Analytics

4 open source tools compared. Sorted by stars — scroll down for our analysis.

Tool	Stars	Velocity	Language	License	Score
Umami Privacy-focused website analytics	35.8k	+111/wk	TypeScript	MIT License	79
PostHog Open source product analytics, session recording, and A/B testing	32.2k	+140/wk	TypeScript	—	69
Plausible Lightweight privacy-friendly web analytics	24.5k	+46/wk	Elixir	GNU Affero General Public License v3.0	71
Matomo Leading open source web analytics platform	21.4k	+9/wk	PHP	GNU General Public License v3.0	74

Our Analysis

Umami35.8k★

Umami is the analytics tool for people who think Google Analytics is creepy and over-engineered. It's a privacy-focused, self-hosted alternative that gives you pageviews, referrers, and device stats without cookies, without tracking scripts that slow your site, and without needing a GDPR banner. If you're running a SaaS or blog and just want to know "how many people visited and where did they come from," Umami is perfect. The dashboard is clean, the script is 2KB, and it runs on Postgres or MySQL. Plausible is the closest competitor — slightly faster queries (ClickHouse backend) but paid SaaS at $9/month. Matomo is the heavy enterprise alternative. Google Analytics is free but you are the product. The catch: Umami's Postgres backend gets slow on high-traffic sites — Plausible's ClickHouse is better at scale. Self-hosting means you manage the infra. And the analytics are basic by design — no funnels, no cohort analysis, no A/B testing built in.

PostHog32.2k★

PostHog is the open source analytics suite that wants to replace your entire Mixpanel + Hotjar + LaunchDarkly + Amplitude stack. Product analytics, session recording, feature flags, A/B testing, and surveys — all in one platform, all self-hostable. For indie hackers, the free cloud tier (1M events/month) is generous enough to validate a product. The combination of analytics plus feature flags plus session replays means fewer tools, fewer integrations, fewer bills. Mixpanel does analytics better. Hotjar does recordings better. But nobody else bundles everything at this price (free). Best for early-stage founders who need product analytics without vendor sprawl. The event autocapture means you get data before you even instrument your code. The catch: the license is proprietary (not truly OSS despite the branding). Self-hosting is resource-heavy — you'll need a decent server. And the all-in-one approach means each feature is good-not-great. If you need deep funnel analysis, Amplitude is sharper. If you need serious A/B testing, use a dedicated tool.

Plausible24.5k★

Google Analytics without the guilt. Plausible gives you pageviews, referrers, and traffic sources in a single dashboard — no cookies, no tracking scripts that slow your site, no GDPR consent banners needed. The entire tracking script is 1KB. Umami is the closest OSS alternative — similar philosophy, runs on Node.js (vs Plausible's Elixir), and has a more generous free self-hosted tier. Matomo is the full-featured alternative with event tracking and funnels but heavier to run. Fathom is the commercial privacy-focused option. For indie hackers who need "how much traffic did my launch get" without drowning in Google's 47 dashboard tabs, Plausible is perfect. The hosted plan starts at $9/month, or self-host for free if you can run Docker. The catch: AGPL-3.0, so self-hosting modifications must be open sourced. Plausible is intentionally limited — no funnels, no cohorts, no user-level tracking. If you need conversion analytics or product analytics, you'll outgrow it fast. The Elixir/ClickHouse stack is powerful but exotic — self-hosting requires more expertise than Umami's Node/Postgres setup.

Matomo21.4k★

Matomo is the kitchen-sink Google Analytics replacement you self-host. Session recordings, heatmaps, funnels, A/B testing — it does everything GA4 does, except your data stays on your servers. For teams with GDPR headaches or users who refuse to hand their analytics to Google, Matomo is the obvious answer. Plausible and Umami are the lightweight alternatives — both ship ~1KB scripts versus Matomo's 23KB, and they're dramatically easier to set up. But they're dashboards, not analytics suites. If you need heatmaps, user flows, or e-commerce tracking, Plausible can't help you. PostHog is the commercial alternative that combines analytics with feature flags. The catch: Matomo is GPL-3.0, written in PHP, and requires MySQL — the setup feels like 2015 WordPress hosting. It's heavy to self-host, the UI is dated, and premium features (heatmaps, session recordings) require paid plugins even on self-hosted. For most indie projects, Plausible or Umami gives you 90% of what you need with 10% of the hassle.