# Self-host Plausible Analytics (Community Edition) with Docker > Install Plausible Community Edition with its official Docker Compose setup, serve it over HTTPS with Caddy, add your site, and back up and upgrade it. Source: https://vpsnine.com/tutorials/self-host-plausible-analytics · Updated: 2026-10-21 Difficulty: intermediate · Time: about 30 minutes · Tested on: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Prerequisites: - A server with at least 2 GB of memory and Docker Engine with the Compose plugin - A subdomain for the dashboard - Root or a user with sudo - Git To self-host Plausible Analytics, clone the official `plausible/community-edition` repository at a release tag, put your domain and a secret key in its `.env` file, and start it with `docker compose up -d`. You then either let Plausible get its own Let's Encrypt certificate on ports 80 and 443, or, as here, bind it to `127.0.0.1:8000` and put Caddy in front so it can share the server with other sites. Plausible Community Edition (CE) is the free, self-hosted release of Plausible, licensed under the [AGPL-3.0](https://github.com/plausible/analytics/blob/master/LICENSE.md). It is three containers: the Plausible app, PostgreSQL for accounts and settings, and ClickHouse for the visitor events. This tutorial uses CE v3.2.1, the newest release at the time of writing. | What | In this tutorial | | --- | --- | | The dashboard's domain | `plausible.example.com` | | The site you measure | `www.example.com` | | The server's public IPv4 address | `203.0.113.10` | | The install directory | `/opt/plausible-ce` | ## Check that CE is right for you Plausible's own [comparison](https://plausible.io/self-hosted-web-analytics) is candid about the differences from their paid cloud service: | | Plausible Cloud | Plausible CE (self-hosted) | | --- | --- | --- | | Cost | Subscription | Free; you pay for the server | | Running it | Done for you | Installs, upgrades, backups, uptime and security are yours | | Releases | Continuous | About twice a year | | Not included in CE | | Marketing funnels, user journeys, ecommerce revenue goals, SSO, the Sites API | | Bot filtering | Includes excluding data center IP ranges | Basic: user agents and referrer spam | | Support | Premium support | Community only | Your visitor data stays on your server, in the country you choose. The tracking script and the dashboard are the same as in the cloud version. ## Check the server can run ClickHouse The [CE README](https://github.com/plausible/community-edition) lists two requirements: - **A CPU with SSE 4.2** (or NEON on ARM). ClickHouse won't start without it. Every current x86 server CPU has it; check with: ```bash grep -m1 -o sse4_2 /proc/cpuinfo ``` It prints `sse4_2`. No output means ClickHouse can't run on this CPU. - **At least 2 GB of memory** is recommended, so ClickHouse and Plausible don't run out. The repository already ships settings that make ClickHouse use less memory on small servers. ## Download the release and configure it Clone the repository at the release tag, so you get the Compose file that matches that version: ```bash cd /opt sudo git clone -b v3.2.1 --single-branch https://github.com/plausible/community-edition plausible-ce cd plausible-ce ``` Write `.env` with the dashboard's public address, a random secret of the length Plausible requires, and the port it should listen on behind Caddy: ```bash sudo tee .env > /dev/null < /dev/null <<'EOF' services: plausible: ports: - 127.0.0.1:8000:${HTTP_PORT} EOF ``` Binding to `127.0.0.1` matters: Docker's published ports bypass ufw, so a bare `8000:8000` would be reachable from the internet. ## Start it ```bash sudo docker compose up -d ``` The first start downloads the images and creates the databases. ClickHouse and PostgreSQL report healthy first, then Plausible starts. ### Check it worked ```bash sudo docker compose ps curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/health ``` All three services are up and the databases `(healthy)`, and the health check prints `{"sessions":"ok","postgres":"ok","clickhouse":"ok","sites_cache":"ok"}`. ## Put Caddy in front for HTTPS Point an `A` record (and `AAAA`, if the server has IPv6) for `plausible.example.com` at the server, open the web ports, and install Caddy from its repository: ```bash sudo ufw allow 80/tcp sudo ufw allow 443/tcp sudo apt install -y debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring apt-transport-https curl gpg curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable-archive-keyring.gpg curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list sudo apt update sudo apt install -y caddy ``` Replace `/etc/caddy/Caddyfile` with: ```text plausible.example.com { reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:8000 } ``` ```bash sudo caddy validate --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile sudo systemctl reload caddy ``` Caddy passes the visitor's address in `X-Forwarded-For` and handles the websocket for the live view, which is all Plausible's [reverse proxy guide](https://github.com/plausible/community-edition/wiki/Reverse-Proxy) asks for. ## Create your account and add the site 1. Open `https://plausible.example.com` straight away. It redirects to the registration page; the first account you register becomes the owner. 