Umami vs. PostHog
Open-source web and product analytics, focused on analytics
Umami and PostHog are both open source and both cover web and product analytics. PostHog adds feature flags, experiments, and more. Umami stays focused on analytics with cookie-free tracking by default.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Umami | PostHog |
|---|---|---|
| Analytics workflows | ||
| Web analytics dashboard | ||
| Custom events | ||
| Funnels | ||
| Journeys / paths | ||
| Retention | ||
| Cohorts | ||
| Revenue reporting | Beta | |
| UTM and channel reporting | ||
| Custom dashboards | ||
| Session replay | Cloud Business+ or self-hosted | 5,000 free recordings / mo |
| Heatmaps | Cloud Business+ or self-hosted | |
| Autocapture of clicks and forms | ||
| Feature flags | ||
| Experiments | Measure via tags | |
| Surveys and error tracking | ||
| Official MCP server | Read-only | |
| Collection & identity | ||
| Web install | Script tag | JS snippet or SDK |
| Cookies in the default setup | None | First-party cookie (cookieless mode optional) |
| Identity model | Anonymous sessions, optional distinct IDs | Person profiles, optional anonymous-only |
| Deployment | ||
| Open source | MIT | MIT (except ee directory) |
| Managed cloud | US and EU | |
| Self-hosting | Docker and PostgreSQL | Docker Compose, no support |
| Paid features when self-hosting | Replay, heatmaps, and MCP included | Paid-plan features are Cloud-only |
| Pricing | ||
| Free cloud tier | 100K events / mo | 1M events / mo |
| Pricing model | Plans with included events | Usage-based per product |
| Paid cloud plans | From $20 / mo | Pay per use above free tier |
| Self-hosting cost | Free | Free |
Last verified October 2026. Spot something out of date? Let us know.
Where they overlap
Both are open-source platforms that combine web analytics with product analytics. Each offers custom events, funnels, paths, retention, cohorts, dashboards, session replay, and heatmaps, and each has an official MCP server for AI assistants. If those workflows are what you need, either tool can cover them.
Where Umami differs
Scope. PostHog lists ten products in its repository, including feature flags, experiments, surveys, error tracking, a data warehouse, and AI observability. Umami is an analytics platform only. Every screen is about measuring acquisition, behavior, conversion, and retention.
Privacy defaults. Umami's tracker uses no cookies and does not identify users unless you send a distinct ID. PostHog's default setup stores a first-party cookie and supports person profiles; a cookieless mode and anonymous-only tracking are available as configuration.
Self-hosting. Umami runs on Docker with a PostgreSQL database, and the self-hosted version includes session replay, heatmaps, and MCP. PostHog offers a free Docker Compose deployment that runs ClickHouse, Kafka, PostgreSQL, Redis, and other services. PostHog provides it without support or guarantees, and states that paid-plan features are Cloud-only.
Pricing. Umami Cloud plans include a monthly event allowance, with reports such as funnels and retention on every plan. PostHog meters each product separately, with its own free tier and usage rates.
Where PostHog goes further
PostHog does more than analytics. If you want feature flags, an experimentation engine, surveys, error tracking, or SQL access to a data warehouse in the same tool, Umami does not provide them. PostHog also autocaptures clicks and form submissions, where Umami tracks the events you define. PostHog's free cloud tier is larger: 1 million events and 5,000 session recordings per month, compared with 100,000 events on Umami's Hobby plan, where session replay requires a Business plan.
Which one fits
Choose Umami if you want web and product analytics in one focused tool, prefer cookie-free tracking by default, want a self-hosted deployment with a small footprint, or need marketing and product teams to share the same reports.
Choose PostHog if your engineering team wants flags, experiments, and analytics in one platform, or you rely on autocapture and SQL-level access to event data. PostHog describes engineers and technical founders as its primary audience.
Trying Umami alongside PostHog
You can add the Umami tracker next to an existing PostHog snippet and compare the two on live traffic. Installing the tracker starts new data collection only. It does not import historical PostHog events, and event names and properties need to be mapped to Umami custom events by hand.