head to head · open source
Matomo vs shynet
Matomo has 21,889 GitHub stars, 2,894 forks, 2,578 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. shynet has 3,156 stars, 208 forks, 63 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Matomo leads on adoption by 594% (21,889 vs 3,156 stars). Matomo is written in PHP under GPL-3.0; shynet is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Matomo has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, shynet 7%. Matomo was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (analytics, 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 | shynet | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-03-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 208 |
| 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 shynet if
- You want the shynet feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and shynet 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 shynet
Shynet is an open source web analytics application written in Python and built with Django. It lives in the self hosted web and product analytics ecosystem, where operators collect visit data on their own infrastructure instead of sending it to a third party service. The project is released under the Apache 2.0 license and aims to provide detailed analytics without cookies or required JavaScript.
read the full shynet overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Matomo or shynet more popular?
Matomo has 21,889 GitHub stars and shynet has 3,156. Matomo has the larger community by that measure.
Are Matomo and shynet free?
Both are open source. Matomo is licensed under GPL-3.0 and shynet under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Matomo and shynet?
Matomo is written in PHP and shynet in Python. 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 shynet?
Choose Matomo if you want the larger community (21,889 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose shynet if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.