Open Source Web Analytics alternatives in 2026
Measure your traffic without handing your users' data to third parties.
Quick comparison
Sorted by featured first, then GitHub stars as a tiebreaker — the same rule we use across the whole site.
| Tool | License | Minimum RAM | GPU | Docker | GitHub |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PostHog | MIT | ~2GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~24,000 |
| Plausible Analytics 100% FOSS1-Click Deploy | AGPL-3.0 | ~2GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~21,000 |
| Apache Superset 100% FOSSMost popular on GitHub | Apache-2.0 | ~512MB | — | ✅ | ★ ~62,000 |
| Metabase 1-Click Deploy | AGPL-3.0 | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~38,000 |
| Umami 100% FOSS1-Click Deploy | MIT | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~25,000 |
| Redash 100% FOSS | BSD-2-Clause | ~2GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~24,000 |
| Matomo 1-Click Deploy | GPL-3.0 | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~19,000 |
| OpenReplay | Apache-2.0 | ~2GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~12,000 |
| Ackee 100% FOSS1-Click Deploy | MIT | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~8,000 |
| Highlight | Apache-2.0 | ~2GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~7,000 |
| GoatCounter Lightest option100% FOSS1-Click Deploy | EUPL-1.2 | ~256MB | — | ✅ | ★ ~5,000 |
| Countly | AGPL-3.0 | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~4,000 |
| OpenPanel 100% FOSS | AGPL-3.0 | ~2GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~3,000 |
Already know which one you want?
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Build my stackDetailed profile of each alternative
Alternative to Google Analytics
Cookie-free web analytics, an alternative to Google Analytics.
Alternative to Google Analytics
Minimalist web analytics, very easy to self-host.
Alternative to Google Analytics
Complete web analytics with heatmaps and sessions, 100% yours.
Alternative to Mixpanel, Amplitude
Product analytics + feature flags + A/B testing, all in one.
Alternative to Looker, Tableau
Dashboards and BI over your databases, an alternative to Looker/Tableau.
Alternative to Tableau, Power BI
Large-scale BI and data visualization, an alternative to Tableau/Power BI.
Alternative to Looker
SQL queries and shareable dashboards, an alternative to Looker.
Alternative to Mixpanel
Web and mobile product analytics, an alternative to Mixpanel.
Alternative to Google Analytics
Minimalist, private web analytics, an alternative to Google Analytics.
Alternative to Google Analytics
Ultra-lightweight web analytics in a single binary, an alternative to Google Analytics.
Alternative to LogRocket, FullStory
Session recording and heatmaps, an alternative to LogRocket.
Alternative to LogRocket
Sessions, errors and logs in one platform, an alternative to LogRocket.
Alternative to Mixpanel, Amplitude
Web + product analytics in a modern dashboard, an alternative to Mixpanel.
Frequently asked questions
What's the minimum server I need to host Analytics tools?
Plausible or Umami run comfortably on 1 vCPU and 1GB of RAM even under moderate traffic, since they only aggregate events instead of storing a full session per visitor. The ones shipping a heavier stack (PostHog, with Postgres + Redis) need more headroom — we've already documented that as ~15GB of disk for that case.
How are backups of the data volumes handled?
Usually it's a single database (Postgres, plus ClickHouse for a full-scale PostHog) — a scheduled dump (pg_dump/pg_basebackup) is enough. Losing this data means losing your historical stats, not a feature your users rely on live, so a daily backup is generally plenty.
Is it safe to expose these tools to the internet, or is a VPN/Tailscale preferable?
The tracking script and its endpoint have to be public by definition — they receive hits straight from your own visitors' browsers. What you can restrict is the admin dashboard: it already ships with its own login, and if you never need to check it from a network other than your own, putting it behind VPN/Tailscale too costs nothing and shrinks the exposed surface.
How do the costs compare against commercial SaaS alternatives?
Paid analytics SaaS tools typically charge by event volume or traffic, so the bill grows with your site's success — a $6-12/month VPS running Plausible or Umami doesn't scale that way. We don't have our own verified figure for every paid analytics SaaS to give an exact savings number, so we're not inventing one here: the advantage grows with your traffic, and the privacy benefit for your visitors is real from the very first one.
Which Web Analytics tools are 100% free?
7 out of 13 are 100% FOSS. The rest are Open-Core: the core is free, but some advanced feature may stay paid — we call it out on each tool's page.
Do I need a GPU to use these tools?
No, none of the 13 tools in this category need a GPU — they all run fine on CPU alone.
How much RAM do I need at minimum?
The lightest option on this list is GoatCounter, which runs on as little as 256MB of RAM — enough for a cheap VPS.