GoAccess vs Umami
Which should you use? A side-by-side look at what each one does, who it suits, what it costs, how hard it is to set up, and where each falls short.
Open source · MIT
Open-source log analyzer that shows live web traffic stats in your terminal or a browser dashboard.
Open source · MIT
Privacy-first web analytics you can self-host or use in the cloud, without cookies.
The short answer
Choose GoAccess if you need…
- System administrators who want quick traffic stats over SSH
- DevOps engineers monitoring Nginx, Apache, or similar servers
- People who prefer working in the terminal
- Anyone checking which pages are slowing down a site using response time tracking
Choose Umami if you need…
- Website owners who want traffic stats without a cookie banner
- Teams that want to keep visitor data on their own server
- Developers comfortable running a Node.js app with PostgreSQL
- Marketers tracking campaigns and conversions in one place
Side-by-side
| GoAccess | Umami | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | App | App |
| Price | Free and open source | Free and open source |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 21.1k | 39.9k |
| Setup difficulty | Intermediate | Intermediate |
| How you get it | Clone and build from source | Run with Docker |
| Main language | C | TypeScript |
| Last code update | 9 days ago | 4 days ago |
What each one is
GoAccess
GoAccess reads your web server's access log files and turns them into traffic statistics such as hits, visitors, bandwidth, and slow requests. It shows the results live in a terminal window or in an HTML dashboard in your browser. System administrators and DevOps staff typically use it to monitor traffic and spot problems quickly.
Umami
Umami is a web and product analytics platform that shows traffic, campaigns, user behavior, conversions, and revenue in one dashboard. It is designed to avoid cookies and tracking that identifies individual visitors. You can run it on your own server or use the hosted cloud version.
Best for
GoAccess
- System administrators who want quick traffic stats over SSH
- DevOps engineers monitoring Nginx, Apache, or similar servers
- People who prefer working in the terminal
- Anyone checking which pages are slowing down a site using response time tracking
Umami
- Website owners who want traffic stats without a cookie banner
- Teams that want to keep visitor data on their own server
- Developers comfortable running a Node.js app with PostgreSQL
- Marketers tracking campaigns and conversions in one place
Strengths
GoAccess
- Real-time display, with terminal panels updated every 200 ms and HTML every second
- Works with many log formats, including Apache, Nginx, CloudFront, and Caddy JSON
- Only needs ncurses as a dependency, and is written in C
Umami
- Privacy-focused design that the README says uses no cookies
- Self-hostable or available as a cloud service
- MIT licensed and actively maintained, with a large community
Not ideal for
GoAccess
- People who need JavaScript-based website analytics for visitors' browsers, since it reads server logs instead (inferred from its log-file design)
- Windows-only users, because the README says Windows support is only through Cygwin
Umami
- People who need zero server setup and do not want to run anything: the README's install path requires Node.js and PostgreSQL, though a cloud option exists
- Users who need a MySQL or other database: the README only lists PostgreSQL requirements
- Teams needing a detailed feature list beyond the README: the truncated README gives limited feature detail
Trade-offs
GoAccess
- Some distribution packages may be an outdated version, according to the README
- Analysis depends on your log format and an optional GeoIP database for country data
Umami
- Self-hosting requires Node.js 18.18+ and PostgreSQL 12.14+, so it is not a one-click setup from source
- The build step creates a default admin login with a well-known password that must be changed
- Two-factor authentication and the MCP endpoint need extra configuration
Getting started
GoAccess
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/allinurl/goaccess.gitEnter the directory
cd goaccessUmami
Get the source and install packages
git clone https://github.com/umami-software/umami.gitInstall dependencies
pnpm installFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between GoAccess and Umami?
GoAccess: Open-source log analyzer that shows live web traffic stats in your terminal or a browser dashboard. Umami: Privacy-first web analytics you can self-host or use in the cloud, without cookies. GoAccess suits system administrators who want quick traffic stats over ssh, while Umami suits website owners who want traffic stats without a cookie banner.
Are GoAccess and Umami free?
GoAccess: Free and open source. Umami: Free and open source.
Is GoAccess or Umami more popular?
Umami has more GitHub stars (39.9k) than GoAccess (21.1k). Popularity isn't the same as fit — check which one matches your use case above.
What are other alternatives to GoAccess and Umami?
Other options people compare them with include linux-dash.
Keep comparing
Built from our catalogue entries for both products: open-source details come from each project's README (AI-assisted, refreshed weekly) and GitHub data; AI-tool details are editorial. Spotted something wrong? Let us know from either product's page.