GhostStat vs Umami: open source or all-in-one?

Umami has become a favourite with developers: it is open source, cookieless, easy to self-host and has a free cloud plan. GhostStat shares the cookieless approach but is a hosted service with heatmaps, recordings and funnels on every plan. This comparison of GhostStat vs Umami walks through the differences, with every claim about Umami linked to umami.is.

Last checked: 11 October 2026. If something has changed, tell us.

Umami vs GhostStat at a glance

What Umami and GhostStat share

Both tools measure your site without cookies. Umami says it “works without cookies and never collects personal data, so most sites can drop the cookie banner entirely”. GhostStat sets no cookies, uses no localStorage, sessionStorage or fingerprinting, and never writes an IP address to disk: the IP is used in memory for a location lookup and then dropped. Visitors are counted with an identifier salted per site that rotates daily. Our privacy policy lists exactly what we collect.

Both cover the reports most sites need: pages, referrers, UTM campaigns, locations, devices, events, revenue, funnels, goals and retention. Umami’s home page also lists journeys, cohorts and period comparison.

Open source and self-hosting: Umami’s strength

Umami is released under the MIT licence, and its pricing page says “self-hosting is always free”. If your team wants to read the code, run analytics on its own servers or build on top of it, that is a real advantage. Umami notes that its cloud adds email reports and a streaming API that the self-hosted version does not have.

GhostStat is a hosted service and is not open source. You paste one line before </head>, and updates, scaling and backups are our job. For enterprise customers, GhostStat also sets up custom installations on their own infrastructure; there is no public download. If you want to download and self-host analytics yourself, Umami or Matomo is the better route.

Heatmaps and session replays

This is the clearest difference. On Umami Cloud, session replays and heatmaps are part of the Business plan at $200 a month, which includes 5,000 replays and charges $0.005 for each extra one. The Hobby and Pro plans do not include them.

In GhostStat, every plugin is available on every plan, including Free:

• Heatmaps for clicks, scrolling and movement, per device.
• Session recordings with every form input masked by default.
• Form analytics and A/B tests alongside funnels and goals.
• Visitor intelligence: intent, friction and attention per visit.
• Public stats pages and counters if you like to share your numbers.

On the Free plan each plugin has a monthly view allowance; paid plans remove it. The live numbers are on the pricing page.

Price and data location

Umami Cloud has four plans. Hobby is free for one website with 100,000 events a month and six months of data. Pro costs $20 a month for one million events, up to 20 websites and two years of data. Business costs $200 a month for ten million events, unlimited websites, five years of data, replays and heatmaps. Enterprise is custom. Extra events on Pro and Business are billed per event. According to Umami’s cloud FAQ, its servers are in the US and the EU.

GhostStat stores its data in Dronten, the Netherlands. Its Free plan includes every plugin; prices, sites and retention per plan are on the pricing page.

Questions to ask before you choose

• Who will run it? Self-hosting Umami is free, but someone has to install updates, run the database, make backups and keep the server secure. If no one on your team wants that job, a hosted service saves real time.
• Do we need to see behaviour? If heatmaps and recordings matter, compare GhostStat’s Free and paid plans with Umami’s Business plan at $200 a month.
• How many events will we send? Umami Cloud counts every page view and custom event, with per-event charges above your plan. Estimate your monthly volume before you pick a plan.
• Is open source a requirement? If your organisation must be able to audit and change the code, Umami is the clear choice of the two.
• Where must the data live? GhostStat stores everything in the Netherlands; with Umami Cloud, check which region your account uses, or self-host to choose yourself.

Trying GhostStat next to Umami

You do not have to switch in one go. Add the GhostStat snippet next to your Umami script, leave both running for a few weeks and compare the numbers. Small differences are normal, because each tool counts visitors in its own way. Watch the trends rather than the exact totals, and switch on one or two plugins, such as heatmaps on your most important page, to see what the extra depth tells you. If you decide to stay with Umami, remove the GhostStat snippet and nothing else changes on your site. Setup help is here.

Umami or GhostStat: how to choose

Choose Umami if you want open-source code, plan to self-host, or need a free cloud plan for a single site with traffic reports only.

Choose GhostStat if you want heatmaps, recordings and form analytics without a $200 plan, a hosted service with nothing to maintain, and data stored in the Netherlands. Start free; no card is needed.

More comparisons: GhostStat vs Plausible, GhostStat vs Fathom and the best Google Analytics alternatives.

Sources

• Umami: Home page and Pricing
• Umami: Cloud FAQ
• GitHub: Umami licence (MIT)