Rybbit vs Plausible vs Umami: Analytics 2026
Rybbit vs Plausible vs Umami: Analytics 2026
TL;DR
Rybbit is the newcomer that challenges Plausible and Umami with session replay, funnels, and user journey tracking at the same privacy-first price point. Plausible remains the gold standard for compliance-heavy teams and EU-hosted SaaS. Umami wins on simplicity and Postgres-only infrastructure. Choose based on whether you need product analytics depth (Rybbit), privacy compliance (Plausible), or minimal complexity (Umami).
Key Takeaways
- Rybbit: 10,000+ GitHub stars in under 12 months — fastest-growing open source analytics tool of 2025. Adds session replay, error tracking, and user profiles that Plausible and Umami lack
- Plausible: 21,000+ stars, EU-hosted by default, GDPR/CCPA compliant, no cookies, proven track record for 4+ years
- Umami: 23,000+ stars, lightest script (under 2KB), simplest self-hosting (just PostgreSQL, no Redis), generous free cloud tier
- Session replay: Only Rybbit includes it — a major differentiator if you're debugging UX issues
- Pricing (cloud): Rybbit $13/mo → $26/mo | Plausible $9/mo → $19/mo | Umami $9/mo → $19/mo
- Self-hosting: All three are free to self-host; Rybbit requires PostgreSQL + ClickHouse, Plausible requires PostgreSQL + ClickHouse, Umami only needs PostgreSQL
Why This Comparison Matters in 2026
GA4 remains a compliance liability for EU-based products and anything targeting privacy-conscious users. By March 2026, the open source analytics space has matured to the point where self-hosted tools offer feature sets that rival or exceed Google Analytics — without the privacy trade-offs.
The three-way race between Rybbit, Plausible, and Umami covers nearly the entire spectrum of use cases:
- Plausible owns the "I want the simplest possible privacy-compliant analytics" niche
- Umami owns the "I want the smallest script and simplest database" niche
- Rybbit is new (launched January 2025) and is aggressively attacking both with a richer feature set
All three are GDPR/CCPA compliant by default, cookieless, and don't collect IP addresses in full.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Rybbit | Plausible | Umami |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 10,000+ | 21,000+ | 23,000+ |
| Script size | 18KB | ~1KB | <2KB |
| Session replay | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Funnels | ✅ | Paid plans | ❌ |
| User journeys | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Error tracking | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Web Vitals | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Real-time globe | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Revenue tracking | ❌ | Paid plans | ❌ |
| Custom events | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Team members | Unlimited (self-host) | Unlimited (self-host) | Unlimited (self-host) |
| Databases needed | PostgreSQL + ClickHouse | PostgreSQL + ClickHouse | PostgreSQL only |
| Self-host Docker | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
The Session Replay Differentiator
Rybbit's session replay is the most significant feature gap between it and its competitors. Session replay lets you watch anonymized video recordings of user sessions — seeing exactly where users click, scroll, and drop off. This feature typically costs $20–$50/month from dedicated tools like LogRocket, Hotjar, or FullStory.
Rybbit includes it in the $26/month Pro plan (cloud) or free with self-hosting. No other privacy-first open source analytics tool has shipped this as of March 2026.
The catch: Session replay adds to bundle size. Rybbit's tracking script is 18KB vs Plausible's ~1KB and Umami's ~2KB. For performance-obsessed sites, this is a meaningful trade-off.
Pricing Deep Dive
Rybbit Cloud
| Plan | Price | Pageviews | Websites | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 3,000/month | 1 | 1 |
| Standard | $13/month | 100,000 | 5 | 3 |
| Pro | $26/month | 1M | Unlimited | Unlimited + session replays |
Plausible Cloud
| Plan | Price | Pageviews | Websites |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $9/month | 10,000 | Unlimited |
| Growth | $19/month | 100,000 | Unlimited |
| Business | $59/month | 1M | Unlimited + funnels |
Plausible's Business plan unlocks funnels and revenue goals — features Rybbit includes at the $26/month tier.
Umami Cloud
| Plan | Price | Events/month | Websites |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hobby | $0 | 100,000 | 3 |
| Pro | $9/month | 1M | Unlimited |
Umami's free Hobby tier is the most generous in the space — 100,000 events/month across 3 websites for free.
Self-hosting verdict: All three are free to self-host with no feature restrictions. The only difference is infrastructure complexity:
- Umami: Just a PostgreSQL database — easiest to run
- Plausible: PostgreSQL + ClickHouse — more complex but very well documented
- Rybbit: PostgreSQL + ClickHouse — similar complexity to Plausible
Self-Hosting Comparison
Umami: Simplest Setup
Umami's biggest self-hosting advantage is that it only needs a single PostgreSQL database. No ClickHouse, no Redis, no Kafka.
