Umami vs. Mixpanel
Web and product analytics you can self-host
Umami and Mixpanel both offer events, funnels, retention, and cohorts. Umami is open source, cookie-free by default, and pairs product reports with web analytics. Mixpanel goes deeper on identified users and experimentation.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Umami | Mixpanel |
|---|---|---|
| Analytics workflows | ||
| Web analytics | Built-in dashboard | Dashboard template |
| Custom events | ||
| Funnels | ||
| Journeys / flows | ||
| Retention | ||
| Cohorts | Saving requires a paid plan | |
| UTM and channel reporting | ||
| Session replay | Cloud Business+ or self-hosted | 10K free replays / mo |
| Heatmaps | Cloud Business+ or self-hosted | Web only, from replay sessions |
| Autocapture of clicks and forms | Optional | |
| Feature flags | ||
| Experiments | Measure via tags | |
| Official MCP server | Read-only | Read and write |
| Collection & identity | ||
| Web install | Script tag | Script snippet or SDK |
| Cookies in the default setup | None | Cookie (localStorage optional) |
| Collected by default | No personal data | IP address and device ID (configurable) |
| Identity model | Anonymous sessions, optional distinct IDs | User profiles with ID merging |
| Deployment | ||
| Open source | MIT | |
| Managed cloud | US, EU, and India | |
| Self-hosting | Docker and PostgreSQL | |
| Pricing | ||
| Free cloud tier | 100K events / mo | 1M events / mo |
| Pricing model | Plans with included events | Per event above 1M |
| Paid cloud plans | From $20 / mo | Usage-based or custom |
| Self-hosting cost | Free | Not available |
Last verified October 2026. Spot something out of date? Let us know.
Where they overlap
Umami and Mixpanel both measure what users do with events, funnels, paths, retention, and cohorts. Both offer session replay and heatmaps, both capture UTM parameters and referrers, and both have an official MCP server. For the core product analytics questions, such as where users drop off and whether they return, either tool has a report.
Where Umami differs
Web and product analytics in one view. Umami starts from a web analytics dashboard, with traffic, referrers, campaigns, and pages, and adds product reports on top. Mixpanel starts from events and provides web analytics as a dashboard template.
Privacy defaults. Umami's tracker uses no cookies and collects no personal data unless you send it. Mixpanel's JavaScript SDK uses a cookie by default, captures IP address for geolocation, and builds user profiles. These can be changed through configuration, and Mixpanel's documentation leaves compliance to the implementing company.
Open source and self-hosting. Umami is MIT licensed and can run on your own infrastructure with Docker and PostgreSQL. Mixpanel is a managed cloud service with US, EU, and India data residency.
Identity. Umami works with anonymous sessions and lets you link them with an optional distinct ID. Mixpanel is built around identified users and merges device and user IDs, which gives a fuller per-user history and requires an identity plan to implement well.
Where Mixpanel goes further
Mixpanel offers feature flags and experiments, optional autocapture of clicks and form interactions, SDKs for mobile apps, and an MCP server that can create and edit reports as well as read them. Its free plan is larger: 1 million events and 10,000 session replays per month, compared with 100,000 events on Umami's Hobby plan, where session replay requires a Business plan. Teams that need per-user analysis across devices and platforms will find Mixpanel's identity model more complete.
Which one fits
Choose Umami if you want acquisition and product reports in the same tool, prefer cookie-free tracking without user profiles by default, or want to self-host and keep analytics data on your own infrastructure.
Choose Mixpanel if your analysis depends on identified users across web and mobile, or you want feature flags and experiments alongside analytics.
Trying Umami alongside Mixpanel
You can add the Umami tracker next to the Mixpanel snippet and compare the two on live traffic. Installing the tracker starts new data collection only. It does not import historical Mixpanel events, and event names and properties need to be mapped to Umami custom events by hand.