Plausible Analytics — Privacy-First Google Analytics Alternative

What Plausible Does

Plausible focuses on essential web analytics without bloat:

• Traffic Overview: Unique visitors, page views, bounce rate, visit duration — all in one dashboard
• Source Attribution: See where your traffic comes from (search engines, social media, referral sites, campaigns)
• Page Analytics: Most visited pages, entry pages, exit pages with real-time data
• Location Data: Country and city-level breakdown without IP tracking (uses timezone-based approximation)
• Device Analytics: Browser, OS, and screen size breakdown
• Goal & Event Tracking: Custom events, revenue tracking, and conversion funnels
• UTM Campaign Tracking: Full UTM parameter support for marketing campaigns

Why Privacy-First Matters

┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│  Google Analytics               │
│  ✗ 45KB script                 │
│  ✗ Sets cookies                │
│  ✗ Tracks across sites         │
│  ✗ Requires cookie banner      │
│  ✗ Data sent to Google         │
└─────────────────────────────────┘

┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│  Plausible Analytics            │
│  ✓ <1KB script                 │
│  ✓ No cookies                  │
│  ✓ No cross-site tracking      │
│  ✓ No consent banner needed    │
│  ✓ Data stays with you         │
└─────────────────────────────────┘

Plausible achieves accurate analytics without cookies by using a hash of the visitor's IP address + User-Agent for daily unique identification. This hash is rotated daily and never stored, making it impossible to track individual users.

Self-Hosting Guide

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose
• A server with 2GB+ RAM
• A domain with DNS configured

Setup

git clone https://github.com/plausible/hosting.git
cd hosting

# Configure
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env:
# BASE_URL=https://analytics.yourdomain.com
# SECRET_KEY_BASE=$(openssl rand -base64 48)

# Start
docker compose up -d

ClickHouse Backend

Plausible uses ClickHouse for analytics data storage, providing:

• Sub-second query performance on millions of events
• Efficient columnar compression (10-20x less storage than row-based DBs)
• Time-series optimized aggregations

Reverse Proxy (Nginx)

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name analytics.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

Advanced Features

Custom Event Tracking

<script>
  // Track button clicks
  document.getElementById('signup-btn').addEventListener('click', function() {
    plausible('Signup', { props: { plan: 'pro' } });
  });

  // Track revenue
  plausible('Purchase', { revenue: { currency: 'USD', amount: 29.99 } });
</script>

API Access

# Get site stats
curl "https://plausible.io/api/v1/stats/realtime/visitors?site_id=yourdomain.com" 
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

# Get breakdown by page
curl "https://plausible.io/api/v1/stats/breakdown?site_id=yourdomain.com&period=30d&property=event:page" 
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Plausible vs Alternatives

FAQ

Q: How does it count unique visitors without cookies? A: Plausible identifies unique visitors using a daily-rotating hash of the visitor's IP + User-Agent. The hash is not stored, resets automatically each day, and cannot be used for cross-day tracking.

Q: What are the server requirements for self-hosting? A: 2GB RAM minimum, 4GB+ recommended. For sites with under 100K daily visits, 1 core and 2GB runs smoothly. ClickHouse will use significant memory for query caching.

Q: Can I migrate from Google Analytics? A: Yes. Plausible provides a GA import tool that supports historical data from Google Analytics (both UA and GA4).