I'm looking for a privacy-focused, inexpensive alternative to Google Analytics, preferably something I can self-host. Matomo is currently my leading option, but its stated minimum requirements of 2 CPUs, 2 GB of RAM, and 50 GB of storage seem excessive for my use case. I run a small niche gaming blog that might reach around 10,000 page views per month, and the rest of my sites have very little traffic. Would Matomo be practical on a 2-CPU, 1 GB RAM, 30 GB VPS, or possibly on shared hosting? I'm also open to lighter alternatives if Matomo would be overkill.
4 Answers
Matomo should be perfectly manageable on a 1 GB VPS for that amount of traffic. The database and scheduled archiving jobs are more likely to cause trouble than tracking visits themselves. Set raw log data to purge automatically after a few months instead of keeping everything forever, and avoid storage-heavy features such as heatmaps and session recordings. Thirty gigabytes should be plenty if you aren’t retaining years of detailed data. The archiving job can briefly use more CPU and memory, so schedule it during quiet hours. Shared hosting may work, but it depends on whether the provider allows reliable cron jobs and gives Matomo enough resources. PHP OPcache and a sensible PHP memory limit will also help.
The automatic cleanup is especially important. The published requirements are usually conservative and aimed at much busier installations with every feature enabled, so a small VPS should handle roughly 10,000 monthly views without much trouble.
Matomo is fairly capable, but it may be more analytics than a small blog needs. Umami is simpler and has worked well for modest traffic, although its initial startup can need more memory than its normal operation. Plausible is another lightweight option. For basic page views, referrers, browsers, and similar metrics, GoatCounter is worth considering too: it has a small footprint and can run with very little memory. The tradeoff is that these simpler tools generally don’t provide Matomo’s deeper funnels, user flows, or e-commerce reporting.
How do Umami and Plausible compare in everyday use? I’m mainly interested in basic traffic trends rather than detailed conversion analysis.
If you do use Matomo, I’d start small and monitor it rather than sizing the server from the published maximums. Even 1 CPU and 1 GB of RAM can be enough at this traffic level, provided the archiving cron is configured sensibly and raw data is regularly pruned. You can always increase the VPS resources later if the database or scheduled reports start consuming too much memory.
I ran Matomo for personal sites and found that it stayed usable on low traffic, but the interface and background processing felt slower than necessary. I eventually moved to Umami because it was more basic and lighter, then stopped using analytics altogether when I realized I rarely checked the reports. For a small blog, it may be worth choosing the simplest tool that answers the few questions you actually care about.
That’s exactly the kind of confirmation I was looking for. I figured it would probably be fine, but wanted to check before committing to managing another VPS.