Self-Hosted Analytics: Plausible vs Umami vs Matomo — Honest Comparison

Why Self-Host Analytics?

Google Analytics 4 is a privacy nightmare. It sends your visitors' data to Google, requires cookie consent banners in the EU, and its interface is overwhelming for most teams. Self-hosted analytics give you accurate data, full privacy compliance, and zero dependency on third parties.

<div style="margin:2.5rem auto;max-width:600px;width:100%;text-align:center;"><svg viewBox="0 0 600 200" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" style="width:100%;height:auto;"><rect width="600" height="200" rx="12" fill="#1a1a2e"/><rect x="60" y="30" width="140" height="140" rx="6" fill="none" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="1.5"/><text x="130" y="24" text-anchor="middle" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Production</text><rect x="70" y="40" width="120" height="22" rx="3" fill="#6366f1" opacity="0.8"/><circle cx="82" cy="51" r="3" fill="#2dd4bf"/><text x="130" y="55" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">Web Server</text><rect x="70" y="68" width="120" height="22" rx="3" fill="#6366f1" opacity="0.8"/><circle cx="82" cy="79" r="3" fill="#2dd4bf"/><text x="130" y="83" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">App Server</text><rect x="70" y="96" width="120" height="22" rx="3" fill="#a855f7" opacity="0.8"/><circle cx="82" cy="107" r="3" fill="#2dd4bf"/><text x="130" y="111" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">Database</text><rect x="70" y="124" width="120" height="22" rx="3" fill="#f59e0b" opacity="0.6"/><circle cx="82" cy="135" r="3" fill="#2dd4bf"/><text x="130" y="139" text-anchor="middle" fill="#1a1a2e" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">Monitoring</text><rect x="290" y="30" width="140" height="140" rx="6" fill="none" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="1.5"/><text x="360" y="24" text-anchor="middle" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Staging</text><rect x="300" y="40" width="120" height="22" rx="3" fill="#3b82f6" opacity="0.6"/><circle cx="312" cy="51" r="3" fill="#2dd4bf"/><text x="360" y="55" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">Web Server</text><rect x="300" y="68" width="120" height="22" rx="3" fill="#3b82f6" opacity="0.6"/><circle cx="312" cy="79" r="3" fill="#2dd4bf"/><text x="360" y="83" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">App Server</text><rect x="300" y="96" width="120" height="22" rx="3" fill="#a855f7" opacity="0.5"/><circle cx="312" cy="107" r="3" fill="#f59e0b"/><text x="360" y="111" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">Database</text><line x1="200" y1="100" x2="290" y2="100" stroke="#2dd4bf" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-dasharray="5,3"/><text x="245" y="95" text-anchor="middle" fill="#2dd4bf" font-size="8" font-family="system-ui">VLAN</text><rect x="480" y="60" width="90" height="70" rx="6" fill="none" stroke="#f59e0b" stroke-width="1" stroke-dasharray="4,3"/><text x="525" y="85" text-anchor="middle" fill="#f59e0b" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">Backup</text><text x="525" y="100" text-anchor="middle" fill="#f59e0b" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">Storage</text><text x="525" y="115" text-anchor="middle" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="8" font-family="system-ui">3-2-1 Rule</text><line x1="430" y1="100" x2="478" y2="95" stroke="#f59e0b" stroke-width="1" stroke-dasharray="4,3"/></svg><p style="margin-top:0.75rem;font-size:0.85rem;color:#94a3b8;font-style:italic;line-height:1.4;">Server infrastructure: production and staging environments connected via VLAN with offsite backups.</p></div>

The Three Contenders

Umami

Umami is the minimalist choice. A single Docker container with a PostgreSQL or MySQL backend. It tracks page views, events, referrers, and basic device info — nothing more.

services:
  umami:
    image: ghcr.io/umami-software/umami:postgresql-latest
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgresql://umami:password@postgres:5432/umami
      DATABASE_TYPE: postgresql
      HASH_SALT: your-random-salt-here
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    depends_on:
      - postgres
    restart: unless-stopped

Resource usage: ~50MB RAM, ~180MB Docker image. Tracking script: 2KB gzipped. Database growth: ~1MB per 10,000 pageviews.

