Softwr

Marketing · head to head

Umami vs Yellowfin

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
Yellowfin logo

Yellowfin

Business Intelligence

Action-based business intelligence

From
$50/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Umami has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Yellowfin the pricing page publishes no rate, no minimum and no per-user price; every model ends in a Get Pricing form
  • They diverge on capability: Umami covers Cookie-free tracking, Yellowfin covers Automated Analysis.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Umami and Yellowfin actually diverge.

Attributes where Umami and Yellowfin differ
AttributeUmamiYellowfin
Starting priceFree$50/month
Pricing modelPer month by event countsubscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, LinuxWeb, Mobile, Embedded
CategoryMarketingBusiness Intelligence
FoundedUnknown2003

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 Umami

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

Only in Yellowfin

  • Automated Analysis
  • Data Stories
  • Collaboration
  • Signals
  • Embedded Analytics
  • Salesforce
  • Google Analytics
  • SQL Server

What people use each for

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

Umami

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

Yellowfin

  • Embedding white-labelled dashboards and analytics into a software productnot Umami
  • Enterprise reporting with automated business monitoring and alertingnot Umami
  • Data storytelling and guided natural language querying for business usersnot Umami

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Yellowfin

  • The pricing page publishes no rate, no minimum and no per-user price; every model ends in a Get Pricing form
  • One of the three embedded models is a revenue share, so Yellowfin takes a cut of the revenue your analytics module earns
  • Another model prices by server core, so scaling deployment hardware raises the licence cost independently of users
  • Getting a quote requires submitting a form with a marketing consent checkbox and a user-count band rather than seeing a rate card

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Yellowfin

$50/month
  • Team$50/month
    • Dashboards
    • Stories
    • Collaboration
  • EnterpriseFree
    • Advanced Features
    • Embedding
    • Custom SLA

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Yellowfin if

  • You need automated analysis.
  • You work on Web, Mobile, Embedded.
  • You also want data stories.
Yellowfin review

Questions people ask

Is Umami or Yellowfin better?
Neither clearly leads. Umami starts at Free and Yellowfin at $50/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Umami or Yellowfin?
Umami has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Umami and $50/month for Yellowfin.
Does Umami or Yellowfin run on more platforms?
Umami runs on Web, Linux. Yellowfin runs on Web, Mobile, Embedded.
Can I use Umami for free?
Yes. Umami has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Yellowfin starts at $50/month.
What is Umami best used for?
Umami is most often used for a developer who wants traffic numbers on a personal or client site without adding a consent banner, an organisation whose legal or procurement team has ruled out sending visitor data to a us advertising company, a high-traffic site where hosted analytics priced by pageview band has become expensive and self-hosting removes the ceiling entirely, a team that wants analytics data in a database they already control so they can query and join it themselves. Of those, a developer who wants traffic numbers on a personal or client site without adding a consent banner and an organisation whose legal or procurement team has ruled out sending visitor data to a us advertising company are not what Yellowfin is typically brought in for.
What can Umami do that Yellowfin cannot?
Umami covers Cookie-free tracking, Self-hosting, Small tracking script, Custom events. Yellowfin covers Automated Analysis, Data Stories, Collaboration, Signals.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Yellowfin: What pricing models does Yellowfin offer?

Yellowfin offers three flexible models for embedded analytics: Aligned Utility Model (price per unit), Revenue Share Model (based on analytics revenue value), and Server Core (fixed price based on server deployment).

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.

Yellowfin: Is Yellowfin pricing predictable and scalable?

Yes, Yellowfin pricing is simple, predictable and scalable with no hidden costs or surprises.

Source
Umami: Can it replace Google Analytics?

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

Yellowfin: Are there limits on user access or development environments?

No limitations exist on access to functionality across users. There are also no limits on dev and test licenses, ensuring DevOps is covered.

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 Umami

More on Yellowfin

Keep looking

Other head to heads