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<title>PlotBird — self-hosted, cookie-free web analytics in plain PHP</title>
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    "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
    "name": "PlotBird Analytics",
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    "applicationCategory": "BusinessApplication",
    "applicationSubCategory": "Web analytics",
    "operatingSystem": "PHP 8.0+, MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.2+",
    "description": "Web analytics for websites that only have PHP and MySQL. Self-hosted, cookie-free web analytics in plain PHP for classic shared hosting. No Docker, no Node on the server, no SSH: upload the folder, finish the installer in the browser, paste one script tag. Goals, visitor log, bundled IP database, PWA, six languages.",
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    "codeRepository": "https://github.com/plotbird/analytics",
    "softwareVersion": "1.0.2",
    "datePublished": "2026-10-19",
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        "Cookie-free tracking",
        "Goals and conversions",
        "Visitor log with per-session detail",
        "Bundled local IP database for country reports",
        "Share links with expiry",
        "Progressive web app",
        "Schema migrations from the interface"
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<header class="nav">
    <div class="wrap nav-inner">
        <a class="brand" href="index.html">
            <img src="assets/logo.svg" alt="" width="28" height="28">
            PlotBird
        </a>
        <nav class="nav-links">
            <a href="#why">Why</a>
            <a href="#install">Install</a>
            <a href="#compare">Compare</a>
        </nav>
        <div class="nav-right">
            <div class="lang">
                <span>EN</span>
                <a href="ru/index.html" hreflang="ru">RU</a>
            </div>
            <a class="btn btn-ghost btn-nav" href="https://github.com/plotbird/analytics">
                <svg width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 16 16" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true"><path d="M8 0C3.58 0 0 3.58 0 8c0 3.54 2.29 6.53 5.47 7.59.4.07.55-.17.55-.38 0-.19-.01-.82-.01-1.49-2.01.37-2.53-.49-2.69-.94-.09-.23-.48-.94-.82-1.13-.28-.15-.68-.52-.01-.53.63-.01 1.08.58 1.23.82.72 1.21 1.87.87 2.33.66.07-.52.28-.87.51-1.07-1.78-.2-3.64-.89-3.64-3.95 0-.87.31-1.59.82-2.15-.08-.2-.36-1.02.08-2.12 0 0 .67-.21 2.2.82.64-.18 1.32-.27 2-.27.68 0 1.36.09 2 .27 1.53-1.04 2.2-.82 2.2-.82.44 1.1.16 1.92.08 2.12.51.56.82 1.27.82 2.15 0 3.07-1.87 3.75-3.65 3.95.29.25.54.73.54 1.48 0 1.07-.01 1.93-.01 2.2 0 .21.15.46.55.38A8.01 8.01 0 0 0 16 8c0-4.42-3.58-8-8-8Z"/></svg>
                GitHub
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<main>

<div class="wrap hero">
    <p class="eyebrow"><span class="dot"></span> AGPL-3.0 &middot; self-hosted &middot; PHP 8.0+</p>
    <h1>Web analytics for sites that only have PHP and MySQL.</h1>
    <p class="lead">
        PlotBird is cookie-free, self-hosted analytics written in plain PHP. Upload the folder,
        finish the installer in your browser, paste one script tag. No Docker, no Node on the
        server, no SSH, no Composer.
    </p>
    <div class="hero-actions">
        <a class="btn btn-primary" href="#install">Get started</a>
        <a class="btn btn-ghost" href="https://github.com/plotbird/analytics">Read the code</a>
    </div>
    <p class="hero-note">
        Tracker <code>1.6 KB</code> &middot; dashboard CSS <code>43 KB</code>, pre-compiled &middot;
        MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.2+
    </p>
</div>

<div class="wrap">
    <div class="shot" id="look">
        <div class="frame">
            <div class="frame-bar">
                <i></i><i></i><i></i>
                <span>plotbird — dashboard</span>
            </div>

            <img src="assets/dashboard.png"
                 alt="PlotBird dashboard: traffic chart, top pages, countries, devices and goal conversions"
                 width="1906" height="923" fetchpriority="high" decoding="async">
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

