Run Plausible on Dokku

Perquisites

What is Plausible?

Plausible is a lightweight and open-source website analytics tool. No cookies and fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA and PECR.

What is Dokku?

Dokku is the smallest PaaS implementation you've ever seen - Docker powered mini-Heroku.

Requirements

• A working Dokku host
• PostgreSQL plugin for Dokku
• Clickhouse plugin for Dokku
• Letsencrypt plugin for SSL (optionnal)

Setup

Note: We are going to use the domain plausible.example.com for demonstration purposes. Make sure to replace it with your own domain name.

App and plugins

Create the app

Log onto your Dokku Host to create the Plausible app:

dokku apps:create plausible

Add plugins

Install, create and link PostgreSQL and Clickhouse plugins:

# Install plugins on Dokku
dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-postgres.git postgres
dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-clickhouse.git clickhouse

# Create running plugins
dokku postgres:create plausible -I 12
dokku clickhouse:create plausible -I 21.3.2.5

# Link plugins to the main app
dokku postgres:link plausible plausible
dokku clickhouse:link plausible plausible

Configuration

Add CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE_URL to environment variables

# Show all enironement variables to copy content of CLICKHOUSE_URL variable
dokku config plausible

Transform CLICKHOUSE_URL to http format like (as example) :

• clickhouse://plausible:password@dokku-clickhouse-plausible:9000/plausible

Become (scheme and port change):

• http://plausible:password@dokku-clickhouse-plausible:8123/plausible

# Set CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE_URL
dokku config:set plausible CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE_URL='http://plausible:password@dokku-clickhouse-plausible:8123/plausible'

Setting up secret key

dokku config:set plausible SECRET_KEY_BASE=$(openssl rand -hex 64)

Setting up BASE_URL

dokku config:set plausible BASE_URL=https://plausible.example.com

Setting up smtp information

dokku config:set plausible [email protected] \
                           SMTP_HOST_ADDR=mail.example.com \
                           SMTP_HOST_PORT=465 \
                           [email protected] \
                           SMTP_USER_PWD=example1234 \
                           SMTP_HOST_SSL_ENABLED=true

Setting up first admin information

dokku config:set plausible [email protected] \
                           ADMIN_USER_NAME=admin \
                           ADMIN_USER_PWD=admin1234

Disable registration (optional)

dokku config:set plausible DISABLE_REGISTRATION=true

Domain setup

To get the routing working, we need to apply a few settings. First we set the domain.

dokku domains:set plausible plausible.example.com

Push Plausible to Dokku

Grabbing the repository

First clone this repository onto your machine.

Via SSH

git clone [email protected]:D1ceWard/plausible_on_dokku.git

Via HTTPS

git clone https://github.com/D1ceWard/plausible_on_dokku.git

Set up git remote

Now you need to set up your Dokku server as a remote.

git remote add dokku [email protected]:plausible

Push Plausible

Now we can push Plausible to Dokku (before moving on to the next part).

git push dokku master

SSL certificate

Last but not least, we can go an grab the SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt.

# Install letsencrypt plugin
dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-letsencrypt.git

# Set certificate contact email
dokku config:set --no-restart plausible [email protected]

# Generate certificate
dokku letsencrypt plausible

Wrapping up

Your Plausible instance should now be available on https://plausible.example.com.

Bonus: rename script file

By default, Plausible will use a file called /js/plausible.js which is blocked by most adblockers (Adblock business lets you pay to display your ads, but privacy-focused analytics are blocked by default. Yay).

Since Plausible respects user privacy, it seems fair to collect anonymous traffic data. You can add a nginx config file: vi /home/dokku/plausible/nginx.conf.d/rewrite.conf:

rewrite ^/js/pls.js$ /js/plausible.js last;

Rename pls.js to whatever fits your need, and use this file name from now on.