Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

PostHog VS umami

Compare PostHog VS umami and see what are their differences

PostHog logo PostHog

An open source suite of product and data tools including product analytics, feature flags, session replay, A/B testing, surveys, and more.

umami logo umami

A simple and open-source own your website analytics.
  • PostHog Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-07-05

For developers just starting out, PostHog is a free way to understand how your product is being used, without having to send any data to 3rd parties.

For enterprise customers, one data security becomes a key concern, or B2C businesses where using a SaaS solution is unaffordable, it's typical to see teams hosting an event capture platform, a data lake, and sophisticated analytics tools. The end result is that data scientists are needed and most developers don't have easy access to product intel. PostHog solves that gap - it lets everyone understand how your product is being used, without having to send data to 3rd parties, even once you have scaled to millions of visitors.

It has a JS snippet that can autocapture events, and pre-built libraries to push backend data to. Build up full user histories, visualize product trends, funnels, and run experiments with new features.

  • umami Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-22

PostHog

$ Details
freemium
Release Date
2020 January
Startup details
Country
United States
State
California
Founder(s)
James Hawkins, Tim Glaser
Employees
20 - 49

umami

Website
umami.is
Pricing URL
-
$ Details
Release Date
-

PostHog features and specs

  • Self-Hosting Option
    PostHog can be self-hosted, allowing you to maintain control over your data and ensuring compliance with strict data privacy regulations.
  • Complete Analytics Suite
    Provides a complete suite of product analytics tools including feature flags, session recordings, and heatmaps, enabling comprehensive user behavior analysis.
  • Open-Source
    Being open-source, PostHog allows for high customizability and the potential to contribute to the codebase, fostering a community-driven development approach.
  • Privacy-Focused
    Designed with privacy in mind, PostHog globally complies with GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy laws, reducing the risk of legal complications.
  • Event-Driven Architecture
    Its event-driven architecture provides high flexibility in tracking custom events, allowing for more detailed and tailored analytics.
  • Integrations
    PostHog integrates with a variety of tools and services such as Slack, GitHub, and Zapier, streamlining workflows and enhancing productivity.

umami features and specs

  • Streamlined Content Management
    Umami offers a user-friendly interface that simplifies managing articles, pages, and multimedia content. Its intuitive design makes it easy for users to organize and publish content efficiently.
  • Flexibility and Customization
    Umami provides robust customization options, allowing users to tailor the platform to their specific needs. This includes custom themes, plugins, and APIs for extended functionality.
  • SEO Optimization
    Umami includes built-in SEO tools to help users optimize their content for search engines, improving visibility and driving organic traffic.
  • Multilingual Support
    The platform supports multiple languages, making it accessible for a global audience and allowing users to reach diverse demographics.
  • Community and Support
    Umami has a supportive community and comprehensive documentation that provides valuable resources and assistance for troubleshooting and development.

Possible disadvantages of umami

  • Learning Curve
    New users might experience a steep learning curve due to the myriad of features and customization options available on Umami, requiring time to become proficient.
  • Server Requirements
    Umami requires specific server configurations to run efficiently, which might pose a challenge for users with limited technical expertise or hosting options.
  • Cost
    While Umami offers powerful features, it can be cost-prohibitive for small businesses or individual users when considering premium plugins and additional functionalities.
  • Maintenance
    Users need to regularly update the system and plugins to ensure security and optimal performance, which can be time-consuming and technically demanding.
  • Limited Built-in Analytics
    The platform's built-in analytics tools may not be as comprehensive as required by data-driven businesses, necessitating third-party integrations for advanced analytics.

Analysis of PostHog

Overall verdict

  • Yes, PostHog is a robust and versatile analytics tool. Its open-source nature, coupled with a rich feature set comparable to major analytics platforms, makes it an excellent choice for teams looking for an in-depth and customizable analytics solution.

Why this product is good

  • PostHog is a full-featured analytics platform that provides powerful tools for product teams to understand user behavior without sending data to third parties. It offers features such as event tracking, session recording, feature flags, and heatmaps, making it a comprehensive solution for product analytics. The platform is open-source, allowing for customization and self-hosting, which is a significant advantage for teams with specific needs or concerns about data privacy.

Recommended for

    PostHog is particularly well-suited for product teams, developers, and startups that require deep insights into user interactions and need the flexibility of a self-hosted solution. It is also a good fit for organizations that prioritize data privacy and want to maintain full control over their data.

Analysis of umami

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Umami is considered good for users who prioritize privacy and want a no-frills analytics tool.

Why this product is good

  • Umami is a simple, privacy-focused web analytics tool. It's open-source and self-hostable, providing insights into website traffic without compromising user privacy. It doesn't use cookies or collect personal data, making it compliant with privacy regulations like GDPR. It's an excellent choice for those looking for a lightweight and straightforward analytics solution.

