Plausible Analytics: Privacy-First, Lightweight Google Analytics Alternative

Why Replace Google Analytics?

Google Analytics 4 is:

• Heavy — 45KB script, slows page load
• Privacy-invasive — cookies, fingerprinting, cross-site tracking
• Complex — event-based model confuses most teams
• Blocked — 40%+ of visitors use ad blockers that block GA

Plausible fixes all four problems.

Plausible vs Google Analytics

Self-Host on Kubernetes

Architecture

┌────────────────────────────────────┐
│       Plausible Stack              │
│                                    │
│  ┌────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  │
│  │  Plausible │  │  ClickHouse │  │
│  │  (Elixir)  │  │  (Analytics │  │
│  │            │  │   Engine)   │  │
│  └─────┬──────┘  └──────┬──────┘  │
│        │                 │         │
│        └────────┬────────┘         │
│                 │                  │
│         ┌───────▼───────┐          │
│         │  PostgreSQL   │          │
│         │  (metadata)   │          │
│         └───────────────┘          │
└────────────────────────────────────┘

Kubernetes Deployment

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: plausible
  namespace: analytics
spec:
  replicas: 1
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: plausible
          image: ghcr.io/plausible/community-edition:v2.1
          ports:
            - containerPort: 8000
          env:
            - name: BASE_URL
              value: "https://analytics.yourdomain.com"
            - name: DATABASE_URL
              value: "postgres://plausible:pass@postgres:5432/plausible"
            - name: CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE_URL
              value: "http://clickhouse:8123/plausible"
            - name: SECRET_KEY_BASE
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: plausible-secrets
                  key: secret-key
            - name: TOTP_VAULT_KEY
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: plausible-secrets
                  key: totp-key
          resources:
            requests:
              memory: "256Mi"
              cpu: "100m"
            limits:
              memory: "1Gi"
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: StatefulSet
metadata:
  name: clickhouse
  namespace: analytics
spec:
  replicas: 1
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: clickhouse
          image: clickhouse/clickhouse-server:24.3-alpine
          ports:
            - containerPort: 8123
          volumeMounts:
            - name: data
              mountPath: /var/lib/clickhouse
  volumeClaimTemplates:
    - metadata:
        name: data
      spec:
        accessModes: ["ReadWriteOnce"]
        resources:
          requests:
            storage: 50Gi

Bypass Ad Blockers (Reverse Proxy)

# Nginx config - proxy the tracking script through your domain
location /js/visits.js {
    proxy_pass https://analytics.yourdomain.com/js/script.js;
    proxy_set_header Host analytics.yourdomain.com;
}

location /api/event {
    proxy_pass https://analytics.yourdomain.com/api/event;
    proxy_set_header Host analytics.yourdomain.com;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
}

Script tag on your site:

<script defer data-domain="yourdomain.com" src="/js/visits.js"></script>

This bypasses ad blockers because the script loads from your own domain.

Custom Events

Track conversions without cookies:

// Track signup
plausible('Signup', {props: {plan: 'pro', source: 'blog'}})

// Track download
plausible('Download', {props: {file: 'whitepaper.pdf'}})

// Track outbound link
plausible('Outbound Link', {props: {url: 'https://calendly.com/lucaberton'}})

Migration from GA4

Plausible imports historical GA4 data:

1. Export from GA4 (Google Takeout or API)
2. Plausible Settings → Import Data → Google Analytics
3. Historical data appears in same dashboard

Resource Requirements

Plausible is incredibly efficient — a single small VPS handles 100K visitors easily.

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