TrackWhy vs Umami
A popular open-source, cookieless option — but leaves the deep questions to you.
Umami Analytics is a highly regarded open-source project that has gained significant traction. It is cookieless, lightweight, fast, has a gorgeous clean interface, and can be easily self-hosted to give you absolute control over your data. For basic pageview and event metrics without tracking consent concerns, Umami is a reliable and elegant tool.
The trade-off comes with analytical depth. Umami displays top metrics in straightforward lists, but it lacks advanced analytical capabilities: search, sort, or pagination on the long tail of page paths, multi-step cohort retention grids, user journey paths, or native revenue attribution. If you want to know which page is driving the most signups or why users are dropping out of a funnel, Umami’s basic metrics don’t go far enough.
TrackWhy matches Umami’s privacy guarantees, cookieless tracking, and clean aesthetics, but delivers far greater analytical capabilities. It provides full search and pagination on every card, click-to-filter dashboard interactions, multi-step funnels, user retention tables, and native Stripe integration for revenue attribution out of the box.
Side by side
An honest comparison — Umami has real strengths, and we say so. Here is where each tool lands.
| Feature | TrackWhy | Umami |
|---|---|---|
| Cookieless & no banner | Yes | Yes — a key strength |
| Hosting model | Fully hosted — nothing to run | Self-host (you run it) or paid cloud |
| Lightweight script | 1.7 KB | ~2 KB — comparably tiny |
| Drill-down past rank 10 | Search, sort, paginate every breakdown | Basic top-list breakdowns only |
| Click a row to filter everything | Yes, dashboard-wide | Limited to basic filters |
| Funnels | Multi-step from typed filter algebra | Available, but simpler |
| Retention cohorts | Built in | Not available |
| Journey paths | Built in | Not available |
| Revenue attribution | Native Stripe attribution | Custom event tracking only |
| AI insights | Grounded narration of real numbers | Not available |
| Data retention | 5 years | You configure (self-hosted) or plan limits |
| Pricing model | One flat plan, all features | Free self-host (your server) or metered cloud |
Why teams switch
Umami shows you the top pages and sources; TrackWhy lets you search, sort, and paginate the full long tail of any card. Find exactly where traffic is going, not just the top ten.
Go beyond traffic counting. Build multi-step funnels, view user journey paths, and analyze retention cohorts from a single unified workspace.
Connect Stripe in one click to attribute real dollars to your referrers, campaigns, and landing pages — without complex developer setup.
Plain-english insights grounded in your actual metrics explain exactly what changed and why, so you spend less time guessing.
Switching is quick
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