Open Source Analytics at Scale: Privacy & Customization

matomo dashboard screenshot

What is Matomo Analytics Dashboard, How Does It Work, and How to Set It Up?

Matomo (formerly Piwik) gained in popularity over the last several years as a go-to robust solution for companies looking for analytics solution that does not involve Big corporations and their analytics solutions like Google's analytics, Microsoft's clarity etc.

What are Primary Benefits of Using Matomo Analytics?

Full Data Ownership

Unlike alternatives, where you have to share your data with other parties, Matomo, through its Self-Hosted offering gives you full control over your data and 100% ownership.

Customer Trust

When people see Matomo on websites, they can immediately know they're being protected as you are using only first-party cookies. There are no third parties involved in data transaction.

Privacy, PII, and GDPR

Matomo is built with privacy in mind and can be configured for GDPR compliant use: IP anonymisation, consent and opt-out handling, and tools to export or delete a visitor's data on request. Whether you are compliant still depends on how you configure and use it.

Real-Time Data

Data you see in Matomo dashboard is real data, not sampled data like in Google Analytics. This means you can take immediate concrete actions towards customer acquisition through API actions, manual interactions etc.

How to Set Up Matomo Analytics?

WordPress

If you are using WordPress, you are in luck, as this is by far the easiest way to get up and running. Simply install the Official Matomo WordPress Plugin.

On-Premise Self-Hosted Solution

If you have a non-WordPress website or want to track other kinds of user interactions outside regular websites, or you simply want one Matomo instance for your suite of products as a centralized analytics service, your best bet is a Self-Hosted solution.

There are several recommended setups depending on your needs:

Low-Scale, Startups & Low-Cost Solution

Sometimes you don't want to invest a fortune into infrastructure. Our recommendation for this is a combination of:

Local Docker containers
Traefik for security and Free SSL Certificate with Let's Encrypt

Once we have containers set up, we can simply set up a local Ubuntu Docker instance which will run Matomo On-Premise solution.

High-Scale, Enterprise

For high traffic (Matomo's own sizing guide goes beyond 100 million page views a month), we recommend AWS infrastructure, with a load balancer in front of either:

AWS Fargate: managed containers on ECS or EKS, with no servers to run
EC2 instances, if you want to manage the servers yourself; both scale well

Key Features of Matomo

Complete Analytics Suite

Real-time visitor tracking
Conversion goals and funnels
E-commerce tracking
Custom event tracking
A/B testing capabilities (paid premium plugin on self-hosted Matomo)
Heatmaps and session recordings (paid premium plugin on self-hosted Matomo)

Privacy-First Approach

First-party cookies only
No data sharing with third parties
IP anonymization
Automatic log deletion
Cookie consent management
GDPR tools for consent, data export and deletion requests

Customization & Integration

Open-source codebase
REST API for custom integrations
Custom dimensions and metrics
Extensible plugin system
White-label reporting (paid premium plugin)
Custom dashboards

Performance & Reliability

Handles millions of events
Optimized database queries
Caching mechanisms
Archive data management
High availability options

Why Choose Matomo Over Other Solutions?

vs. Google Analytics

Data Ownership: You own 100% of your data
Privacy: No data sharing with Google
Accuracy: Real data, not sampled
Control: Full control over tracking
Customization: Unlimited customization options

vs. Plausible/Fathom

Features: More comprehensive analytics
Flexibility: Self-hosted or cloud options
Integrations: Extensive API and plugins
Enterprise: Scales to millions of events

Technical Requirements

On 10 October 2026 the current stable release is Matomo 5.14.1, published on 4 October 2026. Matomo 6.0 has been in beta since 9 September 2026; it will need PHP 8.1 or newer and MySQL 8.0 or newer or MariaDB 10.6 or newer, and older installations have to upgrade those before moving to it. The minimums below are for Matomo 5.

Minimum Requirements

PHP 8 or higher (Matomo recommends the latest PHP 8.x)
MySQL 5.5 or higher / MariaDB
Web server (Apache, Nginx)
128MB+ PHP memory limit

Recommended for Production

PHP 8.1+ (required by Matomo 6)
MySQL 8.0+ / MariaDB 10.6+ (required by Matomo 6)
512MB+ PHP memory limit
SSD storage
Redis/Memcached for caching

Cost Considerations

Self-Hosted Option

Setup Cost: One-time infrastructure setup
Ongoing: Server costs (varies by traffic)
Maintenance: Self-managed or support contract
Scaling: Pay only for infrastructure growth

Cloud-Hosted Option

Pricing: Tiered pricing based on traffic
Maintenance: Fully managed
Scaling: Automatic
Support: Included in plans

Best Practices

Plan Your Infrastructure: Size servers based on expected traffic
Enable Archiving: Set up scheduled report archiving for performance
Use Caching: Implement Redis or Memcached
Monitor Performance: Track database and server metrics
Regular Backups: Implement automated backup strategy
Security: Keep Matomo and plugins updated
Privacy Settings: Configure appropriate data retention policies

Common Use Cases

E-commerce: Track sales, conversions, and customer journeys
SaaS Products: Monitor user behavior and feature adoption
Content Sites: Analyze content performance and reader engagement
Mobile Apps: Track app usage with mobile SDKs
Multi-Site: Centralized analytics for multiple properties
Enterprise: Custom dashboards for different departments

Need Help Setting Matomo Up?

Our team offers cost-effective setup solutions for Matomo analytics. Whether you need:

Initial installation and configuration
Migration from Google Analytics
Custom tracking implementation
Performance optimization
Enterprise-scale deployment
Training and documentation

Contact us at office@c9group.dev for a free consultation and quote.

Published: January 15, 2024 (updated October 10, 2026) Categories: Analytics, AWS, Open Source