Softwr

Technology · head to head

Pendo vs Umami

Pendo logo

Pendo

Technology

Product analytics and digital adoption platform

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: Pendo pricing is not publicly available and requires a custom quote; 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: Pendo covers Product analytics, Umami covers Cookie-free tracking.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Pendo and Umami actually diverge.

Attributes where Pendo and Umami differ
AttributePendoUmami
Pricing modelUnknownPer month by event count
PlatformsWeb, Mobile, DesktopWeb, Linux
CategoryTechnologyMarketing
Founded2013Unknown

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 Pendo

  • Product analytics
  • In-app messaging
  • User onboarding
  • Feature adoption tracking
  • User feedback
  • NPS surveys
  • Session replay
  • Mobile analytics

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.

Pendo

  • User onboardingnot Umami
  • Feature adoptionnot Umami
  • Product analyticsnot Umami
  • User feedback collectionnot Umami
  • Digital adoptionnot Umami

Umami

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

Where each one falls short

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

Pendo

  • Pricing is not publicly available and requires a custom quote
  • Free tier limited to 500 monthly active users

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

Pendo

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 500 MAU
    • Core analytics
    • In-app guides

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 Pendo if

  • You need product analytics.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Mobile, Desktop.
  • You also want in-app messaging.
Pendo 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 Pendo or Umami better?
Neither clearly leads. Pendo 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, Pendo or Umami?
Pendo starts at Free and Umami at Free.
Does Pendo or Umami run on more platforms?
Pendo runs on Web, Mobile, Desktop. Umami runs on Web, Linux.
Can I use Pendo for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Pendo best used for?
Pendo is most often used for user onboarding, feature adoption, product analytics, user feedback collection. Of those, user onboarding and feature adoption are not what Umami is typically brought in for.
What can Pendo do that Umami cannot?
Pendo covers Product analytics, In-app messaging, User onboarding, Feature adoption tracking. Umami covers Cookie-free tracking, Self-hosting, Small tracking script, Custom events.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Pendo: Does Pendo have a free tier?

Yes, Pendo Free supports up to 500 monthly active users and includes core product analytics, in-app guides, Pendo-branded roadmaps, and Pendo-branded NPS surveys.

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.

Pendo: What is Pendo's core functionality?

Pendo combines product analytics, in-app guides, session replay, NPS surveys, product discovery, roadmaps, and cross-channel orchestration to measure and improve product adoption.

Source
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.

Pendo: What CRM systems does Pendo integrate with?

Pendo offers two-way integrations with Salesforce, mapping Pendo product usage and sentiment data with Salesforce records, and with HubSpot for contact mapping and campaign orchestration.

Source
Umami: Can it replace Google Analytics?

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

Pendo: What impact does Pendo have on customer retention?

Companies using Pendo for product analytics see on average a 5% reduction in customer churn and report an average 15% increase in net revenue retention.

Source
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.

Share

Related pages

More on Pendo

More on Umami

Keep looking

Other head to heads