How To Install Plausible Analytics With One Click

Plausible Analytics is a privacy-first, open-source alternative to Google Analytics. It collects no personal data, sets no cookies, and the tracking script is about 2.5KB. Self-hosting Plausible means you own the data, pay nothing beyond your server costs, and don’t need cookie consent banners.

In this guide, you’ll deploy Plausible on your own VPS using Coolify, a self-hosted PaaS. Coolify handles the Docker Compose orchestration, ClickHouse database, PostgreSQL database, SSL certificates, and reverse proxy configuration automatically.

Plausible CE (Community Edition) v3.2.1 is the current release as of May 2026. The v3.x line introduced teams support, scroll depth metrics, segments, and a new configurable tracking script (v3.0.0 and v3.1.0). v3.2.1 is a security patch that fixes CVE-2026-8467.

What you get with self-hosted Plausible

• No pageview limits — Plausible Cloud starts at $9/month for 10K pageviews and scales up with traffic. Self-hosted has no limits.
• Full data ownership — analytics data stays on your server. No third-party access.
• GDPR compliance — no cookies, no IP tracking, no personal data collection. No consent banners needed.
• Lightweight script — 2.5KB, roughly 54x smaller than GA4’s 135KB.
• Three containers — Plausible app (Elixir/Phoenix), ClickHouse (analytics events), PostgreSQL (accounts and config).

Prerequisites

• A VPS with at least 2 CPU cores and 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended for comfortable operation)
• A domain or subdomain for your Plausible dashboard (e.g., analytics.yourdomain.com)
• Coolify installed on the server

Video walkthrough

Step 1: Set up a VPS server

You need a VPS to host Plausible. Hetzner offers the best price-to-performance for self-hosting. Other options: DigitalOcean, Vultr, Hostinger. We have VPS benchmarks here: DigitalOcean vs Vultr vs Hetzner.

For Plausible alongside Coolify and a few other services, a 4 GB RAM / 2-core VPS is a solid starting point.

DigitalOcean $100 Free Vultr $100 Free Hetzner €⁠20 Free Hostinger VPS

Step 2: Install Coolify

SSH into your VPS as root and run:

curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | sudo bash

The script installs Docker Engine 24+, dependencies, and Coolify itself. After installation, access the Coolify dashboard at http://your-server-ip:8000 and create your admin account immediately.

For complete setup including SSL and domain configuration, see: Coolify Install Guide

Step 3: Point a domain to the server

You need a domain or subdomain for Plausible. Add an A record in your DNS pointing to the VPS IP. For example, analytics.yourdomain.com → your-server-ip.

If you use Cloudflare, leave the proxy disabled (gray cloud). Coolify’s Traefik reverse proxy handles SSL via Let’s Encrypt automatically.

Step 4: Deploy the Plausible service

4.1 Create a new service

In Coolify, go to Create New Resource and select Service. Search for “Plausible Analytics” in the service catalog and select it.

Coolify’s Plausible template deploys three containers:

• Plausible — the Elixir/Phoenix web application (image: ghcr.io/plausible/community-edition:v3.2.1)
• plausible-db — PostgreSQL 16 for user accounts and site configuration
• plausible-events-db — ClickHouse for analytics event storage and fast aggregation

4.2 Configure the service

In the service configuration, set these values:

• Name — a name for your deployment (e.g., “plausible-analytics”)
• Version / Tag — select the latest version (v3.2.1 as of May 2026)
• URL (FQDN) — your Plausible domain (e.g., https://analytics.yourdomain.com)

Save the configuration.

4.3 Configure environment variables

Plausible CE is configured via environment variables. In the Coolify service settings, you can add these as environment variables:

Required (Coolify generates these automatically):

• BASE_URL — set to your Plausible URL (e.g., https://analytics.yourdomain.com)
• SECRET_KEY_BASE — a 64+ character random string for session encryption
• TOTP_VAULT_KEY — encryption key for two-factor authentication secrets

Registration:

• DISABLE_REGISTRATION — defaults to invite_only. This means only users you invite can create accounts. After your admin account is set up, you don’t need to change this. If you want to lock it down completely, set it to true instead.

SMTP (optional, for email reports and password resets):

MAILER_EMAIL=[email protected]
SMTP_HOST_ADDR=smtp.yourdomain.com
SMTP_HOST_PORT=587
SMTP_USER_NAME=[email protected]
SMTP_USER_PWD=your_smtp_password
SMTP_HOST_SSL_ENABLED=true

Without SMTP, Plausible works fine — you just won’t receive email reports or be able to reset passwords via email.

Google Search Console integration (optional):

GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret

This lets Plausible import search query data from Google Search Console. You configure it in Plausible’s site settings after deployment.

For the full list of configuration options, see the Plausible CE Configuration wiki.

Hit Deploy. Coolify pulls the Docker images, creates persistent volumes for PostgreSQL and ClickHouse, and starts all three containers. The first deploy takes a few minutes.

4.4 Access Plausible

After deployment completes, visit your Plausible URL (e.g., https://analytics.yourdomain.com). You’ll see a registration page to create your admin account.

Step 5: Add your first site

In the Plausible dashboard, click Add a website and enter your site’s domain. Plausible generates a tracking snippet:

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

Add this snippet to the <head> of every page on your website. Because the script loads from your own domain rather than a third-party server, it’s less likely to be blocked by ad blockers or privacy extensions.

Tracking script variants

Plausible offers several script variants for additional tracking:

• script.js — basic pageview tracking
• script.hash.js — tracks hash-based routing (for SPAs)
• script.outbound-links.js — tracks clicks on external links
• script.file-downloads.js — tracks file download clicks
• script.tagged-events.js — enables custom event tracking via CSS classes

Combine them: script.tagged-events.outbound-links.file-downloads.js. Adding extensions increases the file size, but it remains far smaller than Google Analytics even with everything enabled.

Data persistence and backups

Plausible stores data in two databases:

• PostgreSQL — user accounts, site configuration, goals
• ClickHouse — analytics events (the bulk of your data)

Both run as Docker containers with persistent volumes managed by Coolify. If you redeploy Plausible, your data survives.

For backups, use Coolify’s built-in S3 backup for PostgreSQL. For ClickHouse, ensure your VPS backup strategy includes Docker volumes or use a provider with automatic snapshots.

Updating Plausible

To update Plausible CE, change the image tag in the Coolify service settings (e.g., from v3.2.0 to v3.2.1) and redeploy. Coolify pulls the new image and restarts the container. PostgreSQL and ClickHouse migrations run automatically on startup.

Watch the Plausible CE releases for security patches and new features. The v3.2.1 release (May 2026) fixed a security vulnerability (CVE-2026-8467) — update if you’re running an older version.

More Coolify tutorials

• Coolify Install Guide
• Install Uptime Kuma with Coolify
• Coolify vs Dokploy vs Kamal 2

Conclusion

Self-hosted Plausible on Coolify gives you privacy-first analytics with no recurring fees and no pageview limits. The one-click service template handles the complex parts (ClickHouse, PostgreSQL, networking, SSL). You configure environment variables, deploy, and start tracking.

The script loads fast from your own domain and won’t get blocked by ad blockers, so your analytics are more accurate than a typical cloud setup — and visitors never see a cookie consent banner.

DigitalOcean $100 Free Vultr $100 Free Hetzner €⁠20 Free Hostinger VPS