How to install Open Web Analytics on a Cloud VPS

Open Web Analytics is a self-hosted web analytics framework that tracks visitors, heatmaps and clicks while you keep the data.

Self-hosted analytics means you own the data, GDPR compliance is straightforward and there are no event or visitor caps.

One-click install on cloudlinux.ro

The fastest way: Open Web Analytics installs automatically at the first boot of a new server.

1. Create a Cloud VPS from the control panel.
2. In the configuration step, pick Open Web Analytics from the app catalog.
3. Start the server. The install runs in the background for a few minutes and its status shows on the server page.
4. Access details and generated passwords are saved on the server in /root/app-credentials.txt. The app will be available on port 80.

Manual install on any Ubuntu server

If you prefer doing it yourself, below is the exact script our automatic install runs. Execute it as root on a fresh Ubuntu server (24.04 recommended). It stops at the first error, and when it finishes you will find the access details in /root/app-credentials.txt.

export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
apt-get update -y
apt-get install -y apache2 mysql-server php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-cli php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-zip unzip curl
DB_PASS=$(openssl rand -base64 24 | tr -dc 'A-Za-z0-9' | cut -c1-20)
mysql -e "CREATE DATABASE owa; CREATE USER 'owa'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '${DB_PASS}'; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON owa.* TO 'owa'@'localhost'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"
URL=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/Open-Web-Analytics/Open-Web-Analytics/releases/latest | grep -o 'https://[^"]*\.tar\.gz' | head -n1)
curl -fsSL -o /tmp/owa.tar.gz "$URL"
rm -rf /var/www/html/*
tar -xzf /tmp/owa.tar.gz -C /var/www/html --strip-components=0
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html
systemctl enable --now apache2 mysql
IP=$(hostname -I | awk '{print $1}')
printf 'Open Web Analytics: http://%s/install.php\nBaza de date: owa, utilizator owa, parola %s (host localhost)\nFinalizeaza instalarea la prima accesare.\n' "$IP" "$DB_PASS" > /root/app-credentials.txt

You can also save this script as a recipe in your account and reuse it on any new server.