How to Install Plausible Analytics on OpenBSD

Plausible Analytics is a privacy-focused web analytics tool that provides accurate and reliable data on your website visitors. In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Plausible Analytics on OpenBSD.

Step 1: Update Your System

Before you begin, you must ensure that your OpenBSD system is up to date. Open a terminal and run the following command:

sudo pkg_add -Uu

Step 2: Install Dependencies

Plausible Analytics requires Node.js and Yarn to be installed on your system. Run the following command to install them:

sudo pkg_add node yarn

Step 3: Create a New User

It is best practice to create a new user specifically for running Plausible Analytics. To create a new user, run the following command:

sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash plausible

This command will create a new user named plausible with a home directory and the bash shell.

Step 4: Download Plausible Analytics

Visit the official website of Plausible Analytics at https://plausible.io/ and click on the "Self-hosted" tab on the top navigation menu. Scroll down and click on the OpenBSD button to download the latest version.

Alternatively, you can download the latest version directly from the command line using the following command:

sudo -u plausible git clone https://github.com/plausible/plausible.git /home/plausible/plausible-analytics

This command will create a new directory named plausible-analytics in the home directory of the plausible user.

Step 5: Configure Plausible Analytics

Navigate to the plausible-analytics directory and copy the example configuration file:

cd /home/plausible/plausible-analytics
cp .env.example .env

Open the .env file with your favorite text editor and modify the following values:

  • PLAUSIBLE_DOMAIN: Your domain name or IP address where you will host Plausible Analytics.
  • PLAUSIBLE_SECRET_KEY: A random string used to secure the cookie-based session.
  • PLAUSIBLE_DATABASE_URL: The URL for your PostgreSQL database.

Save and close the file.

Step 6: Install Dependencies

Before you can run Plausible Analytics, you need to install its dependencies. Navigate to the plausible-analytics directory and run the following command:

sudo -u plausible yarn install --pure-lockfile

This command will install all the required dependencies.

Step 7: Build Plausible Analytics

Run the following command to build Plausible Analytics:

sudo -u plausible yarn build

This command will compile the JavaScript and CSS files.

Step 8: Run Plausible Analytics

Finally, you can start Plausible Analytics by running the following command:

sudo -u plausible yarn start

This command will start the Plausible Analytics server in the background. You can now access Plausible Analytics by visiting your domain name or IP address in a web browser.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have now successfully installed Plausible Analytics on OpenBSD. You can now monitor your website traffic while preserving the privacy of your visitors.