Matomo vs OpenPanel
Both are alternatives to Amplitude. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as OpenPanel 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.
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.
Side by side
| Matomo | OpenPanel | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 92 | 90 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | GPL-3.0 (core; some plugins are paid) | AGPL-3.0 |
| Pricing | Self-hosted core free. Cloud hosting and premium plugins are paid. | Free and open source to self-host. Hosted plans available. |
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
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
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Facts verified 2026-07-31. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.