Recommended for

  • Small to medium-sized website owners
  • Developers seeking a customizable analytics platform
  • Privacy-conscious individuals and organizations
  • Those looking for an alternative to Google Analytics

PostHog videos

PostHog Walk Through

More videos:

  • Review - Open Source Product Analytics With PostHog

umami videos

Umami Burger Review

More videos:

  • Review - The Original Umami Burger REVIEWED!!

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PostHog and umami)
Analytics
48 48%
52% 52
Web Analytics
42 42%
58% 58
Marketing Analytics
53 53%
47% 47
Website Analytics
50 50%
50% 50

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare PostHog and umami

PostHog Reviews

The best Hotjar alternatives & competitors, compared
According to BuiltWith, as of February 2024, PostHog is used on 5,169 (0.52%) of the top 1 million websites. Hotjar is used by 72,048 of the top 1 million websites. Typical PostHog users are engineers and product managers at startups and mid-size companies, such as Webshare, AssemblyAI, and Purplewave.
Source: posthog.com
The 8 best free and open-source feature flag services
BlogBackSign inBlogThe 8 best free and open-source feature flag servicesPosted byThe best open-source feature flag tools1. PostHogWhat is PostHog?Supported librariesHow much does it cost?2. UnleashWhat is Unleash?Supported SDKsHow much does it cost?3. GrowthBookWhat is GrowthBook?Supported SDKsHow much does it cost?4. FlagsmithWhat is Flagsmith?Supported SDKsHow much does it...
Source: posthog.com

umami Reviews

Top 5 Self-Hosted, Open Source Alternatives to Google Analytics
Use Case Example: A portfolio website for a freelance designer utilizes Umami to monitor visitor interactions and optimize content accordingly.
Source: zeabur.com

Social recommendations and mentions

umami might be a bit more popular than PostHog. We know about 75 links to it since March 2021 and only 58 links to PostHog. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

PostHog mentions (58)

  • Posthog/.cursorrules
    I'm unable to see their website https://posthog.com Is it just me? - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Rethink State💡 Why You Should Model Your Frontend State Around Events
    Send events to analytics tools like PostHog. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • 5 Essential Tools Every Bootstrapped SaaS Startup Needs to Succeed
    For SaaS startups looking for a powerful, privacy-conscious analytics platform, PostHog provides an all-in-one solution designed for modern product teams. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • The Risks of User Impersonation
    The next rung up are User recordings. For users that are having issues, we have concrete recorded data for their flow. The flows would include anything relevant to the application, how they used it, what actions they took. All so we can actually see what happened in context for when there is a problem. No one wants to spend any time looking at recordings if they don't have to. It is also very difficult to identify... - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • My 2025 Tech Stack: Tools & Tech I'm Using This Year
    Posthog. Posthog has a lot of sub products but I use it mainly for analytics and session replays. I have to say Posthog is an impressive product. Everything from dev experience to dashboards is just awesome. Great to see GA finally got some real competition. I'm looking forward to try all the other products from them. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
View more

umami mentions (75)

  • Your Guide To Using Open Source Software as an Indie Developer
    There was a time when open source software meant “functional, but clunky.” That’s changed. Tools like Plausible (analytics), N8N (automation), Umami (web stats), and Vaultwarden (password manager) are beautifully built, stable, and powerful. Many match or even beat their commercial alternatives. - Source: dev.to / 7 days ago
  • How do I use Vercel to host Umami?
    Basically Umami is open-source tool that allows us - content creators collect data about our users. For example, I like to track the way users come to my blog or most popular articles, so I can modify pinned ones. Also, it's focused on privacy. For example, user data are analyzed by default, also there is no cross-site tracking, so umami tracks users only on a particular website. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Umami is a simple, fast, privacy-focused alternative to Google Analytics
    You can see the influx of presumably hackernews visitors (through GitHub/Google) on the demo instance that's linked from their website :) https://umami.is/. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Ask HN: Which analytics platform do you use?
    Update: for now I've decided on Umami, it works pretty well for what I need https://umami.is/. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • This Next.js blog template is awesome.
    Multiple analytics options including Umami, Plausible, Simple Analytics, Posthog and Google Analytics. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing PostHog and umami, you can also consider the following products

Plausible.io - Plausible Analytics is a simple, open-source, lightweight (< 1 KB) and privacy-friendly web analytics alternative to Google Analytics. Made and hosted in the EU, powered by European-owned cloud infrastructure 🇪🇺

Google Analytics - Improve your website to increase conversions, improve the user experience, and make more money using Google Analytics. Measure, understand and quantify engagement on your site with customized and in-depth reports.

Mixpanel - Mixpanel is the most advanced analytics platform in the world for mobile & web.

Matomo - Matomo is an open-source web analytics platform

Fathom Analytics - Simple, trustworthy website analytics (finally)

Simple Analytics - The privacy-first Google Analytics alternative located in Europe.

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