What is On-Premise? A short definition.

On-premises software is installed and run on the premises of the person or organization using the software, rather than in a remote facility like a server farm or cloud. In some cases, on-premises software is called shrink-wrap software, and off-premises software is called “software as a service” or “cloud computing”.

The software consists of databases and modules that are combined to meet the unique needs of large organizations regarding the automation of corporate-wide business systems and their functions.

On-premise vs cloud analytics

For web analytics, the choice is usually between running the analytics software on your own servers (self-hosting) and using a cloud tool where the vendor runs the servers for you. Cloud tools come in a public cloud version, where many customers share the infrastructure, and sometimes a private cloud version with dedicated resources.

Examples

• Matomo On-Premise: free to download and run on your own server. Matomo 5 needs PHP 8 and MySQL 5.5 or newer (or MariaDB). Matomo 6, in release candidate since October 2026, will need PHP 8.1 or newer and MySQL 8.0 or newer (or MariaDB 10.6 or newer). Matomo also sells a hosted version, Matomo Cloud.
• Snowplow: a data pipeline you can run in your own cloud account. Components released under the Snowplow Limited Use License can’t be used in production without a commercial licence from Snowplow.
• Piwik PRO: often mentioned as an alternative, but it doesn’t offer on-premise or self-hosted deployment. It runs in the cloud, with public and private cloud options and a choice of data centre region.

Data ownership

The main reason to choose on-premise is control. You decide where the data is stored and who can reach it, and no vendor processes it on your behalf. Matomo puts it simply: “you own your data, no one else.”

Cost and maintenance

Free software is not free to run. Matomo charges no licence fee for running Matomo On-Premise, so your costs are the server resources. But you also set up and maintain the PHP and database backend yourself, and you keep up with security updates. Add backups, monitoring and the staff time to do all of it. Piwik PRO, which sells cloud hosting, warns that with on-premise “you maintain the security yourself, forever” and says this often costs much more than cloud hosting for smaller teams.

According to Piwik PRO, on-premise mainly makes sense when you already run significant infrastructure or when your data volumes make cloud costs climb.