Matomo vs Countly
Both are alternatives to Amplitude. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as Countly vs Matomo — same comparison, one verdict.
Matomo
GPL analytics you host yourself — the compliance answer.
Matomo is the veteran of privacy-respecting analytics: GPL-3.0, self-hosted, with 100% data ownership, no sampling, and configurations that let it run without cookie consent in many jurisdictions. Around 21.7k stars and well over a decade of continuous development. It leans web analytics rather than product analytics — sessions, sources, campaigns, goals — with product-style funnels and cohorts available as paid plugins. If the reason you are on this page is a legal or procurement requirement rather than a product question, Matomo is usually the shortest route to a yes.
Countly
Mobile-first analytics you can run on-premise — but check the licence.
Countly is built around mobile and IoT rather than the web, with crash reporting, push notifications and user profiles alongside analytics, and a long history of on-premise deployment in regulated and government settings. Around 5.9k stars. One correction to how it is usually listed: Countly is very often described as open source, but the community edition ships under a custom "Countly Lite License" rather than an OSI-approved licence — it is source-available, with restrictions, and the terms are worth reading before you build a product on it. Included here because the mobile and on-premise combination is genuinely rare, and because the licence deserves to be stated accurately.
Side by side
| Matomo | Countly | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 92 | 66 |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | GPL-3.0 (core; some plugins are paid) | Countly Lite License (custom, source-available — not OSI open source) |
| Pricing | Self-hosted core free. Cloud hosting and premium plugins are paid. | Community edition free to self-host under its own licence terms; enterprise is commercial. |
Matomo edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
Matomo
Strengths
- +Full data ownership with a mature, well-trodden self-host path
- +Can be configured to run without cookie consent in many jurisdictions
- +No sampling — the numbers are the numbers
- +Over a decade of development and a large plugin ecosystem
Trade-offs
- −Web analytics first; product analytics needs paid plugins
- −Interface feels dated next to PostHog and Amplitude
- −PHP and MySQL need tuning at high traffic
- −Several of the features people expect are premium add-ons
Countly
Strengths
- +Mobile and IoT first, where most of this category is web first
- +Crash reporting and push notifications alongside analytics
- +Long track record of on-premise deployment in regulated environments
- +Rich user-profile and cohort features in the enterprise tier
Trade-offs
- −Not open source despite being widely listed as such — read the Lite License
- −Much of the useful functionality sits in the paid enterprise edition
- −Smaller community than every other option here
- −Heavier to deploy than Umami or OpenPanel
Related alternative guides
Facts verified 2026-07-31. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.