<section id="why">
    <div class="wrap">
        <div class="section-head">
            <h2>Why this project exists</h2>
            <p>
                Most self-hosted analytics assume a VPS: Plausible needs Elixir and ClickHouse,
                Umami needs Node, GoatCounter ships a binary. PlotBird is for the millions of
                sites that live on €3 shared hosting, where the only things you have are PHP,
                MySQL, FTP and a control panel.
            </p>
        </div>

        <div class="cards cards-3">
            <article class="card">
                <div class="icon" aria-hidden="true">
                    <svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.8" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><rect x="3" y="4" width="18" height="14" rx="2"/><path d="M8 20h8M12 18v2M7 9h4M7 13h7"/></svg>
                </div>
                <h3>Installs itself in a browser</h3>
                <p>
                    A seven-step wizard checks the environment, creates the tables, writes the
                    configuration, creates the administrator and adds your first website. No
                    terminal, no console command, no SSH anywhere.
                </p>
            </article>

            <article class="card">
                <div class="icon" aria-hidden="true">
                    <svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.8" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><path d="M12 3l7 3v5c0 4.4-3 8.2-7 10-4-1.8-7-5.6-7-10V6l7-3Z"/><path d="M9.5 12l1.8 1.8 3.4-3.6"/></svg>
                </div>
                <h3>No cookies at all</h3>
                <p>
                    A visitor is a salted hash of address, user agent and date. Nothing is stored
                    in the browser, nothing follows anybody between sites, and storing a raw
                    address is an explicit opt-in.
                </p>
            </article>

            <article class="card">
                <div class="icon" aria-hidden="true">
                    <svg viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.8" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><path d="M13 2 4 14h7l-1 8 9-12h-7l1-8Z"/></svg>
                </div>
                <h3>Featherweight by design</h3>
                <p>
                    1.6 KB of JavaScript, pre-compiled CSS and every library vendored locally, so
                    the dashboard also works on a server without internet access. Schema changes
                    arrive as SQL you apply from the settings page.
                </p>
            </article>
        </div>
    </div>
</section>

<section class="numbers" aria-label="Numbers">
    <div class="wrap numbers-inner">
        <div class="stat"><b>1.6 KB</b><span>tracker</span></div>
        <div class="stat"><b>43 KB</b><span>dashboard CSS</span></div>
        <div class="stat"><b>710 834</b><span>IP ranges inside</span></div>
        <div class="stat"><b>256</b><span>end-to-end checks</span></div>
        <div class="stat"><b>6</b><span>languages</span></div>
    </div>
</section>

<section id="install">
    <div class="wrap">
        <div class="section-head">
            <h2>Running in three steps</h2>
            <p>No build step, no dependencies to install, no package manager to trust.</p>
        </div>

        <div class="steps">
            <ol class="step-list">
                <li>
                    <strong>Upload the archive</strong>
                    <span>Copy the release over FTP and open your domain in a browser.</span>
                </li>
                <li>
                    <strong>Finish the installer</strong>
                    <span>
                        Requirements, database, schema, administrator, first website. It imports
                        the bundled IP database on the way and locks itself afterwards.
                    </span>
                </li>
                <li>
                    <strong>Paste the tracker</strong>
                    <span>
                        One tag in the head of your pages, already filled with your website id.
                        Delete the <code>install/</code> folder and you are done.
                    </span>
                </li>
            </ol>

            <div>
                <pre><code>&lt;script async defer
        src="https://your-domain.example/assets/tracker.js"
        data-website-id="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</code></pre>
                <p class="caption">
                    The installer prints this snippet with your own id already in it.
                </p>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</section>

<section id="wordpress">
    <div class="wrap">
        <div class="section-head">
            <h2>On WordPress, without the tag</h2>
            <p>
                The plugin adds the tracker to public pages only, checks that the connection
                works, and shows the statistics inside the admin.
            </p>
        </div>

