Definition
Umami is open-source web and product analytics for understanding traffic sources, visitor behavior, and conversions. Officially it is a privacy-first analytics platform — “No cookies, no surveillance” — that can be self-hosted or used through the managed Umami Cloud. See the official site.
How it works
After a tracking script is embedded in a site, data accumulates in one dashboard covering pageviews, visitors, referrers and UTM attribution, events, funnels, and retention. The vendor states that no personally identifiable information is stored and that data is “never sold or shared”, supporting GDPR and CCPA obligations. The code is open source under the MIT license on GitHub, and a read-only MCP server lets AI assistants query the data (per the official site, for Umami Cloud Pro+ or self-hosted v3.4 and above).
Usage
It fits personal sites, blogs, and product teams that want traffic and behavior analytics in one tool. Because it is open source and self-hostable, it is also adapted into custom, self-owned analytics — for example, tracking AI crawler and personal-agent fetches alongside human visits.
Related and confusable terms
Umami shares its name with the Japanese word for the savory taste, so culinary and dictionary results crowd searches. The self-hosted open-source version and Umami Cloud are two ways of running the same software; capability differences are documented in the official docs.
Episode discussion
In Weekly #007, in the chapter “Agent 流量、个人网站与开放接口” (Chinese transcript), Xiangyang Qiaomu describes an in-progress analytics service that would measure both human visits and AI crawler or personal-agent fetches, noting that it “is based on the open-source Umami” and is meant for personal use first. This is a speaker’s account of a third-party project, not a description of Umami itself. See the chapter.
Frequently asked questions
Can I self-host Umami?
Yes. The official materials distinguish a self-hosted open-source deployment from the managed Umami Cloud; setup instructions are in the official docs.
How is Umami different from Google Analytics?
The official positioning is cookie-free, non-tracking analytics whose data is never sold or shared, with open-source code you can self-host. Compare the capabilities listed on the official site.