2. Register now, before anyone else finds the page. After the first account, CE only lets invited people register (`DISABLE_REGISTRATION` defaults to `invite_only`). To close registration completely, add `DISABLE_REGISTRATION=true` to `.env` and run `sudo docker compose up -d`. 3. Add your site (`www.example.com`). Plausible shows the tracking snippet for it. 4. Paste the snippet into the `` of every page on your site, exactly as shown. It loads the script from `https://plausible.example.com`. ### Check it worked Open your site in a browser with ad blocking turned off, then look at the site's dashboard in Plausible: the visit appears in the live visitor count within a few seconds. Content blockers that block analytics also block self-hosted Plausible, so some visits are never counted. Without email settings, Plausible can't send invitations, password resets or reports. Configure SMTP in `.env` with the `SMTP_HOST_ADDR`, `SMTP_HOST_PORT`, `SMTP_USER_NAME`, `SMTP_USER_PWD` and `MAILER_EMAIL` variables from the [configuration page](https://github.com/plausible/community-edition/wiki/Configuration), then run `sudo docker compose up -d`. ## Back it up Your data lives in three volumes: `plausible-ce_db-data` (PostgreSQL: accounts, sites, goals), `plausible-ce_event-data` (ClickHouse: all the visits) and `plausible-ce_plausible-data`. The simplest consistent backup stops the stack for the time it takes to copy them; visits sent during those seconds are lost: ```bash cd /opt/plausible-ce sudo docker compose stop sudo docker run --rm \ -v plausible-ce_db-data:/db-data:ro \ -v plausible-ce_event-data:/event-data:ro \ -v plausible-ce_plausible-data:/plausible-data:ro \ -v /root:/backup alpine \ tar czf /backup/plausible-$(date +%F).tgz /db-data /event-data /plausible-data sudo docker compose start ``` Keep `.env` with it: without the same `SECRET_KEY_BASE`, a restore can't read what was encrypted with it. Copy the archive off the server; [Back up your server](https://vpsnine.com/help/backups-you-should-run) shows how to do it nightly. ## Upgrade Plausible doesn't backport fixes, so stay current. Watch the [releases](https://github.com/plausible/analytics/releases) and read each release's upgrade notes first, since major versions can need extra steps. The repository has one branch per release, named after the version. For a normal upgrade, back up, then pull the new release's branch into your copy and recreate the containers. Replace `vX.Y.Z` with the release you're moving to: ```bash cd /opt/plausible-ce sudo git pull origin vX.Y.Z grep image: compose.yml sudo docker compose up -d ``` `grep` shows the image tags you're about to run. Your `.env` and `compose.override.yml` aren't part of the repository, so they stay as they are. Moving from the v3.2.0 branch to v3.2.1 this way is a plain fast-forward. The [upgrade guide](https://github.com/plausible/community-edition/wiki/Upgrade) has the details. ## Troubleshooting **ClickHouse keeps restarting and its log mentions SSE 4.2.** The CPU lacks the instruction set ClickHouse needs. Check `grep sse4_2 /proc/cpuinfo`; a server without it can't run Plausible CE. **Containers are killed or restart under load.** The server is out of memory. `dmesg | grep -i oom` shows the kernel killing a process. Move to a server with more memory; 2 GB is the floor, not a comfortable size for busy sites. **The dashboard loads but live visitors never update, or the browser console shows a websocket error.** `BASE_URL` doesn't match the address in the browser, or the proxy doesn't pass websockets (Caddy does by default; with nginx, add the `/live/websocket` block from Plausible's guide). **Every visit shows the same country, or none at all.** Plausible sees Caddy's address instead of the visitor's. Proxy with Caddy's `reverse_proxy` as above, which sends `X-Forwarded-For`. CE uses a free country-level geolocation database unless you add a MaxMind key for city-level data. **Caddy logs `could not get certificate from issuer`.** DNS doesn't point at this server yet, or ports 80 and 443 are closed in ufw or a firewall in front of the server. ## Next steps - Watch the dashboard and your sites from outside with [Uptime Kuma](https://vpsnine.com/tutorials/self-host-uptime-kuma). - Run more containers behind the same proxy with [Docker Compose and a reverse proxy](https://vpsnine.com/tutorials/docker-compose-reverse-proxy). - Read the [CE wiki](https://github.com/plausible/community-edition/wiki) for email, Google Search Console and geolocation settings.