How to Deploy Matomo Web Analytics

If you want web analytics without handing visitor data to a third party, Matomo is the most established self-hosted option. You own the data, you control retention, and you can run it cookieless for GDPR-friendly tracking. The deployment is a classic PHP app backed by MySQL/MariaDB — with one important operational detail: the archiving cron.

This guide deploys Matomo with a managed database and gets the archiving job right.

Architecture

• Matomo app — PHP web app (the official matomo image bundles PHP + Apache).
• Managed MySQL — stores all tracking data.
• Archiving cron — pre-aggregates report data so dashboards load fast.

Step 1: Provision managed MySQL

Matomo supports MySQL 5.7+ and 8.x (and MariaDB). On [PandaStack](https://dashboard.pandastack.io), create a managed MySQL database. Matomo's data volume grows with traffic, so size storage with headroom and use a tier with enough connections.

The connection details map to Matomo's setup:

MATOMO_DATABASE_HOST=<managed-host>
MATOMO_DATABASE_USERNAME=<user>
MATOMO_DATABASE_PASSWORD=<password>
MATOMO_DATABASE_DBNAME=matomo
MATOMO_DATABASE_ADAPTER=mysql

Step 2: Deploy the Matomo container

Use the official image. A minimal Dockerfile that pins a version:

FROM matomo:5-apache
# Image serves Matomo on port 80 via Apache

1. 1Push the repo (or reference the matomo:5-apache image) to GitHub.
2. 2Create a container app on PandaStack.
3. 3Set the MATOMO_DATABASE_* env vars (password as a secret).
4. 4Expose port 80.
5. 5Attach a persistent volume at /var/www/html so Matomo's config, plugins, and the config/config.ini.php written during setup survive restarts.
6. 6Add a custom domain — SSL is automatic.

Step 3: Run the web installer

Visit your domain and Matomo's installer walks you through:

1. 1System check.
2. 2Database connection (use the managed MySQL details — the installer will create tables).
3. 3Super-user account.
4. 4Your first website to track.

After setup, Matomo writes config/config.ini.php to the persistent volume. This is why the volume mount matters — lose it and you lose your configuration.

Step 4: Set up the archiving cron — the key step

By default, Matomo computes reports on-the-fly when you open the dashboard. That's fine for a tiny site but becomes painfully slow as traffic grows, and it's a common reason people think "Matomo is slow." The fix is to disable browser-triggered archiving and run archiving on a schedule.

In Matomo's admin under *System > General settings*, turn off "archive reports when viewed from the browser" and set the archiving to be triggered by cron only.

Then create a cronjob that runs the archiver. PandaStack cronjobs run a one-off container on a schedule — point it at the Matomo console:

# Run hourly
php /var/www/html/console core:archive --url=https://analytics.example.com

A reasonable schedule is hourly. The archiver pre-computes report data so dashboards load instantly regardless of traffic volume.

Step 5: Add tracking to your site

Matomo gives you a JavaScript snippet (or you can use the server-side tracking API). The standard snippet:

<script>
  var _paq = window._paq = window._paq || [];
  _paq.push(['trackPageView']);
  _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']);
  (function() {
    var u="https://analytics.example.com/";
    _paq.push(['setTrackerUrl', u+'matomo.php']);
    _paq.push(['setSiteId', '1']);
    var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
    g.async=true; g.src=u+'matomo.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s);
  })();
</script>

For privacy-first tracking, enable cookieless mode and IP anonymization in the admin.

Step 6: Privacy and compliance settings

Matomo's appeal is compliance, so configure it:

• Anonymize IPs (mask the last 1–2 bytes).
• Respect Do Not Track if you choose.
• Cookieless tracking to avoid consent banners in many jurisdictions.
• Data retention — auto-delete raw logs after N months while keeping aggregates.

Operating tips

• Back up MySQL regularly — it's your entire analytics history. Use scheduled backups.
• Monitor database growth — high-traffic sites accumulate data quickly; set retention.
• Keep Matomo updated — security patches ship regularly; update the image tag and redeploy.
• GeoIP — install a GeoIP database for accurate location reports.

References

• [Matomo installation guide](https://matomo.org/docs/installation/)
• [Setting up Matomo auto-archiving](https://matomo.org/docs/setup-auto-archiving/)
• [Matomo Docker image](https://hub.docker.com/_/matomo)
• [Matomo privacy settings](https://matomo.org/docs/privacy/)

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The two things that make a Matomo deploy succeed are a properly sized managed MySQL and a cron-driven archiver — and PandaStack gives you both: managed MySQL with scheduled backups plus native cronjobs with per-run logs. Get analytics you actually own at [dashboard.pandastack.io](https://dashboard.pandastack.io).