Self-Hosted Analytics with Umami on Fly.io

Jul 23, 2026

— 5 min read

Google Analytics? No thanks. I wanted an analytics tool that:

Is GDPR-compliant without cookie banners
Doesn't send my data to Google
Is open source
Costs nothing

After some research, I landed on Umami and self-host it on Fly.io.

Why Not Google Analytics?

Privacy: GA tracks more than you need and shares data with Google
Cookie banners: GA sets cookies, you need consent
Complexity: GA4 is bloated for simple metrics
GDPR: Legally questionable in the EU

Why Not Plausible, Fathom & Co?

Plausible and Fathom are good privacy-first alternatives, but:

Plausible: starting at $9/month
Fathom: starting at $14/month

As an indie dev with multiple projects, that adds up. I wanted a solution that costs nothing.

Umami: The Open-Source Alternative

Umami is:

Open Source (MIT License)
Privacy-focused: No cookies, no personal data
GDPR-compliant: No cookie banner needed
Lightweight: ~2KB script
Self-hostable: You control the data

What Umami Tracks

Page Views
Unique Visitors
Bounce Rate
Session Duration
Referrer
Browser, OS, Device
Countries (via IP, not stored)

What Umami Does NOT Track

Personal data
Cookies
Fingerprinting
Cross-site tracking

Deployment on Fly.io

Fly.io is perfect for self-hosting: generous free tier, easy deployment, and locations worldwide.

1. Install Fly CLI

# macOS
brew install flyctl
 
# Or directly
curl -L https://fly.io/install.sh | sh

2. Create Fly App

fly launch --image ghcr.io/umami-software/umami:postgresql-latest

Fly asks for app name and region. I use analytics as the name and fra (Frankfurt) as the region.

3. PostgreSQL Database

Umami needs a PostgreSQL database. My first instinct was Fly's managed Postgres — one command, zero thinking:

fly postgres create --name analytics-db
fly postgres attach analytics-db --app analytics

It worked, but the bill didn't: $38/month for a database this small. I migrated to a plain, unmanaged Postgres app instead:

# Create a minimal Postgres app (not Fly's managed offering)
fly apps create analytics-db
fly volumes create analytics_db_data --app analytics-db --region fra --size 1
 
# Deploy postgres:16-alpine with a small config (256MB, shared-cpu-1x)
fly deploy --config fly.postgres.toml --app analytics-db
 
fly secrets set DATABASE_URL="postgresql://umami:<password>@analytics-db.internal:5432/umami" \
  --app analytics

Same database, same reliability, ~$2/month instead of $38. Connect over .internal, not .flycast — the latter needs an extra [[services]] block in the config for no benefit here.

4. Set App Secret

Umami needs an APP_SECRET for session encryption:

fly secrets set APP_SECRET="$(openssl rand -hex 32)"

5. Deploy

fly deploy

After a few minutes, Umami runs at https://analytics.fly.dev.

6. Custom Domain (Optional)

I use analytics.herrlichdigital.de:

fly certs create analytics.herrlichdigital.de

Then set DNS CNAME to analytics.fly.dev.

First Login

Umami automatically creates an admin user:

Username: admin
Password: umami

Change it immediately after first login!

Add a Website

Settings → Websites → Add website
Enter name and domain
Copy website ID

Integration

One script tag per project:

<script
  defer
  src="https://analytics.herrlichdigital.de/script.js"
  data-website-id="736b294f-2b1e-4f76-9fba-c898539330f5"
/>

React/Remix Integration

In your root.tsx:

export default function Root() {
  return (
    <html>
      <head>
        <meta charSet="utf-8" />
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
        <Meta />
        <Links />
        <script
          defer
          src="https://analytics.herrlichdigital.de/script.js"
          data-website-id="736b294f-2b1e-4f76-9fba-c898539330f5"
        />
      </head>
      <body>
        <Outlet />
        <Scripts />
      </body>
    </html>
  );
}

Track Only in Production

{
  process.env.NODE_ENV === "production" && (
    <script
      defer
      src="https://analytics.herrlichdigital.de/script.js"
      data-website-id="736b294f-2b1e-4f76-9fba-c898539330f5"
    />
  );
}

Custom Events

Umami supports custom events for button clicks, form submissions, etc:

// Global function from Umami
declare function umami(eventName: string): void;
 
// Usage
<button onClick={() => umami("signup-clicked")}>
  Sign Up
</button>

Cost

| Service | Cost/Month | | ------------------------------------ | ---------- | | Fly.io App (shared-cpu-1x, 1GB) | ~$5 | | Fly.io Postgres (self-hosted, 256MB) | ~$2 | | Total | ~$7 |

Not free, but a fraction of what a managed database would cost — my first Postgres setup (Fly's managed offering) alone was $38/month for the database. Self-hosting Postgres too, instead of just the app, is what actually makes this cheap.

For comparison:

Plausible: $9/month
Fathom: $14/month
Google Analytics: "free" (you pay with data)

Dashboard

Umami's dashboard is clean and shows exactly what you need:

Real-time visitors
Page views over time
Top pages
Top referrers
Countries, browsers, OS
Custom events

No 47 reports that nobody needs. No ML-powered insights. Just numbers.

Conclusion

Self-hosting Umami was one of the best decisions for my projects:

Privacy: No data with third parties
Cost: ~$7/month instead of $9-14/month, and no per-visitor pricing to worry about as it grows
Simplicity: Shows what matters, nothing more
GDPR: No cookie banner, no legal stress

The only downside: You're responsible for uptime. But Fly.io is stable and Umami has minimal requirements.

I track Sharry, herrlichdigital.de, and all future projects with it. One Umami instance for everything.

Questions? Find me on X @pr0gstar.