Plausible Self-Hosted
IntermediateWebsiteSelf-hosted Plausible Analytics: privacy-first web analytics on ClickHouse, on a server you run.
Published 27 September 2026
About Plausible Self-Hosted
Plausible Community Edition is the self-hosted release of Plausible Analytics, the privacy-first alternative to Google Analytics. A lightweight script records page views, referrers, UTM campaigns, countries, devices, goals, and custom events without cookies, and the whole site's traffic fits on one dashboard page.
What sets it apart from lighter self-hosted tools is ClickHouse. Events go into a columnar database built for aggregating billions of rows, so dashboards stay fast on high-traffic sites where a row store slows down. PostgreSQL holds the relational side: user accounts, site settings, and goal definitions. The official Compose file runs Plausible, ClickHouse, and PostgreSQL as three containers, which is why the stack wants a 2 GB server at minimum and 4 GB for real traffic.
Plausible can serve HTTPS itself: with ports 80 and 443 set, it requests its own Let's Encrypt certificate, so a reverse proxy is optional. Put one in front when the server also hosts other services, or when you'd rather manage every certificate in one place.
The Community Edition is released twice a year as a long-term release under AGPLv3, and it leaves out a few Cloud features: marketing funnels, user journeys, ecommerce revenue goals, SSO, and the Sites API. It suits high-traffic sites, organizations that need analytics data on their own infrastructure, and agencies running many client sites without per-pageview billing.
Key Features
- ✓Single-page dashboard for traffic, sources, UTM campaigns, locations, and devices
- ✓Cookie-free script with no personal data stored
- ✓ClickHouse event storage for fast aggregate queries at high traffic volumes
- ✓PostgreSQL for user accounts, site settings, and goal definitions
- ✓Goals and custom events for key site actions
- ✓Built-in Let's Encrypt HTTPS, with a reverse proxy optional
When to Use Plausible Self-Hosted
- →High-traffic websites where Plausible Cloud's pageview-based pricing adds up
- →Organizations required to keep analytics data on their own infrastructure
- →Agencies hosting analytics for many client sites from one instance
- →Teams that want Plausible's dashboard without a subscription
- →Organizations that have standardized on self-hosted open-source tooling
Pros
- No pageview limits; the cost is a fixed server at any traffic level
- ClickHouse keeps dashboards fast on very high traffic volumes
- No cookies, so no tracking-cookie consent banner
- Official Compose file with built-in HTTPS keeps the deploy short
Cons
- Heavier than PostgreSQL-only tools: ClickHouse needs a 2 GB server at minimum and a CPU with SSE 4.2 or NEON
- Funnels, user journeys, ecommerce revenue goals, and SSO are Cloud-only
- Twice-yearly releases, so new Cloud features reach self-hosted instances months later
- Two databases to back up and upgrade instead of one
Hosting Options for Plausible Self-Hosted
Deploy Plausible Self-Hosted on Hetzner
A flat-rate root VPS with 4 GB instances from around €5/mo, on x86 or ARM; both meet ClickHouse's CPU requirement. 4 GB is the size that gives ClickHouse room on a site with real traffic, and the price leaves room to grow the disk as event data accumulates.
Deploy Plausible Self-Hosted on DigitalOcean
A root Droplet with snapshots and a cloud firewall in the panel. The 2 GB Droplet (about $12/mo) meets Plausible's recommended floor, and the 4 GB tier (about $24/mo) is the comfortable size once traffic grows. DigitalOcean has no managed ClickHouse, so both databases run on the Droplet.
Deploy Plausible Self-Hosted on Hostinger
The budget VPS in the list: the entry KVM plan (about $6.50/mo) already includes 4 GB of memory, the size Plausible's founders point to for real sites. That makes it the cheapest way to run ClickHouse with headroom, with fewer regions than the larger providers and backups left to you.
