Plausible Analytics
Deploy Plausible on CloudStation Without Managing Servers
What is Plausible? Plausible is an open-source, privacy-friendly web analytics tool and a lightweight alternative to Google Analytics. Its tracking script is about 1 KB, it sets no cookies and it stores no personal data, so you can measure your traffic without a cookie banner under GDPR, CCPA and PECR. It is AGPL-3.0 licensed.
Deploy Plausible on CloudStation when you want your website analytics on your own server instead of sending visitor data to a third party. This template ships Plausible Community Edition v3.2.1 with Postgres for accounts and settings and ClickHouse for visitor events, each on its own persistent volume. ClickHouse stays private to your deployment and is password protected.
⚠️ Before you start: An owner account is created for your CloudStation email address. The password is stored in the plausible service's environment variables as ADMIN_USER_PWD. Registration is invite-only. Invitations, password resets and email reports need SMTP settings on the plausible service.
Best For and Not Best For
Best for: websites, blogs, SaaS products, online stores and agencies that want clear traffic numbers on one page, full ownership of the data and no consent banner.
Not best for: tracking individual users, session replay, heatmaps or ad attribution. Plausible counts visits and events, not people.
Why Teams Choose Plausible
One Simple Dashboard
Visitors, pageviews, bounce rate and visit duration on one page
Top sources, pages, entry and exit pages, countries, devices and browsers
Real-time visitors and comparisons with previous periods
Goals and Events
Pageview goals and custom events such as signups, downloads and outbound clicks
Custom properties to break events down by plan, author or any value you send
UTM campaign tracking and saved filter segments
Imports, Reports and API
Import your history from Google Analytics 4 or CSV files, and export to CSV
Weekly and monthly email reports and public or password-protected shared links
A Stats API, Google Search Console keywords, team invitations and two-factor authentication
Plausible vs Alternatives
Plausible vs Google Analytics: Choose Plausible when you want a dashboard anyone on the team can read, no cookies and no visitor data shared with an ad company.
Plausible vs Matomo: Choose Plausible when you want a lighter script and a single-page dashboard instead of a full analytics suite with many reports to configure.
Plausible vs Plausible Cloud: Choose this template when you want unlimited sites and pageviews for the cost of your CloudStation resources and the data on your own server.
Why Deploy Plausible on CloudStation?
Three services, one click: Plausible, Postgres and ClickHouse are wired together, with migrations run on first start.
Production settings from the start: Every secret is unique to your deployment, the owner account is created for you, and registration is invite-only, so nobody else can claim your instance.
HTTPS handled for you: CloudStation provides SSL on your Plausible address, so the tracking script loads on any HTTPS site.
Data that persists: Volumes keep your accounts and every recorded event across restarts and redeploys.
Common Plausible Use Cases
Company websites: See which pages and channels bring visitors without adding a cookie banner.
SaaS products: Track signups, trials and feature usage as goals and custom events.
Agencies: Run analytics for every client site on one server and share a read-only dashboard link with each client.
Blogs and docs: Find the articles people read and the searches and referrers that bring them in.
FAQ
Is Plausible free?
Yes. Plausible Community Edition is open source under the AGPL-3.0 license. You pay for the CloudStation resources it runs on.
What are the login credentials after deploying?
Your CloudStation email address, with the password from ADMIN_USER_PWD in the plausible service's environment variables. Change it under Settings, then Security.
How do I add Plausible to my website?
Add your domain in the dashboard and paste the script snippet it shows into the head of your site. Visits appear within a minute.
Do I need a cookie banner?
Plausible sets no cookies and stores no personal data, which is why many sites run it without a consent banner. Check the rules that apply to your own site.
Can other people sign up?
Only with an invitation. Invite your team from the dashboard once SMTP is set up.
Start Using Plausible
If you are searching for self-host Plausible, Plausible hosting, Plausible Community Edition, a Google Analytics alternative or privacy-friendly website analytics, this CloudStation template is built for that intent.
Deploy Plausible Now → Your analytics. Your server. Zero server management.