# umami docker-compose.yml
services:
umami:
image: ghcr.io/umami-software/umami:postgresql-latest
environment:
DATABASE_URL: postgresql://umami:umami@db:5432/umami
DATABASE_TYPE: postgresql
ports:
- "3000:3000"
depends_on:
- db
db:
image: postgres:15-alpine
environment:
POSTGRES_DB: umami
POSTGRES_USER: umami
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: umami
volumes:
- umami-db:/var/lib/postgresql/data
Two containers, one compose file, five minutes to production.
Plausible: Battle-Tested Production Setup
Plausible requires ClickHouse for high-volume event storage, but the official docker-compose file handles everything:
git clone https://github.com/plausible/community-edition plausible
cd plausible
# Edit plausible-conf.env with your domain and secret key base
docker compose up -d
Plausible's Community Edition (CE) is well-maintained with official support. The ClickHouse dependency is worth it for any site doing 50k+ pageviews/month — ClickHouse handles time-series data far more efficiently than PostgreSQL.
Rybbit: New but Solid
Rybbit also uses PostgreSQL + ClickHouse and follows a similar pattern to Plausible:
# rybbit docker-compose.yml
services:
rybbit:
image: ghcr.io/rybbit-io/rybbit:latest
environment:
POSTGRES_URL: postgresql://rybbit:rybbit@postgres:5432/rybbit
CLICKHOUSE_URL: http://clickhouse:8123
ports:
- "3000:3000"
depends_on:
- postgres
- clickhouse
postgres:
image: postgres:16-alpine
environment:
POSTGRES_DB: rybbit
POSTGRES_USER: rybbit
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: rybbit
volumes:
- postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
clickhouse:
image: clickhouse/clickhouse-server:latest
volumes:
- clickhouse-data:/var/lib/clickhouse
Being newer, Rybbit has fewer community self-hosting guides than Plausible. That's a real consideration if you hit issues.
Privacy & Compliance
All three tools are designed to work without cookies and without storing personally identifiable information:
| Compliance | Rybbit | Plausible | Umami |
|---|---|---|---|
| GDPR | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| CCPA | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cookieless | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| No full IP storage | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Data location (cloud) | US | EU (Estonia) | US |
Plausible has the strongest EU compliance story for cloud users. All data is hosted in the EU on EU-owned infrastructure — a meaningful advantage if your users are EU citizens and you want to avoid any GDPR gray areas about US data transfers.
For self-hosted deployments, data location is wherever you deploy — so all three are equally compliant when self-hosted on EU servers.
When to Choose Each
Choose Rybbit if:
- You need session replay for UX debugging without adding a separate tool
- You want product analytics features (funnels, user journeys, retention) in one package
- The script size increase (18KB vs 1-2KB) is acceptable for your performance budget
- You're comfortable being an early adopter of a 12-month-old tool
Choose Plausible if:
- GDPR compliance with EU-hosted cloud is a hard requirement
- You've been burned by complex analytics tooling and want the simplest possible dashboard
- Your team needs revenue goal tracking (available on Business plan)
- You want the most battle-tested self-hosted analytics with the largest community
Choose Umami if:
- You want the absolute smallest analytics script (under 2KB)
- You only have PostgreSQL available — no ClickHouse setup
- You want a generous free cloud tier (100k events/month)
- You need the simplest possible self-hosted setup
Community Signal
From developer communities in early 2026:
"Switched from Plausible to Rybbit specifically for session replay. Saved $50/month by dropping Hotjar." — common sentiment in self-hosting forums
"Umami for simple sites, Plausible when I need funnels, Rybbit when I need to debug UX. They're not really competing — pick based on feature needs." — pragmatic take
Rybbit's GitHub Issues and Discord show an active maintainer shipping features quickly. The concern is sustainability — Plausible has a proven business model (Estonia-based company), while Rybbit's monetization path is still emerging.
Verdict
| Use Case | Winner |
|---|---|
| EU SaaS requiring strict GDPR compliance | Plausible |
| Simplest possible analytics | Umami |
| Product analytics + session replay | Rybbit |
| Minimal server resources | Umami |
| Most active development | Rybbit |
Rybbit isn't replacing Plausible or Umami — it's extending the category. If your analytics needs have evolved beyond pageviews and bounce rates, Rybbit's product analytics features are genuinely compelling. If you just need to know where traffic comes from, Plausible or Umami are simpler, more proven choices.
Methodology
- Sources: Rybbit GitHub (10k stars), Plausible GitHub (21k stars), Umami GitHub (23k stars), official pricing pages (March 2026), Haloy.dev self-hosted analytics comparison, VIbeGrowthStack.io comparison, Travis.media real-world review
- Date: March 2026
More open source analytics options: Best open source alternatives to Google Analytics 2026.
Running your analytics stack? See also: How to self-host Plausible Analytics 2026 and How to self-host Umami 2026.