The Trade Desk
Umami
| Feature | The Trade Desk | Umami |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Contact sales | Free / from $9/mo |
| Free Plan | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 |
| Best For | media-buyers, agencies, enterprise-advertisers, programmatic-teams | indie-developers, privacy-focused-sites, bloggers, small-businesses |
| Founded | 2009 | 2020 |
| Programmatic Buying | ✓ | ✗ |
| Connected Tv | ✓ | ✗ |
| Audio Ads | ✓ | ✗ |
| Data Marketplace | ✓ | ✗ |
| Attribution | ✓ | ✗ |
| Identity Graph | ✓ | ✗ |
| Page Views | ✗ | ✓ |
| Custom Events | ✗ | ✓ |
| Realtime Dashboard | ✗ | ✓ |
| Utm Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multi Site | ✗ | ✓ |
| Api | ✗ | ✓ |
| Teams | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ The Trade Desk Pros
- Best-in-class DSP technology
- Excellent CTV capabilities
- Strong data marketplace
- Transparent pricing
✗ The Trade Desk Cons
- Enterprise minimum spend
- Requires programmatic expertise
- Complex for beginners
✓ Umami Pros
- Completely open-source and self-hostable for free
- Beautiful, clean dashboard interface
- No cookies required (GDPR/CCPA compliant by default)
- Lightweight script (under 2KB) does not slow sites
✗ Umami Cons
- Limited advanced analytics features
- No conversion funnel or cohort analysis
- Self-hosting requires database management
The Verdict
The Trade Desk is built for media buyers and agencies, with a focus on programmatic-buying and connected-tv. Umami targets indie developers and privacy focused sites and leads with page-views and custom-events.
The Trade Desk uses custom enterprise pricing, while Umami starts at $9/mo — a tangible advantage for teams with a fixed budget.
Umami has a free plan, which gives it a meaningful edge for individuals and small teams exploring their options. The Trade Desk requires a paid subscription from day one.
Feature-wise, Umami offers broader built-in capabilities (7 features vs 6), while The Trade Desk takes a more focused approach — which can mean a simpler, faster onboarding experience.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.