head to head · open source
Matomo vs OpenWebAnalytics
Matomo has 21,880 GitHub stars, 2,896 forks, 2,578 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenWebAnalytics has 2,688 stars, 488 forks, 115 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Matomo leads on adoption by 714% (21,880 vs 2,688 stars). Matomo is written in PHP under GPL-3.0; OpenWebAnalytics is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. Matomo has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, OpenWebAnalytics 18%. Matomo was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (php, privacy), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Matomo | OpenWebAnalytics | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | PHP | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 488 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Matomo if
- You weight community size — 22K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick OpenWebAnalytics if
- You want the OpenWebAnalytics feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and OpenWebAnalytics fits your workflow better
About Matomo
Matomo is an open source digital analytics platform for websites and apps, formerly known as Piwik. It lives in the PHP and MySQL web analytics ecosystem, and the provided description positions it as an open alternative to Google Analytics and Amplitude. The project lets an organization collect, visualise, and analyse visitor data from its own digital properties.
read the full Matomo overview →
About OpenWebAnalytics
Open Web Analytics is an open source web analytics server written in PHP and released under the GNU GPL, version 2 or later. It ships the OWA Server together with a first party JavaScript tracking client that can be added to web pages, and it is positioned by its maintainers as an alternative to commercial analytics tools such as Google Analytics. The project lives in the PHP ecosystem and is distributed through its GitHub repository, with a WordPress integration plugin and a PHP SDK maintained alongside it for sites and applications that want tracking wired in without hand rolling the client.…
read the full OpenWebAnalytics overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Matomo or OpenWebAnalytics more popular?
Matomo has 21,880 GitHub stars and OpenWebAnalytics has 2,688. Matomo has the larger community by that measure.
Are Matomo and OpenWebAnalytics free?
Both are open source. Matomo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and OpenWebAnalytics under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Matomo and OpenWebAnalytics?
Matomo is written in PHP and OpenWebAnalytics in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Matomo or OpenWebAnalytics?
Choose Matomo if you want the larger community (21,880 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose OpenWebAnalytics if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.