Self-host Plausible Analytics with Docker Compose

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plausible

clickhouse

clickhouse/clickhouse-server:24.12-alpine

clickhouse-clickhouse-data-init

busybox

clickhouse-clickhouse-logs-init

busybox

clickhouse-clickhouse-tmp-init

busybox

clickhouse-clickhouse-users-d-init

busybox

postgres

postgres:18.3-alpine3.23

postgres-postgres-data-init

busybox

postgres-postgres-socket-init

busybox

This is still a work in progress.

The generated compose file and instructions may not be complete or correct for every app yet. Please report any issues you encounter to contact@bitflake.com.

The steps below take a few minutes end to end.

Docker compose setup and file
save the generated compose and env files.
Secret generation
create the random passwords Plausible Analytics needs.
Start Plausible Analytics with Docker Compose
bring the stack up and check it's healthy.

Requirements

You'll need these installed on the machine you're deploying to:

Docker

Packages Plausible Analytics and everything it depends on into an isolated container, so it runs the same way on your machine as it does everywhere else.

Install guide

Docker Compose

Reads docker-compose.ymland starts everything in it together. Ships with Docker Desktop. On Linux servers it's usually a separate install.

Install guide

1. Docker compose setup and file

Create a folder for Plausible Analytics and save the file below into it as docker-compose.yml. It describes every container the stack needs — Plausible Analyticsitself and any supporting services, such as its database — along with the ports, volumes and environment variables each one uses. You'll also need an empty .env file in the same folder; Docker Compose reads it automatically and uses it to fill in the ${VARIABLE}references you'll see in the file below.

docker-compose.yml

version: "3.9"
services:
  clickhouse:
    image: clickhouse/clickhouse-server:24.12-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      CLICKHOUSE_DB: app
      CLICKHOUSE_DEFAULT_ACCESS_MANAGEMENT: "1"
      CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - clickhouse-data:/var/lib/clickhouse
      - clickhouse-tmp:/tmp
      - clickhouse-users-d:/etc/clickhouse-server/users.d
      - clickhouse-logs:/var/log/clickhouse-server
    depends_on:
      clickhouse-clickhouse-data-init:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
      clickhouse-clickhouse-logs-init:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
      clickhouse-clickhouse-tmp-init:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
      clickhouse-clickhouse-users-d-init:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
  clickhouse-clickhouse-data-init:
    image: busybox
    volumes:
      - clickhouse-data:/var/lib/clickhouse
    command:
      - chown
      - 101:101
      - /var/lib/clickhouse
  clickhouse-clickhouse-logs-init:
    image: busybox
    volumes:
      - clickhouse-logs:/var/log/clickhouse-server
    command:
      - chown
      - 101:101
      - /var/log/clickhouse-server
  clickhouse-clickhouse-tmp-init:
    image: busybox
    volumes:
      - clickhouse-tmp:/tmp
    command:
      - chown
      - 101:101
      - /tmp
  clickhouse-clickhouse-users-d-init:
    image: busybox
    volumes:
      - clickhouse-users-d:/etc/clickhouse-server/users.d
    command:
      - chown
      - 101:101
      - /etc/clickhouse-server/users.d
  plausible:
    image: ghcr.io/plausible/community-edition:v3.0.1
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - 8000:8000
    environment:
      BASE_URL: http://plausible.localhost:8000
      CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE_URL: http://default:${RANDOM_CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD}@clickhouse:8123/app
      DATABASE_URL: postgresql://app:${RANDOM_PG_PASSWORD}@postgres:5432/app
      DISABLE_REGISTRATION: "false"
      ENABLE_EMAIL_VERIFICATION: "false"
      RANDOM_CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD}
      RANDOM_PG_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_PG_PASSWORD}
      SECRET_KEY_BASE: ${RANDOM_SECRET_KEY_BASE}
      TOTP_VAULT_KEY: ${RANDOM_TOTP_VAULT_KEY}
    depends_on:
      clickhouse:
        condition: service_started
      postgres:
        condition: service_started
    command:
      - sh
      - -c
      - until wget -q -O- http://localhost:8123/ping >/dev/null 2>&1; do sleep 1; done; until nc -z localhost 5432 >/dev/null 2>&1; do sleep 1; done; /entrypoint.sh db createdb && /entrypoint.sh db migrate && /entrypoint.sh run
  postgres:
    image: postgres:18.3-alpine3.23
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      PGDATA: /var/lib/postgresql/data
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_PG_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_USER: app
    volumes:
      - postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
      - postgres-socket:/var/run/postgresql
    depends_on:
      postgres-postgres-data-init:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
      postgres-postgres-socket-init:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
  postgres-postgres-data-init:
    image: busybox
    volumes:
      - postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    command:
      - chown
      - 70:70
      - /var/lib/postgresql/data
  postgres-postgres-socket-init:
    image: busybox
    volumes:
      - postgres-socket:/var/run/postgresql
    command:
      - chown
      - 70:70
      - /var/run/postgresql
volumes:
  clickhouse-data: null
  clickhouse-logs: null
  clickhouse-tmp: null
  clickhouse-users-d: null
  postgres-data: null
  postgres-socket: null

2. Secret generation

Plausible Analytics needs a few randomly generated secrets — for example, database passwords or an internal session key — before it can start. These are referenced from docker-compose.ymlabove but don't live in it, so they need to end up in your .env file. Pick one of the two options below.

Generating secrets…

3. Start Plausible Analytics with Docker Compose

From the folder with docker-compose.yml and .env, run:

Terminal

Start Plausible Analytics and all its supporting services in the background.

docker compose up -d

The -d flag runs the stack in the background so it keeps running after you close the terminal. Docker will pull the images the first time, which can take a minute or two.

To check on it afterwards: docker compose ps shows whether containers are healthy, and docker compose logs -f follows their logs if something looks wrong. Once it's running, open http://localhost:8000 in your browser.