Goatcounter

#analytics #lang-go #web 

Goatcounter is an open source web analytics platform available as a free, donation-supported hosted service or self-hosted app.

It aims to offer easy to use and meaningful privacy-friendly web analytics as an alternative to Google Analytics or Matomo.

Note

For this guide you should be familiar with the basic concepts of

License

All relevant legal information can be found here

Prerequisites

The host domain and a subdomain for goatcounter need to be setup:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web domain list
isabell.uber.space
goatcounter.isabell.uber.space
[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web backend set goatcounter.isabell.uber.space/ --http --port 1235
[isabell@stardust ~]$

If you don’t have a goatcounter.* subdomain, add it via uberspace web domain add goatcounter.isabell.uber.space.

Installation

Check the goatcounter releases page for the most recent Linux AMD64 download:

https://github.com/arp242/goatcounter/releases

Create a folder and download goatcounter:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ mkdir ~/goatcounter
[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd ~/goatcounter
[isabell@stardust ~]$ wget https://github.com/arp242/goatcounter/releases/download/v2.5.0/goatcounter-v2.5.0-linux-amd64.gz
[isabell@stardust ~]$ gzip -d goatcounter-v2.5.0-linux-amd64.gz
[isabell@stardust ~]$ mv goatcounter-v2.5.0-linux-amd64 goatcounter
[isabell@stardust ~]$ chmod +x goatcounter
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Configuration

Create database

[isabell@stardust ~]$ ./goatcounter db create site -createdb -vhost goatcounter.isabell.uber.space -user.email <user>@uber.space

Make sure to use your own domain and email address. You will be asked to enter a password for the specified user which will be used to access the webpage later.

Test

Run ./goatcounter  serve -listen :1235 -tls http to test your installation by accessing https://goatcounter.isabell.uber.space

Setup daemon

Create ~/etc/services.d/goatcounter.ini with the following content:

[program:goatcounter]
command = %(ENV_HOME)s/goatcounter/goatcounter serve -listen :1235 -tls http -db sqlite+%(ENV_HOME)s/goatcounter/db/goatcounter.sqlite3
autostart = true
autorestart = true

After creating the configuration, tell supervisord to refresh its configuration and start the service:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl reread
SERVICE: available
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl update
SERVICE: added process group
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl status
SERVICE                            RUNNING   pid 26020, uptime 0:03:14
[isabell@stardust ~]$

If it’s not in state RUNNING, check your configuration.

Configure web server

Finishing installation

Now you can include Goatcounter (for details have a look into the Help menu of your installation).

Updates

Note

Check for updates regularly to stay informed about the newest version.

When an update is available download a new release from the release page and follow the update instructions on the goatcounter-github.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ pip3 install --user --upgrade isso

Tested with Goatcounter 2.5.0 and Uberspace 7.15.4

Written by: Lomion0815