work without cookies. The question is: do you want to pay for managed hosting or manage infrastructure yourself?

The Core Tradeoff

Plausible offers polished cloud hosting at $9/month with EU data residency, commercial support, and ClickHouse-powered performance at scale. Self-hosting available but uses AGPL license.

Umami is completely free for self-hosting with MIT license. Community-driven, simpler PostgreSQL setup, but you handle all infrastructure — updates, backups, security patches, scaling.

The decision usually comes down to: Is self-hosting overhead worth $9+/month savings? For many teams, the answer is no — engineering time has a cost.

Quick Decision

Choose Plausible when:

• You want managed hosting without infrastructure work
• EU data residency matters for compliance
• Commercial support and SLAs are valuable
• Performance at scale is important (ClickHouse vs PostgreSQL)
• You’re willing to pay $9+/month for simplicity

Choose Umami when:

• Budget is truly zero (can’t justify any subscription)
• You have infrastructure capacity and enjoy self-hosting
• MIT license matters (AGPL is more restrictive)
• You want full control over your analytics instance
• You’re already running other self-hosted services

Consider alternatives when:

• You need more features (heatmaps, recordings) → Matomo
• You want cheapest managed option → Pirsch at $4/mo
• You need product analytics, not web analytics → PostHog

Comparison Snapshot

The Real Cost Comparison

This is the key decision factor:

Plausible Cloud:

• $9/month for 10K pageviews, scales with traffic
• Zero infrastructure management
• Updates, security, backups handled
• Commercial support included

Umami Self-Hosted:

• $0 licensing (MIT)
• VPS cost: ~$5-20/month depending on traffic
• Your time for updates, backups, security patches
• Your responsibility when things break

The math: If you value your time at any reasonable rate, $9/month for managed hosting often costs less than the time spent maintaining self-hosted infrastructure. But if you’re already running a VPS for other services, marginal cost of adding Umami is minimal.

Detailed Comparison

Performance at Scale

Plausible: Uses ClickHouse, a columnar database optimized for analytics queries. Handles high traffic with fast dashboard loads.

Umami: Uses PostgreSQL or MySQL. Works fine at moderate scale but may slow down with millions of pageviews.

Bottom line: If you expect high traffic, Plausible’s architecture scales better. For most sites, both work fine.

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Self-Hosting Experience

Plausible: Docker setup with ClickHouse. More complex initial setup, but better performance. AGPL license requires source disclosure if you modify and distribute.

Umami: Docker setup with PostgreSQL. Simpler initial setup. MIT license allows any use without restrictions.

Bottom line: Umami is easier to self-host initially. Plausible scales better once running.

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Features

Plausible: Goals/conversions, custom events, UTM tracking, email reports, shared dashboards. More polished UI.

Umami: Custom events, real-time dashboard, multiple sites. Simpler, more minimal UI.

Bottom line: Similar feature sets for essential analytics. Plausible slightly more polished; Umami slightly more minimal.

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Licensing

Plausible: AGPL-3.0. If you modify Plausible and distribute it, you must open-source your modifications. Cloud usage doesn’t trigger this.

Umami: MIT. Use however you want with no restrictions.

Bottom line: For most self-hosting scenarios, the license difference doesn’t matter. For commercial modifications, MIT is more permissive.

Honest Limitations

Plausible Limitations

• Costs $9+/month (vs free Umami)
• AGPL license more restrictive than MIT
• Self-hosting setup is more complex (ClickHouse)
• No heatmaps or session recordings
• Limited customization compared to self-hosted control

Umami Limitations

• Self-hosting requires ongoing maintenance
• PostgreSQL may struggle at very high scale
• Community support only (no SLAs)
• Less polished than Plausible UI
• You’re responsible when things break

Technical Specifications

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper?

Umami self-hosted has no licensing costs. But factor in VPS costs (~$5-20/month) and your time for maintenance. Plausible Cloud at $9/month may cost less when you account for engineering time.

Which is easier to self-host?

Umami is simpler initially — familiar Node.js/PostgreSQL stack. Plausible uses Elixir/ClickHouse which requires more setup but performs better at scale.

Do both work without cookies?

Yes. Both operate without cookies and typically don’t require consent banners for GDPR compliance.

Which has better performance?

Plausible uses ClickHouse, optimized for analytics queries. Umami uses PostgreSQL which works fine at moderate scale but may slow down with millions of pageviews.

Can I migrate between them?

Direct data migration isn’t supported. Both use different data structures. You would start fresh with historical data remaining in the original platform.

Which is more privacy-focused?

Both are equally privacy-focused — cookie-free, no personal data collection, GDPR-compliant by design. No meaningful difference in privacy approach.

Bottom Line

Related Pages

• Plausible alternatives
• Umami alternatives
• Analytics tools for privacy-focused teams
• How to run analytics without cookies