OpenPanel vs Countly
Both are alternatives to Amplitude. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as Countly vs OpenPanel — same comparison, one verdict.
OpenPanel
Mixpanel-style product analytics with a web-analytics front door.
OpenPanel sets out to be the middle ground this category is missing: simple web analytics for the questions you ask daily, plus event-based product analytics with funnels and retention for the ones you ask monthly, in a single self-hostable product. It is the youngest project in this comparison by a wide margin, which is the caveat to weigh honestly — the design is good and the track record is short. Worth a look if PostHog feels like more machinery than the problem deserves and Umami is not quite enough.
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
| OpenPanel | Countly | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 90 | 66 |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Countly Lite License (custom, source-available — not OSI open source) |
| Pricing | Free and open source to self-host. Hosted plans available. | Community edition free to self-host under its own licence terms; enterprise is commercial. |
OpenPanel edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
OpenPanel
Strengths
- +Sits deliberately between simple web analytics and full product analytics
- +Self-hostable with a straightforward Docker deployment
- +AGPL-3.0 with no enterprise directory carve-out
- +Lighter to run than PostHog for a fraction of the complexity
Trade-offs
- −Youngest and least proven project on this page
- −Small community, so few answers when something breaks
- −No session replay or feature flags
- −AGPL-3.0 copyleft needs reading if you intend to modify it
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.