Plausible Analytics is an open-source, self-hosted web analytics tool that tracks traffic without cookies or personal data collection, a privacy-first alternative to Google Analytics. This guide deploys Plausible Community Edition using Docker Compose, fronts it with Nginx, and secures it with a Let’s Encrypt certificate. By the end, you’ll have Plausible tracking a website’s traffic securely at your domain.
Configure the Environment
1. Clone the Community Edition repo:
$ mkdir ~/plausible
$ cd ~/plausible
$ git clone https://github.com/plausible/community-edition.git
$ cd community-edition
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2. Generate a secret key:
$ openssl rand -base64 64 | tr -d '\n'
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3. Create the environment file:
$ nano .env
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[email protected]
ADMIN_USER_NAME=admin
ADMIN_USER_PWD=ADMIN_PASSWORD
BASE_URL=https://plausible.example.com
SECRET_KEY_BASE=YOUR_SECRET_KEY_BASE
DATABASE_URL=postgres://postgres:postgres@plausible_db:5432/plausible_db
CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE_URL=http://plausible_events_db:8123/plausible_events_db
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Fill in your email, a strong admin password, your domain, and the secret key generated above.
4. Expose the app port via a Compose override (auto-merged with compose.yml):
$ nano compose.override.yaml
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services:
plausible:
ports:
- 127.0.0.1:8000:8000
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Deploy with Docker Compose
$ docker compose up -d
$ docker compose ps
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Confirm the app, Postgres, and ClickHouse (events DB) containers are all running.
Front with Nginx and Let’s Encrypt
1. Install Nginx:
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install nginx -y
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2. Create the virtual host:
$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/plausible.conf
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server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name plausible.example.com;
access_log /var/log/nginx/plausible.access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/plausible.error.log;
location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection "Upgrade";
}
}
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3. Enable and test:
$ sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/plausible.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
$ sudo nginx -t
$ sudo systemctl reload nginx
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4. Issue a Let’s Encrypt certificate:
$ sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
$ sudo ufw allow 80,443/tcp
$ sudo certbot --nginx -d plausible.example.com -m [email protected] --agree-tos --no-eff-email
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Create the Admin Account and Add a Site
- Open
https://plausible.example.com/register. - Enter your name, email, and password, then Create my account.
- Enter the domain you want to track, pick your reporting timezone, click Install Plausible.
- Copy the JavaScript tracking snippet into your site’s
<head>. Click Verify Script installation once it’s live. - Refresh after the first page view registers, the dashboard opens with live traffic stats.
Next Steps
Plausible is running and served securely over HTTPS. From here you can:
- Add more sites to track from the same dashboard
- Set up email or Slack weekly/monthly reports under site settings
- Enable the Stats API for custom dashboards or exporting data elsewhere
For the full guide with additional tips, visit the original article on Vultr Docs.
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