Self-Hosted Analytics: Plausible vs Umami vs Matomo - Which is Best for Your Site?
Google Analytics is powerful, but it tracks your visitors across the web, shares data with advertisers, and requires cookie consent banners. If you care about privacy (and GDPR compliance), there’s a better way: self-hosted analytics. This guide compares the three best privacy-focused analytics platforms: Plausible, Umami, and Matomo. Why Self-Host Analytics? Benefits: Full data ownership - your analytics data stays on your server Privacy-friendly - no tracking cookies, GDPR compliant by default No data sampling - unlike Google Analytics free tier No external dependencies - works even if third-party services are blocked Ad blocker resistant - more accurate visitor counts Quick Comparison Table Feature Plausible Umami Matomo Setup Difficulty Easy Easy Moderate UI Complexity Simple Simple Complex Resource Usage Low Very Low High Database PostgreSQL PostgreSQL/MySQL MySQL/MariaDB Real-time Yes Yes Yes Open Source Yes (AGPL) Yes (MIT) Yes (GPL) Docker Support ✅ ✅ ✅ E-commerce ❌ ❌ ✅ Heatmaps ❌ ❌ ✅ (plugin) Funnels ✅ ❌ ✅ Custom Events ✅ ✅ ✅ Plausible Analytics Best for: Simplicity and clean UI ...