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Understanding and analyzing website traffic is essential for businesses and website owners to make informed decisions and optimize user experiences. One popular tool for this purpose is Umami, an open-source web analytics platform that offers simplicity, privacy, and insightful data tracking.

While many analytics platforms rely on third-party services and cloud hosting, Umami provides the option of self-hosting, allowing users to have greater control over their data while ensuring compliance with data protection laws.

Self-hosting Umami enables full ownership and control over analytics data. By hosting Umami on your own servers, you can ensure that sensitive information remains within your infrastructure, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.

In this guide, I will walk you through the process of self-hosting Umami for website analytics.

Prerequisites

To self-host Umami, you will need the following:

• PostgreSQL or MySQL database;
• Linux Server to host the application;

Setting Up the Database

We will start by creating the required database in either PostgreSQL or MySQL.

1. Create a Database

CREATE DATABASE umamianalyticsdb;

2. Create a User

PostgreSQL:

CREATE USER umamianalytics WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'YOUR PASSWORD';

MySQL:

CREATE USER umamianalytics IDENTIFIED BY 'YOUR PASSWORD';

3. Grant Privileges

PostgreSQL:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE umamianalyticsdb TO umamianalytics;

MySQL:

GRANT ALL ON umamianalyticsdb.* TO umamianalytics;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Installing Umami

We will install Umami from the source. You can either download the source code directly from GitHub or clone the repository. In this guide, we will clone the repository into the /applications folder.

1. Clone the Repository

cd /applications
git clone https://github.com/umami-software/umami.git
cd umami

2. Configure the Database

Create an .env file with the following content:

PostgreSQL:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://umamianalytics:<POSTGRESQL PASSWORD>@localhost:5432/umamianalyticsdb

MySQL:

DATABASE_URL=mysql://umamianalytics:<MYSQL PASSWORD>@localhost:3306/umamianalyticsdb

3. Install Node.js and Yarn

Install Node.js 18:

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Install yarn

npm install -g yarn

4. Install Dependencies and Build Umami

yarn install
yarn build

Starting Umami

After building the application, start it with:

yarn start

By default, Umami runs on http://localhost:3000 with the default login credentials:

• Password: umami
• Username: admin

Keeping Umami Running with Systemd

To keep the process running in the background, create a systemd service file:

nano /etc/systemd/system/umami.service

Add the following content:

[Unit]
Description=Umami Server

[Service]
ExecStart=yarn start

WorkingDirectory=/applications/umami
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=umami

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable umami
sudo systemctl start umami

Setting Up a Reverse Proxy with NGINX

To serve Umami through a domain, create an NGINX server block.

1. Create the NGINX Configuration

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/umami

Add the following configuration:

server {
  server_name analytics.YOURDOMAIN.TLD;

  location / {
    proxy_pass http://<UMAMI_SERVER_IP>:3000;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
  }
}

2. Validate and Restart NGINX

nginx -t
service nginx restart

3. Enable SSL with Certbot

certbot --nginx -d analytics.YOURDOMAIN.TLD

Upgrading Umami

To upgrade to the latest version:

1. Fetch the Latest Tagged Release

git fetch --all --tags

2. Checkout the Latest Version (Example: v2.16.1)

git checkout tags/v2.16.1 -b v2.16.1

3. Reinstall Dependencies and Build Umami

yarn install
yarn build

4. Restart the Umami Service

  service umami restart

By following this guide, you have successfully self-hosted Umami, giving you full control over your website analytics. This setup ensures data privacy, compliance, and flexibility while providing valuable insights into your website traffic.