Plausible

Plausible is privacy-focused with a beautiful dashboard. It uses ClickHouse for analytics storage, making it extremely fast for queries over large datasets.

services:
  plausible:
    image: ghcr.io/plausible/community-edition:latest
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgres://plausible:password@postgres:5432/plausible
      CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE_URL: http://clickhouse:8123/plausible
      SECRET_KEY_BASE: your-64-char-secret-here
      BASE_URL: https://analytics.example.com
      DISABLE_REGISTRATION: invite_only
    depends_on:
      - postgres
      - clickhouse
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"

  clickhouse:
    image: clickhouse/clickhouse-server:latest
    volumes:
      - clickhouse_data:/var/lib/clickhouse

Resource usage: ~200MB RAM (Plausible) + ~500MB RAM (ClickHouse). Tracking script: under 1KB gzipped. Database growth: ~500KB per 10,000 pageviews thanks to ClickHouse compression.

Matomo

Matomo (formerly Piwik) is the feature-complete option. It matches Google Analytics feature-for-feature — funnels, cohorts, custom dimensions, A/B testing, heatmaps, session recordings.

services:
  matomo:
    image: matomo:latest
    environment:
      MATOMO_DATABASE_HOST: mariadb
      MATOMO_DATABASE_USERNAME: matomo
      MATOMO_DATABASE_PASSWORD: password
      MATOMO_DATABASE_DBNAME: matomo
    volumes:
      - matomo_data:/var/www/html
    ports:
      - "8080:80"

  mariadb:
    image: mariadb:11
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: root-password
      MYSQL_DATABASE: matomo
      MYSQL_USER: matomo
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: password

Resource usage: ~150MB RAM (PHP-FPM) + ~200MB (MariaDB). Tracking script: ~22KB gzipped. Database growth: ~5MB per 10,000 pageviews.

<div style="margin:2.5rem auto;max-width:600px;width:100%;text-align:center;"><svg viewBox="0 0 600 170" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" style="width:100%;height:auto;"><rect width="600" height="170" rx="12" fill="#1a1a2e"/><path d="M80,90 Q80,50 120,50 Q130,30 160,35 Q190,25 200,50 Q230,45 230,70 Q240,90 210,95 L100,95 Q70,95 80,90 Z" fill="none" stroke="#3b82f6" stroke-width="1.5"/><text x="155" y="75" text-anchor="middle" fill="#3b82f6" font-size="11" font-family="system-ui">Cloud</text><text x="155" y="120" text-anchor="middle" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">$5,000/mo</text><defs><marker id="arrow9" markerWidth="10" markerHeight="7" refX="10" refY="3.5" orient="auto"><path d="M0,0 L10,3.5 L0,7" fill="#2dd4bf"/></marker></defs><line x1="245" y1="70" x2="340" y2="70" stroke="#2dd4bf" stroke-width="2.5" marker-end="url(#arrow9)"/><text x="293" y="60" text-anchor="middle" fill="#2dd4bf" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui" font-weight="bold">Migrate</text><rect x="355" y="35" width="180" height="70" rx="8" fill="none" stroke="#6366f1" stroke-width="2"/><rect x="365" y="45" width="160" height="15" rx="3" fill="#6366f1" opacity="0.7"/><rect x="365" y="65" width="160" height="15" rx="3" fill="#a855f7" opacity="0.7"/><rect x="365" y="85" width="100" height="10" rx="2" fill="#2dd4bf" opacity="0.5"/><text x="445" y="57" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">Bare Metal</text><text x="445" y="77" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">Docker + LXC</text><text x="445" y="120" text-anchor="middle" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">$200/mo</text><text x="300" y="150" text-anchor="middle" fill="#2dd4bf" font-size="11" font-family="system-ui" font-weight="bold">96% cost reduction</text></svg><p style="margin-top:0.75rem;font-size:0.85rem;color:#94a3b8;font-style:italic;line-height:1.4;">Cloud to self-hosted migration can dramatically reduce infrastructure costs while maintaining full control.</p></div>

Feature Comparison

|---------|-------|-----------|--------|

Custom Event Tracking

Umami

// Track a custom event
umami.track("signup-click", { plan: "pro", source: "landing-page" });

