Application hosting

Hosting Plausible Analytics

Lightweight, open-source web analytics platform without cookies, engineered for real-time tracking, privacy compliance (GDPR/CCPA/PECR), and rapid query speeds via ClickHouse.

Min vCPU
Depends on workload
Min memory
Depends on workload
Min storage
Depends on workload

Must have

Hard prerequisites

  • Linux server running Docker Engine and Docker Compose v2.
  • x86_64 CPU with SSE 4.2 support (mandatory requirement for ClickHouse).
  • Minimum 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended to provide headroom for ClickHouse JVM memory allocation).
  • Fast SSD or NVMe storage for ClickHouse columnar database shards.

Recommended

Documented guidance

  • 2 vCPU / 4 GB RAM KVM Cloud Server with NVMe disk.ClickHouse leverages columnar compression and memory-mapped files for near-instant aggregations.
  • Public IPv4 and IPv6 addresses with reverse proxy (Nginx or Caddy) handling SSL.

Capacity depends on your workload

A 4 GB RAM server running Plausible Community Edition can comfortably ingest millions of monthly pageviews due to ClickHouse columnar storage efficiency.

We only compare what providers publish. A RAM figure alone can't confirm compatibility or production capacity.

Deploy with

Supported paths

  • Docker Compose (Official Community Edition setup)
  • Kubernetes via community Helm charts

The host must provide

Runtime

ClickHouse
>= 23.3 (Columnar database)
PostgreSQL
>= 14 (Metadata & user accounts)
Docker Compose
>= 2.15

Storage

Persistent data

Plausible uses PostgreSQL for user accounts and site metadata, and ClickHouse for event records. Both data directories must be mounted to persistent host volumes. Fast NVMe disks are strongly recommended for analytical aggregations.

Step by step

Deploying Plausible Community Edition

  1. Clone official hosting repository

    Run git clone https://github.com/plausible/community-edition /opt/plausible and enter the directory.

    Official instructions
  2. Configure environment secrets

    Generate a 64-character secret using openssl rand -base64 64 and assign it to SECRET_KEY_BASE in plausible-conf.env. Set BASE_URL to your public domain.

    Official instructions
  3. Start containers and initialize database

    Run docker compose up -d. Verify that plausible, clickhouse, and postgres containers are running. Configure your reverse proxy to forward traffic on port 8000.

    Official instructions

Security

Before you go public

  • ClickHouse port 8123/9000 and PostgreSQL port 5432 must never be bound to public interfaces (keep inside Docker network).
  • Set strong random passwords for PostgreSQL and ClickHouse in docker-compose.yml.
  • Enforce TLS 1.3 on your Nginx/Caddy front-end to protect inbound event ingestion.

Cost

Beyond the server price

  • Server cost: 4 GB RAM Cloud VPS starts at approximately $8–$14/month on Hetzner or Vultr.
  • Bandwidth cost: Inbound event pings are small (~1KB), so typical egress costs are minimal.

Matching plans

Plans with published evidence

DigitalOcean

CPU-Optimized Regular Droplet · 2 vCPU / 4 GiB

2vCPU
4 GiBRAM
25 GiBStorage
4 TBTransfer
  • Dedicated CPU
  • SSD
Compatibility unclear from published plan data

Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.

  • Linux server running Docker Engine and Docker Compose v2.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • x86_64 CPU with SSE 4.2 support (mandatory requirement for ClickHouse).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Minimum 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended to provide headroom for ClickHouse JVM memory allocation).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Fast SSD or NVMe storage for ClickHouse columnar database shards.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
DigitalOcean

General Purpose Droplet · 2 Dedicated vCPU / 8 GB

2vCPU
8 GBRAM
25 GBStorage
4 TBTransfer
  • Dedicated vCPU (100% allocatio...
  • NVMe SSD
Compatibility unclear from published plan data

Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.

  • Linux server running Docker Engine and Docker Compose v2.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • x86_64 CPU with SSE 4.2 support (mandatory requirement for ClickHouse).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Minimum 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended to provide headroom for ClickHouse JVM memory allocation).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Fast SSD or NVMe storage for ClickHouse columnar database shards.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Google Cloud

Compute Engine e2-medium · 2 vCPU / 4 GB

2vCPU
4 GBRAM
—Storage
—Transfer
  • Shared vCPU (1.00 sustained)
  • Persistent Disk (billed separa...
Compatibility unclear from published plan data

Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.

  • Linux server running Docker Engine and Docker Compose v2.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • x86_64 CPU with SSE 4.2 support (mandatory requirement for ClickHouse).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Minimum 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended to provide headroom for ClickHouse JVM memory allocation).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Fast SSD or NVMe storage for ClickHouse columnar database shards.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Google Cloud

Compute Engine e2-small · 2 vCPU / 2 GB

2vCPU
2 GBRAM
—Storage
—Transfer
  • Shared vCPU (0.50 sustained)
  • Persistent Disk (billed separa...
Compatibility unclear from published plan data

Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.

