Umami: guides & tutorials

Both Plausible and Umami replace Google Analytics with cookie-free, privacy-first tracking that you can self-host on your own VPS. Both are actively maintained, both run on Docker Compose, and both score well for GDPR compliance. The difference is operational: they diverge significantly in RAM footprint, database requirements, feature depth, and license terms.

Google Analytics 4 is free, but you pay with your users' data — every pageview ships to Google's servers, GDPR cookie banners become mandatory, and your analytics are subject to GA4's data-retention limits. Self-hosted analytics tools eliminate that tradeoff: your data stays on your VPS, cookie consent banners are often unnecessary, and you own the retention policy.