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Plausible Analytics

A lightweight, open-source, privacy-focused web analytics tool with a simple dashboard, positioned as a GDPR-friendly alternative to Google Analytics.

Target: Any Docker hostAnalyticsOfficial homepage ↗Official docs ↗
This guide is synthesized from Plausible Analytics's own official documentation, linked above — always cross-check exact package/version names there before running these commands on a production server, since distro and project versions move over time.

  1. 1Clone the Community Edition repo

    git clone https://github.com/plausible/community-edition.git plausible-ce
    cd plausible-ce

    Check the repo's Releases page for the latest tag and consider cloning that specific tag instead of the default branch.

    Plausible Community Edition releases ↗

  2. 2Create the .env configuration

    touch .env
    echo "BASE_URL=https://plausible.example.com" >> .env
    echo "SECRET_KEY_BASE=$(openssl rand -base64 48)" >> .env

  3. 3Start the stack

    Plausible runs as three containers: the web app (Elixir), PostgreSQL for accounts, and ClickHouse for analytics events. ClickHouse needs at least 2 GB RAM at idle.

    docker compose up -d

  4. 4Create the first user

    Visit your BASE_URL and register the first account through the web UI.