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NewsWhip vs Umami

NewsWhip logo

NewsWhip

News

Viral content tracking and audience insights for media companies

From
On request
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

  • Only Umami has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: NewsWhip no pricing published on website; 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: NewsWhip covers Viral content 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 NewsWhip and Umami actually diverge.

Attributes where NewsWhip and Umami differ
AttributeNewsWhipUmami
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquotePer month by event count
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebWeb, Linux
CategoryNewsMarketing
Founded2011Unknown

Identical on both: 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 NewsWhip

  • Viral content tracking
  • Social media monitoring
  • Competitor intelligence
  • Trend identification
  • Custom dashboards
  • Alert system
  • Content recommendations
  • Audience insights

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.

NewsWhip

  • Viral trackingnot Umami
  • Trend identificationnot Umami
  • Competitor monitoringnot Umami
  • Audience insightsnot Umami

Umami

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

Where each one falls short

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

NewsWhip

  • No pricing published on website

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

NewsWhip

On request
  • Enterprise$undefined/custom
    • Viral tracking
    • Competitor analysis
    • Trend identification

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 NewsWhip if

  • You need viral content tracking.
  • You also want social media monitoring.
NewsWhip 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 NewsWhip or Umami better?
Neither clearly leads. NewsWhip starts at On request and Umami at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, NewsWhip or Umami?
Umami has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for NewsWhip and Free for Umami.
Does NewsWhip or Umami run on more platforms?
NewsWhip runs on Web. Umami runs on Web, Linux.
Can I use Umami for free?
Yes. Umami has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. NewsWhip starts at On request.
What is NewsWhip best used for?
NewsWhip is most often used for viral tracking, trend identification, competitor monitoring, audience insights. Of those, viral tracking and trend identification are not what Umami is typically brought in for.
What can NewsWhip do that Umami cannot?
NewsWhip covers Viral content tracking, Social media monitoring, Competitor intelligence, Trend identification. Umami covers Cookie-free tracking, Self-hosting, Small tracking script, Custom events.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

NewsWhip: What does NewsWhip cost?

NewsWhip does not publish pricing on its website. The company directs customers to request a demo to receive custom pricing based on their needs.

Source
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.

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.

Umami: Can it replace Google Analytics?

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

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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