Umami vs Trace: both open source and cookieless, answering different questions.
Umami is a clean, self-hostable way to see traffic, events and campaigns. Trace looks at what visitors run into on each page: dead clicks, rage clicks, errors and drop-offs, ranked and handed to your coding agent, with a verdict after each fix.
Keep Umami if you need
- A simple, fast traffic dashboard
- Campaign and UTM reports
- Optional session replay and heatmaps in the same tool
Choose Trace if you want
- Frustration and browser errors, not only pageviews and events
- Problems ranked for you instead of reports to read
- A verdict on your goal after each release
Side by side
| Umami | Trace | |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy | Cookieless, open source | Cookieless, open source, scrubbed twice |
| What it measures | Pageviews, events, sources | Clicks, scrolls, forms and errors on each page |
| Reports | Funnels, retention, journeys, goals, UTM and attribution | Problems, goals, funnels, retention for signed-in users |
| Frustration and errors | Opt-in JS errors; no rage or dead clicks | Dead clicks, rage clicks, errors, failed requests, always on |
| Script size | About 3.9 KB | 8.4 KB |
| Self-host | Yes, MIT | Yes, AGPL server, MIT collector |
Umami details from its public documentation, checked 29 October 2026. Spot something out of date? Tell us.
Moving from Umami: what maps to what
Keep Umami for traffic if you like it. Trace adds the layer beneath it.
| In Umami | In Trace |
|---|---|
umami.track() | trace.track() |
| Goals | Goals with targets, in trace.json |
| Funnels | Funnels in trace.json |
| Pages | Pages with exit rate, scroll, time and problems |
Run them side by side for a month
Add the Trace tag next to Umami. It adds 8.4 KB and does its work when the browser is idle.
Keep Umami for traffic. Use Trace's ranked list to fix the page with the worst drop-off.
Read the verdict on what you shipped. Keep what still earns its place. Both scripts can stay.
Questions from Umami users
Should I replace Umami?
Not necessarily. Add Trace for what happens after people arrive.
Can both run on one small server?
Yes. Trace is one binary with SQLite or Postgres.
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