Your Google Analytics data is likely wrong.
By default, it's blind to ~69% of your traffic.
That's not a typo. GA is subject to significant data-loss-by-design. Because it's a surveillance tool, it must ask for cookie consent. Most users decline. The rest are hidden by ad blockers.
The result? The data you use for product decisions is incomplete and sampled.
This brings us to the great analytics paradox: To get 100% of your website data, you have to collect less of it.
This is where the open-source alternative Umami comes into play. Its entire architecture bypasses this problem. It's cookieless and anonymizes 100% of data. It doesn't collect any "Personally Identifiable Information" (PII), so it doesn't require a consent banner to operate.
That means for you: You see 100% of your traffic.
Beyond accuracy, this approach gives you:
- Better Performance: A tiny ~2kb script vs. GA's ~40kb + bloat.
- Simpler Compliance: It's GDPR/CCPA compliant by design.
- True Data Ownership: When self-hosted, the data never leaves your infrastructure.
But how does it stack up to other Open-Source alternatives:
- vs. Plausible: Plausible's restrictive AGPL license is a legal red flag for many corporations. Umami's permissive MIT License is a green light for commercial use and enterprise integration.
- vs. Matomo: Umami clearly wins on performance. Matomo's legacy PHP/MySQL stack is resource-heavy and fails under high-traffic write loads. Its self-hosted version also puts key features (like Funnels) behind a paywall.
Current situation & recommendations:
Umami just released v3.0.0, evolving from a simple web tracker to a true product analytics tool (funnels, cohorts, tracking pixels). This is a massive leap.
BUT: The current open-source v3.0.0 release is not stable (yet). It's full of critical bugs (geo-location, revenue, and API failures to name a few).
So, here is my advice based on your setup:
- For Developers / Hobbyists: Stick with the self-hosted v2.x branch. It's incredibly stable, provides 90% of what you need, and runs reliably on a $5 VPS.
- For Agencies / SMEs: Use the Umami Cloud Pro plan. At $20/mo for unlimited websites , it's a steal. It gives you all the powerful, stable v3 features without any of the maintenance or stability risks.
- For Enterprises: This is your high-reward play. The MIT license and proven Postgres scalability (it's been shown to handle millions of daily events ) make it the superior long-term choice. Wait 3-6 months for the self-hosted v3.x branch to stabilize, then plan your migration.
Sources:
Official website: https://umami.is/
Github repository: https://github.com/umami-software/umami
Umami v3 release: https://umami.is/blog/umami-v3
