Plausible analytics on a LYLIX VPS - privacy-friendly replacement for Google Analytics

Plausible is a privacy-focused web analytics tool: no cookies, no personal data collection, GDPR/CCPA-compliant by design. It self-hosts cleanly on a single VPS. This article covers the install and the operational considerations.

Why self-host instead of using their SaaS

• Cost: hosted Plausible scales with page-view volume. Self-hosted is fixed.
• Data residency: your analytics data stays on your server.
• No third-party in the request path of your visitors.
• You can leave the script-blocker-bypass tricks unconfigured if you don't need them.

Trade-offs: you operate the thing. For very small sites (a few hundred visits/month), SaaS Plausible at $9-19/month is less work than self-hosting.

Sizing

• Small (a few sites, <100k page views/month): 2 GB RAM, 1 CPU, 20 GB disk.
• Medium (multiple sites, 1M+ page views/month): 4 GB RAM, 2 CPU, 50+ GB.
• Large: ClickHouse memory grows with query volume — scale RAM, watch query performance.

The footprint is dominated by ClickHouse (the columnar DB Plausible uses). PostgreSQL is small by comparison.

Install via Docker

The recommended path. Plausible publishes a docker-compose.yml that includes all the dependencies:

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

# Generate a secret key base
openssl rand -base64 48

Edit .env:

BASE_URL=https://analytics.example.com
SECRET_KEY_BASE=<the-rand-base64-output>
TOTP_VAULT_KEY=<another-32-byte-secret>

# Optional: SMTP for invite emails
SMTP_HOST_ADDR=smtp.mailgun.org
SMTP_HOST_PORT=587
SMTP_USER_NAME=postmaster@example.com
SMTP_USER_PWD=<password>
MAILER_EMAIL=plausible@example.com

Start:

docker compose up -d

Plausible listens on port 8000. Reverse-proxy nginx in front for TLS.

First-time setup

Open https://analytics.example.com/register. The first registered user becomes the admin. After creating the admin, disable open registration:

# In .env
DISABLE_REGISTRATION=true

Restart the container.

Adding a site

1. Plausible UI → Sites → Add site.
2. Enter domain.
3. Plausible gives you a script tag to add to your website's <head>:

   <script defer
       data-domain="example.com"
       src="https://analytics.example.com/js/script.js">
   </script>

4. Deploy that to your site.
5. Wait a few minutes; events flow into the dashboard.

Bypassing ad-blockers

Many ad-blockers (and some browsers natively) block requests to known analytics paths. Plausible's script is sometimes caught. Options:

• Proxy through your own domain. Serve the Plausible script and event endpoint from your main site's domain. nginx proxy_pass to the analytics host. Ad-blockers can't tell it's analytics.
• Custom event names. Less effective in 2026 as blockers improve at fingerprinting.

The proxy approach feels uncomfortable to some site owners who'd rather respect the user's blocker. That's a values decision, not a technical one.

Goals and custom events

Plausible tracks pageviews by default. For more:

• Goals — track when users hit a specific URL or complete a custom event. Useful for funnels.
• Custom events — call plausible('Event Name') from your JS to track arbitrary events.
• Outbound links / file downloads — built- in extensions enabled via UI.

API access

Plausible exposes a Stats API for programmatic access:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <api-key>" \
    "https://analytics.example.com/api/v1/stats/aggregate?site_id=example.com&period=30d"

Useful for building custom dashboards or embedding stats in your own admin UI.

Backup strategy

• PostgreSQL — pg_dump nightly.
• ClickHouse — clickhouse-backup utility, or replicated BACKUP/RESTORE commands for larger setups.
• The Docker compose .env and config — version control.

For most self-hosted Plausible deployments, the data isn't mission-critical (you can lose a week of analytics and survive). Don't over-engineer backups; nightly to off-host is plenty.

Updates

cd /opt/plausible
git pull
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Plausible publishes minor version updates monthly, occasional major updates. Read the changelog for major versions — migrations can take a few minutes on large databases.

Compliance angle

Plausible is designed to not need a cookie banner under GDPR/CCPA because:

• No cookies are set.
• No personal data is collected.
• IPs are hashed and discarded.

Verify with your own legal counsel for your jurisdiction — "likely doesn't need a banner" isn't "definitely doesn't need a banner." Most regulators have been fine with Plausible.

When Plausible isn't the right tool

• You need ecommerce funnel analytics across many products — purpose-built tools (Mixpanel, Amplitude) are deeper.
• You need session replay or heatmaps — different category.
• You want to do SEO keyword research from your own analytics — not Plausible's strength.

For "how many visits did my pages get, where from, what was popular?" Plausible answers it with very little operational burden.