  • Linux server running Docker Engine and Docker Compose v2.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • x86_64 CPU with SSE 4.2 support (mandatory requirement for ClickHouse).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Minimum 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended to provide headroom for ClickHouse JVM memory allocation).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Fast SSD or NVMe storage for ClickHouse columnar database shards.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Hetzner Cloud

Hetzner Cloud CCX13 (Germany and Finland)

2vCPU
8 GBRAM
80 GBStorage
20 TBTransfer
  • Dedicated AMD vCPU
  • NVMe SSD
Compatibility unclear from published plan data

Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.

  • Linux server running Docker Engine and Docker Compose v2.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • x86_64 CPU with SSE 4.2 support (mandatory requirement for ClickHouse).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Minimum 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended to provide headroom for ClickHouse JVM memory allocation).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Fast SSD or NVMe storage for ClickHouse columnar database shards.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Hetzner Cloud

Hetzner Cloud CCX23 (Germany and Finland)

4vCPU
16 GBRAM
160 GBStorage
20 TBTransfer
  • Dedicated AMD vCPU
  • NVMe SSD
Compatibility unclear from published plan data

Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.

  • Linux server running Docker Engine and Docker Compose v2.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • x86_64 CPU with SSE 4.2 support (mandatory requirement for ClickHouse).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Minimum 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended to provide headroom for ClickHouse JVM memory allocation).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Fast SSD or NVMe storage for ClickHouse columnar database shards.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Hetzner Cloud

Hetzner Cloud CCX33 (Germany and Finland)

8vCPU
32 GBRAM
240 GBStorage
30 TBTransfer
  • Dedicated AMD vCPU
  • NVMe SSD
Compatibility unclear from published plan data

Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.

  • Linux server running Docker Engine and Docker Compose v2.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • x86_64 CPU with SSE 4.2 support (mandatory requirement for ClickHouse).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Minimum 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended to provide headroom for ClickHouse JVM memory allocation).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Fast SSD or NVMe storage for ClickHouse columnar database shards.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Hetzner Cloud

Hetzner Cloud CCX43 (Germany and Finland)

16vCPU
64 GBRAM
360 GBStorage
40 TBTransfer
  • Dedicated AMD vCPU
  • NVMe SSD
Compatibility unclear from published plan data

Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.

  • Linux server running Docker Engine and Docker Compose v2.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • x86_64 CPU with SSE 4.2 support (mandatory requirement for ClickHouse).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Minimum 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended to provide headroom for ClickHouse JVM memory allocation).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Fast SSD or NVMe storage for ClickHouse columnar database shards.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Hetzner Cloud

Hetzner Cloud CCX53 (Germany and Finland)

32vCPU
128 GBRAM
600 GBStorage
50 TBTransfer
  • Dedicated AMD vCPU
  • NVMe SSD
Compatibility unclear from published plan data

Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.

  • Linux server running Docker Engine and Docker Compose v2.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • x86_64 CPU with SSE 4.2 support (mandatory requirement for ClickHouse).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Minimum 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended to provide headroom for ClickHouse JVM memory allocation).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Fast SSD or NVMe storage for ClickHouse columnar database shards.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Hetzner Cloud

Hetzner Cloud CCX63 (Germany and Finland)

48vCPU
192 GBRAM
960 GBStorage
60 TBTransfer
  • Dedicated AMD vCPU
  • NVMe SSD
Compatibility unclear from published plan data

Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.

  • Linux server running Docker Engine and Docker Compose v2.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • x86_64 CPU with SSE 4.2 support (mandatory requirement for ClickHouse).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Minimum 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended to provide headroom for ClickHouse JVM memory allocation).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Fast SSD or NVMe storage for ClickHouse columnar database shards.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Hetzner Cloud

Hetzner Cloud CPX11 (US locations)

2vCPU
2 GBRAM
40 GBStorage
1 TBTransfer
  • Shared AMD vCPU
  • NVMe SSD
Compatibility unclear from published plan data

Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.

  • Linux server running Docker Engine and Docker Compose v2.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • x86_64 CPU with SSE 4.2 support (mandatory requirement for ClickHouse).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Minimum 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended to provide headroom for ClickHouse JVM memory allocation).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Fast SSD or NVMe storage for ClickHouse columnar database shards.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
Hetzner Cloud

Hetzner Cloud CPX12 (Germany and Finland)

1vCPU
2 GBRAM
40 GBStorage
20 TBTransfer
  • Shared AMD vCPU
  • NVMe SSD
Compatibility unclear from published plan data

Meeting documented runtime prerequisites does not prove production capacity. Traffic, workloads, software configuration, and shared host limits are not measured here.

  • Linux server running Docker Engine and Docker Compose v2.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • x86_64 CPU with SSE 4.2 support (mandatory requirement for ClickHouse).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Minimum 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended to provide headroom for ClickHouse JVM memory allocation).This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.
  • Fast SSD or NVMe storage for ClickHouse columnar database shards.This prerequisite has no comparable published plan field.

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