Deploy Plausible Self-Hosted on Amazon Web Services
An EC2 instance at roughly $15-30/mo for 2-4 GB, with EBS volumes for the two databases and snapshots for backup. It fits when your sites already run on AWS. An Application Load Balancer with AWS Certificate Manager can take over TLS from Plausible's built-in certificates; RDS could hold the PostgreSQL side, but ClickHouse still runs on the instance.
Deploy Plausible Self-Hosted on Google Cloud Platform
A Compute Engine instance at roughly $15-30/mo for 2-4 GB, with persistent disks for the two databases. It fits when your sites already run on Google Cloud. Cloud Load Balancing with Google-managed certificates can take over TLS from Plausible's built-in certificates, and ClickHouse still runs on the instance.
These are highlighted picks. To see all the tools, check the Hosting & Cloud category.
Reverse Proxy Options for Plausible Self-Hosted
Plausible Self-Hosted with Traefik
Routes to the Plausible container from Docker labels and renews certificates on its own, in place of Plausible's built-in HTTPS. Set Plausible's HTTP_PORT to an internal port and make sure X-Forwarded-For reaches it: Plausible uses the visitor's IP for location and unique-visitor counts.
Plausible Self-Hosted with Caddy
Automatic HTTPS from a few lines of config, in place of Plausible's built-in certificates. Caddy forwards X-Forwarded-For and WebSocket connections by default, so visitor locations and the live dashboard work without extra headers.
Plausible Self-Hosted with NGINX
The most familiar proxy, and the one Plausible's community wiki documents, with TLS through Certbot. Forward X-Forwarded-For for visitor IPs, and add the HTTP/1.1 upgrade headers on the /live/websocket path, or the real-time view stops updating.
Self-Hosted PaaS Options for Plausible Self-Hosted
Plausible Self-Hosted with Coolify
Free and self-hosted, with a Plausible template that deploys the app with ClickHouse and PostgreSQL behind Coolify's bundled proxy. It saves writing the Compose file, and Coolify's dashboard then manages Plausible next to the sites it tracks.
Plausible Self-Hosted with Dokploy
Free and self-hosted, with Plausible in its template catalog, deployed behind its bundled Traefik with HTTPS configured from the dashboard. Check that its backups cover both the ClickHouse and PostgreSQL volumes, since the events live in one and the accounts in the other.
Plausible Self-Hosted Add-ons
Each addition below extends this stack with a capability the base stack works fine without. None are required: include the ones your product actually needs when building this stack, and skip the rest.
Tunnel Add-ons
Add a tunnel when you're self-hosting without a static IP or can't open inbound ports — a home server, a VPS behind restrictive network policies, or anywhere a reverse proxy alone can't reach the internet.
Plausible Self-Hosted with Cloudflare Tunnel
Makes Plausible reachable over HTTPS through an outbound-only connection, with no inbound ports or static IP, for a server on a home network or behind NAT. The tunnel handles TLS, so turn off Plausible's own certificate request, and check that the visitor's IP still arrives in X-Forwarded-For.
Plausible Self-Hosted with ngrok
The quicker-start tunnel for testing the tracking script, goals, and custom events against a Plausible instance on your own machine. Its free-tier limits suit development rather than a collector that live websites call on every page view.
Frequently Asked Questions about Plausible Self-Hosted
Why self-host Plausible instead of using Plausible Cloud?
Pageview limits and data location. Plausible Cloud starts at $9/mo for one site and 10,000 monthly pageviews, and prices rise with traffic; Business at $19/mo adds funnels and revenue tracking. The Community Edition has no pageview caps and keeps every event on your server. What it costs you: CE leaves out marketing funnels, user journeys, ecommerce revenue goals, SSO, and the Sites API, releases twice a year instead of continuously, and you run the server, both databases, and upgrades. For a small site Cloud is cheaper than the server; the case for self-hosting grows with traffic.
What does the server need to run?
