The Problem with Google Analytics
Every website owner wants to understand who visits their site and what they do. Google Analytics is the obvious choice. It’s free, everyone knows it, everyone uses it.
But there are three problems:
First — complexity. GA4 has become a tool for data scientists. To view simple traffic stats, you have to navigate through dozens of menus and reports. A small business owner doesn’t need cohorts and attribution models — they need to know how many people visited their site and where they came from.
Second — privacy. Google collects your visitors’ data and uses it for their advertising network. Your website becomes part of a global surveillance machine. In Europe, this has already been ruled a GDPR violation.
Third — speed. The Google Analytics script slows down page loading. For a site where conversion matters, every millisecond counts.
I was looking for an alternative. And I found one.
Umami: Simple Analytics Without Compromise
Umami is an open-source web analytics tool built as the antithesis of Google Analytics.
When I first opened the Umami dashboard, my first thought was: “That’s it?”. One page. Visitor graphs, traffic sources, countries, devices, popular pages. No nested menus. No courses required to configure it.
That’s exactly what a business owner needs.
What Umami Shows
On a single screen you see:
- Visitors and pageviews — how many people came, how many pages they viewed
- Traffic sources — where they came from (Google, social media, direct visits)
- Geography — which countries visitors are from
- Devices — desktop, mobile, tablets
- Browsers and OS — Chrome, Safari, Windows, iOS
- Popular pages — what content gets the most views
- Time on site and bounce rate — how well your content holds attention
Data updates in real-time. You can track custom events — button clicks, form submissions, downloads.
Two Ways to Use It
Option 1: Umami Cloud
Sign up at cloud.umami.is, add your website, paste the script — done.
Free tier:
- Up to 100,000 events per month
- 6 months data retention
- Enough for most small websites
Pro tier: $20/month:
- 1 million events
- Extended data retention
- Priority support
Option 2: Self-hosted (on your own server)
This is where it gets interesting.
Umami can be installed on your own server. This means:
- All data belongs to you — no one else has access
- No limitations — unlimited websites, unlimited events
- Fixed cost — you only pay for hosting
Minimum requirements:
- VPS with 512MB RAM (a €3-5/month server on Hetzner is enough)
- Node.js 18+
- PostgreSQL
Installation via Docker takes 30 minutes. Set it up once — it runs for years.
The economics:
| Solution | Cost/year |
|---|---|
| Plausible Cloud | $90+ |
| Fathom | $140+ |
| Umami Cloud Pro | $240 |
| Umami Self-hosted | €40-60 (hosting only) |
With self-hosting, you save 4-5x and get full control over your data.
Why Not Plausible or Matomo?
Plausible — excellent product, but:
- Minimum plan is $90/year
- Self-hosted version requires more resources (ClickHouse instead of PostgreSQL)
- Some features are only available in Cloud
Matomo — powerful, but:
- Complex interface (legacy from Piwik since 2007)
- Requires significant server resources
- Overkill for simple tasks
Umami hits the sweet spot: enough features for business, minimal server requirements, modern interface.
Privacy Out of the Box
Umami doesn’t use cookies. Doesn’t collect personal data. IP addresses are anonymized.
This means:
- GDPR, CCPA, PECR compliance without additional configuration
- No cookie banner needed
- Visitors aren’t tracked across websites
You get the statistics you need for business decisions without turning your site into a surveillance tool.
Speed
The Umami script weighs less than 2KB. For comparison, Google Analytics is about 45KB.
In practice, this means Umami has zero impact on page load speed. Core Web Vitals stay in the green zone.
Who Is Umami For
- Small business owners — simple stats without a PhD in analytics
- Developers and agencies — one instance for all client websites
- Bloggers and content creators — understand what people read and where they come from
- EU companies — GDPR compliance without the headache
- Everyone tired of Google — your data should belong to you
How to Get Started
Quick start (Cloud):
- Sign up at cloud.umami.is
- Add your website
- Copy the script into your site’s
<head> - Done — data starts collecting
Self-hosted:
- Rent a VPS (Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Vultr)
- Install via Docker Compose
- Set up a domain (e.g., analytics.yoursite.com)
- Add websites to track
Documentation at umami.is/docs is one of the best I’ve seen for an open-source project.
Conclusion
Google Analytics was the industry standard. But the world has changed. Privacy became important. Simplicity became valuable. Data ownership became necessary.
Umami is analytics as it should be: understandable, fast, private. And most importantly — your data stays yours.
Try the free tier or spin up your own instance. In a week, you’ll forget Google Analytics exists.
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