Self-host Matomo

updated Sep 2026deployed by usprices checked · Jul 2026Install verified on Ubuntu 26.04 · Sep 2026 · how we test

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The full-featured Google Analytics alternative — goals, e-commerce tracking, and 100% data ownership, with funnels and heatmaps available as paid premium plugins. Heavier than Plausible, but the closest like-for-like replacement for GA's depth.

Key facts

CategoryWeb analytics

LicenseGPL-3.0-or-later

StackPHP, MariaDB

Min RAM2048 MB

Official imageyes

Measured idle RAM138 MB

Difficulty

Sourcegithub.com/matomo-org/matomo

Websitematomo.org

Our recommendation

Pick Matomo when you are replacing Google Analytics wholesale and want the data in your own MariaDB: goals, segments, raw visit logs and a plugin marketplace, GPL-3.0-or-later, at 5.13.0 (as of September 2026) with an official-library Docker image. The price is hardware and upkeep: upstream's minimum for up to 100,000 pageviews a month is 2 CPU, 2 GB of RAM and a 50 GB SSD, and once traffic is real you must run report archiving from cron. The headline behavioural tools — Funnels, Heatmap & Session Recording, A/B Testing, Form Analytics, Custom Reports — are paid premium plugins, not part of the GPL core.

Follow the Matomo deploy guide →

What you need

Any VPS with at least 2048 MB of RAM
A domain you control — most self-hosted setups need HTTPS in front of them
About an afternoon — budget time for troubleshooting

Where to host itaffiliate disclosure

Hetzner Cloudrun it on

From $23.59/mo · 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB · EU + US

Get Hetzner Cloud

Kamaterafree trial

From $4/mo · 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 20 GB · US + EU + Asia

Start free on Kamatera →

DigitalOceanalso works on

From $6/mo · 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 25 GB · US + EU + Asia

Deploy on DigitalOcean →

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Install with Docker Compose

Save this as compose.yml and run docker compose up -d:

# Matomo — analytics with a MariaDB backend
services:
  db:
    image: mariadb:11
    environment:
      MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: changeme
      MARIADB_DATABASE: matomo
      MARIADB_USER: matomo
      MARIADB_PASSWORD: changeme
    volumes: ["./db:/var/lib/mysql"]
  matomo:
    image: matomo:latest
    ports: ["8080:80"]
    depends_on: [db]
    environment:
      MATOMO_DATABASE_HOST: db
      MATOMO_DATABASE_USERNAME: matomo
      MATOMO_DATABASE_PASSWORD: changeme
      MATOMO_DATABASE_DBNAME: matomo
    volumes: ["./matomo:/var/www/html"]
# docker compose up -d  →  http://SERVER_IP:8080  (DB host = db)

deploy guideHow to Deploy Matomo on a VPS vps picksBest VPS for self-hostingbenchmarked quarterly · re-priced monthly

What you take on

Matomo's own requirements and FAQ pages are where the cost shows up:

non-negotiableSizing is upstream's, not ours: "2 CPU, 2 GB RAM, 50GB SSD disk" for up to 100,000 pageviews a month, 4 CPU / 8 GB / 250 GB for up to a million, and "at least two servers" beyond that. Our 2 GB floor is that first tier for app and MariaDB together.

non-negotiableSet up archiving before you need it. Past "a few hundreds visits per day" the FAQ says to run console core:archive hourly from cron and set browser_archiving_disabled_enforce = 1, or users get sluggish dashboards and "Oops, there was an error with the request" — and clicking again "just exacerbates the problem". The official image's README has no archiving schedule of its own, so in Docker our advice is a second container (or host cron) running the archive command.

non-negotiableFloors are rising: Matomo 5 wants PHP 8, and the Matomo 6.0 beta requires PHP >= 8.1 and MySQL >= 8.0 or MariaDB >= 10.6. Our snippet's mariadb:11 clears that; a hand-installed older database may not.

non-negotiableFunnels, Heatmap & Session Recording, A/B Testing, Form Analytics, Custom Reports and Login SAML are premium plugins on the Marketplace. Compare what you actually used in GA against the free core before committing.

non-negotiableThe security guide says always use HTTPS (login, password and token_auth: "This information is regularly included in the responses from the Matomo server"), back up the database and config/config.ini.php together, and — if you lock down file permissions — set enable_auto_update = 0 and update manually. Behind a proxy, configure the proxy-header IP setting or every visit is your proxy.