Plausible recommends at least 2 GB of memory to run ClickHouse and the app without out-of-memory crashes, and 4 GB is the comfortable size for a site with real traffic. The CPU must support SSE 4.2 on x86 or NEON on ARM, which ClickHouse requires; almost every current VPS does, but some older or emulated CPUs don't. Start with 40 GB of SSD, since ClickHouse's event data grows with traffic. Monthly pageviews, not the number of sites, decide when to size up.
What needs backing up, and how do upgrades work?
Two databases. ClickHouse holds every recorded event, and PostgreSQL holds user accounts, sites, and goals; back up both volumes, since losing either one breaks the dashboards. The Community Edition ships a long-term release twice a year. Upgrading means pulling the new version of the official Compose repository, reading the release notes (some releases also move ClickHouse or PostgreSQL to a new major version with their own steps), backing up, and restarting the containers.
Plausible or Umami for self-hosted analytics?
Both are cookie-free and privacy-first, with similar dashboards. Plausible stores events in ClickHouse, which keeps aggregate queries fast at many millions of events a month but needs at least 2 GB of memory and runs two databases. Umami keeps everything in PostgreSQL: one container plus a database in 1 GB, simpler to run, but slower on very large event tables. Umami's self-hosted version also includes funnel and revenue reports that Plausible reserves for its Cloud plans. High-traffic sites: Plausible. Many small sites on a cheap server: Umami.
Do I need a reverse proxy in front of Plausible?
Not since version 2.1.2. Set HTTP_PORT to 80 and HTTPS_PORT to 443, expose both ports, and Plausible requests and renews its own Let's Encrypt certificate. Add a proxy when the server also hosts other services on those ports, or when you want one place for all certificates. If you do, set HTTP_PORT to an internal port bound to localhost, forward X-Forwarded-For so visitor locations stay correct, and pass WebSocket upgrades for the live dashboard.
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Scores
Popularity4/5
The best-known privacy-first analytics platform and the standard Google Analytics alternative in that conversation.
Learning Curve2/5
One Compose file to deploy and good documentation; using Plausible requires no analytics background at all.
Flexibility3/5
Deep within its lane, web analytics done thoroughly, and honestly bounded there; no product-analytics or warehouse ambitions.
Performance5/5
ClickHouse is the point: aggregate queries over large event volumes stay fast where a row-store would crawl.
Portability5/5
The full event dataset sits as tables in your own ClickHouse and PostgreSQL, queryable and exportable independently of the product.
Tools in the Plausible Self-Hosted Stack
Databases
DevOps & CI/CD
Observability & Monitoring
Add-ons (optional — add any, or none)
Tunnel
Plausible Self-Hosted Pricing
Plausible Community Edition, ClickHouse, and PostgreSQL self-host free, so the recurring cost is one server with enough memory for ClickHouse, $6-30/mo depending on the provider. Plausible Cloud starts at $9/mo for 10,000 monthly pageviews and rises with traffic, so a small site pays less on Cloud; self-hosting pays off at higher traffic, or when analytics data has to stay on your own infrastructure.
2 GB of RAM is Plausible's recommended floor for ClickHouse and the app; 4 GB suits real traffic. The CPU must support SSE 4.2 or NEON.
AGPLv3, with no pageview limits; funnels, journeys, revenue goals, and SSO are Cloud-only.
Plausible issues its own Let's Encrypt certificate; Traefik, Caddy, NGINX, Coolify, and Dokploy are free if you add one.
Plausible Self-Hosted System Requirements
- CPU
- 2 vCPU with SSE 4.2 (x86) or NEON (ARM) support, ClickHouse's hard requirement
- RAM
- 2 GB recommended floor, 4 GB for real traffic
- Disk
- 40 GB SSD; ClickHouse event data grows with traffic
- OS
- Any Linux with Docker
No official requirements published — tekyous guidance based on the bundle's services.
The Community Edition prerequisites do set two anchors, 2 GB of RAM recommended to run ClickHouse and Plausible without OOMs and the SSE 4.2/NEON CPU requirement, and the founders' own sizing answers converge on 4 GB for real sites. Monthly traffic volume sets the ceiling.