Plausible

// Track a custom event
plausible("Signup", { props: { plan: "pro", source: "landing-page" } });

Matomo

// Track a custom event
_paq.push(["trackEvent", "Signup", "Click", "Pro Plan"]);

<div style="margin:2.5rem auto;max-width:600px;width:100%;text-align:center;"><svg viewBox="0 0 600 200" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" style="width:100%;height:auto;"><rect width="600" height="200" rx="12" fill="#1a1a2e"/><rect x="30" y="30" width="100" height="130" rx="6" fill="none" stroke="#3b82f6" stroke-width="1.5"/><text x="80" y="55" text-anchor="middle" fill="#3b82f6" font-size="10" font-family="monospace">docker-</text><text x="80" y="70" text-anchor="middle" fill="#3b82f6" font-size="10" font-family="monospace">compose</text><text x="80" y="85" text-anchor="middle" fill="#3b82f6" font-size="10" font-family="monospace">.yml</text><line x1="45" y1="95" x2="115" y2="95" stroke="#3b82f6" stroke-width="0.5" opacity="0.5"/><rect x="50" y="105" width="50" height="8" rx="2" fill="#94a3b8" opacity="0.3"/><rect x="50" y="118" width="60" height="8" rx="2" fill="#94a3b8" opacity="0.3"/><rect x="50" y="131" width="40" height="8" rx="2" fill="#94a3b8" opacity="0.3"/><path d="M135,95 L175,95" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="2" marker-end="url(#arrow2)"/><defs><marker id="arrow2" markerWidth="8" markerHeight="6" refX="8" refY="3" orient="auto"><path d="M0,0 L8,3 L0,6" fill="#e2e8f0"/></marker></defs><rect x="180" y="20" width="130" height="35" rx="6" fill="#6366f1" opacity="0.85"/><text x="245" y="42" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="11" font-family="system-ui">Web App</text><rect x="180" y="62" width="130" height="35" rx="6" fill="#a855f7" opacity="0.85"/><text x="245" y="84" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="11" font-family="system-ui">API Server</text><rect x="180" y="104" width="130" height="35" rx="6" fill="#2dd4bf" opacity="0.85"/><text x="245" y="126" text-anchor="middle" fill="#1a1a2e" font-size="11" font-family="system-ui">Database</text><rect x="180" y="146" width="130" height="35" rx="6" fill="#f59e0b" opacity="0.85"/><text x="245" y="168" text-anchor="middle" fill="#1a1a2e" font-size="11" font-family="system-ui">Cache</text><rect x="370" y="40" width="200" height="130" rx="8" fill="none" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="1" stroke-dasharray="5,4"/><text x="470" y="62" text-anchor="middle" fill="#e2e8f0" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Docker Network</text><line x1="310" y1="37" x2="390" y2="80" stroke="#94a3b8" stroke-width="1" opacity="0.5"/><line x1="310" y1="79" x2="390" y2="100" stroke="#94a3b8" stroke-width="1" opacity="0.5"/><line x1="310" y1="121" x2="390" y2="120" stroke="#94a3b8" stroke-width="1" opacity="0.5"/><line x1="310" y1="163" x2="390" y2="140" stroke="#94a3b8" stroke-width="1" opacity="0.5"/><circle cx="400" cy="80" r="5" fill="#6366f1"/><circle cx="400" cy="100" r="5" fill="#a855f7"/><circle cx="400" cy="120" r="5" fill="#2dd4bf"/><circle cx="400" cy="140" r="5" fill="#f59e0b"/><text x="470" y="85" text-anchor="middle" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">:3000</text><text x="470" y="105" text-anchor="middle" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">:8080</text><text x="470" y="125" text-anchor="middle" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">:5432</text><text x="470" y="145" text-anchor="middle" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">:6379</text></svg><p style="margin-top:0.75rem;font-size:0.85rem;color:#94a3b8;font-style:italic;line-height:1.4;">Docker Compose defines your entire application stack in a single YAML file.</p></div>

Our Recommendation

At TechSaaS, we run Umami (analytics.techsaas.cloud) because it fits our philosophy — minimal, fast, privacy-respecting. For clients who need more features, we deploy Plausible.

Need help choosing and deploying analytics? Contact [email protected].