In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Plausible Analytics on an Ubuntu Server. Plausible is a simple, privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics. It offers basic visitor statistics for websites, without compromising the privacy of your users. You can use Plausible Analytics on your own server, or as a hosted service. Let's get started!
Connect to your Ubuntu Server using SSH. You can use any SSH client, such as PuTTY or the built-in OpenSSH client on Linux and macOS.
Before we install Plausible Analytics, we need to install some dependencies. Enter the following command:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y curl gnupg2
Now that dependencies are installed, you can install Plausible Analytics. To do that, enter these commands:
curl -sS https://plausible.io/plausible.asc | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://plausible.io/mirror/ubuntu focal main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/plausible.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install plausible
After successful installation of Plausible Analytics, we need to configure it to start using it. Navigate to the /etc/plausible folder:
cd /etc/plausible
Rename the default.env file to .env:
cp default.env .env
Now open the .env file using any text editor of your choice:
nano .env
Add the following line into the file, replacing example.com with your website's domain name:
PLAUSIBLE_DOMAIN=example.com
If you want to enable self-hosting, add the following line to the file:
PLAUSIBLE_SELF_HOSTED=true
If you want to modify any other options, check out Plausible Docs
Save the changes in the file, and exit the editor.
Now that we have successfully configured Plausible Analytics, we can start the service by running this command:
sudo systemctl start plausible
Also, let's enable the service so that it starts automatically after the server is rebooted:
sudo systemctl enable plausible
So far, we have installed and configured Plausible Analytics. Now we just need to verify that it's working properly. Open your web browser and type in the following url to access the Plausible Analytics dashboard:
https://yourdomain.com
If you see the Plausible Analytics dashboard, congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Plausible Analytics on your Ubuntu server.
We hope that this tutorial helped you to install and configure Plausible Analytics on your Ubuntu Server. Plausible Analytics is a great alternative to Google Analytics, offering powerful analytics while respecting the privacy of your visitors. Good luck using it!
If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!
Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!
