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Nonprofits · head to head

CiviCRM vs Umami

CiviCRM logo

CiviCRM

Nonprofits

Open source constituent relationship management for nonprofits, with no per contact or per donation fee

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Umami logo

Umami

Marketing

Open source, cookie-free web analytics you can self-host for the cost of a database

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: CiviCRM nobody maintains it for you, so security patches and major version upgrades are your operational responsibility and organisations that skip them end up stranded on an old release.; Umami there is no cohort analysis, retention curve, session replay or multi-touch attribution, so a marketing team that needs to justify channel spend will still buy a second tool and Umami becomes a supplementary dashboard.
  • They diverge on capability: CiviCRM covers Contribution and pledge tracking, Umami covers Cookie-free tracking.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which CiviCRM and Umami actually diverge.

Attributes where CiviCRM and Umami differ
AttributeCiviCRMUmami
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feePer month by event count
PlatformsWeb, Linux, Self-hostedWeb, Linux
CategoryNonprofitsMarketing

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in CiviCRM

  • Contribution and pledge tracking
  • Membership management
  • Events and registration
  • Case management
  • CMS integration
  • Extension framework

Only in Umami

  • Cookie-free tracking
  • Self-hosting
  • Small tracking script
  • Custom events
  • Funnels and goals
  • Multi-site and teams
  • Public dashboards
  • API access

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

CiviCRM

  • A membership organisation with a large contact file that refuses to pay a per contact meternot Umami
  • An advocacy group needing to hold constituent data on infrastructure it controlsnot Umami
  • A charity already running Drupal or WordPress that wants CRM inside the same stacknot Umami
  • An organisation with unusual data requirements that no hosted product will build for itnot Umami

Umami

  • A developer who wants traffic numbers on a personal or client site without adding a consent bannernot CiviCRM
  • An organisation whose legal or procurement team has ruled out sending visitor data to a US advertising companynot CiviCRM
  • A high-traffic site where hosted analytics priced by pageview band has become expensive and self-hosting removes the ceiling entirelynot CiviCRM
  • A team that wants analytics data in a database they already control so they can query and join it themselvesnot CiviCRM

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

CiviCRM

  • Nobody maintains it for you, so security patches and major version upgrades are your operational responsibility and organisations that skip them end up stranded on an old release.
  • The interface and configuration model are dated compared with hosted competitors, and staff turnover is expensive when the next fundraiser has to be trained on it from scratch.
  • Extension quality is inconsistent, so a payment processor or integration that works on one version can break on the next with no vendor obligation to fix it.
  • Total cost of ownership is genuinely low only at scale, and a five person charity often pays more to a partner for setup and support than a hosted product would have charged outright.
  • Implementation partners hold the practical knowledge of your configuration, so switching partners can be as disruptive as switching products despite the software being free.

Umami

  • There is no cohort analysis, retention curve, session replay or multi-touch attribution, so a marketing team that needs to justify channel spend will still buy a second tool and Umami becomes a supplementary dashboard.
  • Self-hosting is only free in licence terms; you own the database, the upgrades, the backups and the query performance at scale, and a busy site's events table grows quickly enough to need real attention.
  • Because it stores no persistent identifier, it cannot follow a user across devices or sessions in any meaningful way, which makes returning-visitor and lifetime-value questions unanswerable by design rather than by omission.
  • Cloud overage is billed per event beyond the plan allowance, so a traffic spike or a badly instrumented custom event can produce a bill materially above the $20 or $200 headline before anyone notices.
  • It is maintained by a small team, so the pace of new capability is modest and enterprise expectations such as SSO, granular role permissions and formal support agreements are limited compared with commercial analytics vendors.

Pricing, plan by plan

CiviCRM

Free
  • CiviCRMFree
    • No licence fee, no per contact charge and no percentage of donations
    • Costs are hosting, implementation partner time and upgrade work
    • Paid hosting and support available from partners at their own rates

Umami

Free
  • Self-hostedFree
    • MIT licensed, no licence fee
    • No event limit imposed by the software
    • Unlimited websites and users
  • Cloud HobbyFree
    • Up to 100,000 events per month
    • 3 websites
    • 6 months data retention
  • Cloud Pro$20/month
    • Up to 1,000,000 events per month
    • Unlimited websites
    • Unlimited team members
  • Cloud Business$200/month
    • Up to 10,000,000 events per month
    • All Pro features
    • Higher volume overage rate

Which should you pick?

Choose CiviCRM if

  • You need contribution and pledge tracking.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Linux, Self-hosted.
  • You also want membership management.
CiviCRM review

Choose Umami if

  • You need cookie-free tracking.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Linux.
  • You also want self-hosting.
Umami review

Questions people ask

Is CiviCRM or Umami better?
Neither clearly leads. CiviCRM starts at Free and Umami at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, CiviCRM or Umami?
CiviCRM starts at Free and Umami at Free.
Does CiviCRM or Umami run on more platforms?
CiviCRM runs on Web, Linux, Self-hosted. Umami runs on Web, Linux.
Can I use CiviCRM for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is CiviCRM best used for?
CiviCRM is most often used for a membership organisation with a large contact file that refuses to pay a per contact meter, an advocacy group needing to hold constituent data on infrastructure it controls, a charity already running drupal or wordpress that wants crm inside the same stack, an organisation with unusual data requirements that no hosted product will build for it. Of those, a membership organisation with a large contact file that refuses to pay a per contact meter and an advocacy group needing to hold constituent data on infrastructure it controls are not what Umami is typically brought in for.
What can CiviCRM do that Umami cannot?
CiviCRM covers Contribution and pledge tracking, Membership management, Events and registration, Case management. Umami covers Cookie-free tracking, Self-hosting, Small tracking script, Custom events.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

CiviCRM: Is CiviCRM really free?

The software is, with no licence, per contact or per donation charge. Hosting, implementation and support are real costs and are where the budget goes.

Umami: Is Umami really free?

Self-hosted, yes; it is MIT licensed with no event cap. You pay for the server and database. Umami Cloud has a free tier at 100,000 events a month and paid tiers from $20.

CiviCRM: Do we need a developer?

You need technical capacity, either in house or a retained partner. Treating it as a hosted product without support is the common failure mode.

Umami: Do I need a cookie consent banner?

For Umami analytics specifically, generally no, because it sets no cookies and stores no personal data. Other tags on your site may still require one.

CiviCRM: Where does it win against commercial CRMs?

At scale. A large contact file or high donation volume that would cost tens of thousands a year in metered fees costs nothing in licence here.

Umami: Can it replace Google Analytics?

For traffic, referrers and event counts, yes. For attribution modelling, audiences and advertising integration, no.

CiviCRM: Can it be hosted for us?

Yes, several partners offer managed CiviCRM hosting, which removes the upgrade burden and reintroduces a monthly fee.

Umami: What does it need to run?

A container and a PostgreSQL or MySQL database. Most people deploy it on infrastructure they already pay for.

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