        <div class="steps">
            <div>
                <div class="shot">
                    <div class="frame">
                        <div class="frame-bar">
                            <i></i><i></i><i></i>
                            <span>PlotBird — statistics in the WordPress admin</span>
                        </div>
                        <img src="assets/wordpress.png"
                             alt="The PlotBird statistics screen inside WordPress: pageviews, visitors, sessions, average time and bounce rate, a traffic chart, and blocks for pages, sources, countries, devices, browsers and goals"
                             width="1200" height="563" loading="lazy" decoding="async">
                    </div>
                </div>
            </div>

            <ol class="step-list">
                <li>
                    <strong>Install the plugin</strong>
                    <span>
                        Download the archive from
                        <a href="https://github.com/plotbird/wordpress-plugin">github.com/plotbird/wordpress-plugin</a>
                        and upload it under Plugins, Add New, Upload Plugin.
                    </span>
                </li>
                <li>
                    <strong>Four steps, no code</strong>
                    <span>
                        The address of your installation, the website id, and a read-only share
                        link. Each step checks itself: it fetches the tracker and looks for the
                        tag on your front page.
                    </span>
                </li>
                <li>
                    <strong>Read the numbers in the admin</strong>
                    <span>
                        Pageviews, visitors, sessions, average time and bounce rate, a traffic
                        chart, top pages, sources, countries, devices, browsers and goals.
                        English and Russian, following the site language.
                    </span>
                </li>
            </ol>
        </div>

        <p class="caption">
            Administrators are not counted by default, so your own visits stay out of the
            reports. The plugin stores no password: statistics are read through a share link,
            which is read-only and can be revoked at any time.
        </p>
    </div>
</section>
<section id="compare">
    <div class="wrap">
        <div class="section-head">
            <h2>How it differs from the others</h2>
            <p>
                Every tool here is good at what it was built for. The difference is where it runs.
            </p>
            <p><a href="vs/index.html">Full comparison: what each tool needs to run &rarr;</a></p>
        </div>

        <div class="cards cards-3">
            <article class="card">
                <h3>Against Plausible</h3>
                <p>
                    The same idea on a different host: Plausible needs Elixir and ClickHouse, which
                    means a VPS with Docker. PlotBird needs PHP and MySQL, which means the hosting
                    you already pay for.
                </p>
            </article>
            <article class="card">
                <h3>Against Umami</h3>
                <p>
                    Umami runs on Node. Plenty of shared hostings do not run Node at all, and the
                    ones that do will not keep it running for you.
                </p>
            </article>
            <article class="card">
                <h3>Against Matomo</h3>
                <p>
                    Matomo is a platform: plugins, funnels, e-commerce, campaign tracking. PlotBird
                    deliberately stays small enough to install in five minutes and stay fast on a
                    cheap machine.
                </p>
            </article>
        </div>
    </div>
</section>

<section>
    <div class="wrap">
        <div class="not">
            <h2>What it is not</h2>
            <ul>
                <li>No funnels, no A/B tests, no e-commerce reports and no session recordings.</li>
                <li>The bundled <code>.htaccess</code> was checked against one shared host running nginx in front of Apache: <code>config/</code>, <code>logs/</code>, <code>templates/</code>, <code>locales/</code> and <code>migrations/</code> answer 403, and directory listing is off. The nginx snippet itself is still untested.</li>
                <li>No independent security review has been done: the code was reviewed by the maintainer against the checklist in <code>SECURITY.md</code>.</li>
                <li>One MySQL server by design: no ClickHouse cluster, no horizontal scaling.</li>
            </ul>
            <p class="caption" style="margin-top:14px">
                If you need funnels or e-commerce tracking today, Matomo is the safer choice.
            </p>
        </div>
    </div>
</section>

</main>

<footer>
    <div class="wrap footer-inner">
        <span>© <span id="year">2026</span> PlotBird · AGPL-3.0-or-later</span>
        <div class="footer-links">
            <a href="https://github.com/plotbird/analytics">Source code</a>
            <a href="https://github.com/plotbird/analytics/blob/main/README.md">Documentation</a>
            <a href="https://github.com/plotbird/analytics/blob/main/LICENSING.md">Licensing</a>
            <a href="ru/index.html" hreflang="ru">Русская версия</a>
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    </div>
</footer>

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