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Plausible Analytics on DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean publishes its own guide for deploying Plausible Analytics.

Open-source web analytics deployed as a Docker Compose stack, requiring PostgreSQL for application data and ClickHouse for the event store.

01.

What Plausible Analytics needs.

Every host claims to run Plausible Analytics, so the claim on its own decides nothing. These are the things Plausible Analytics actually requires from the platform underneath it, and what DigitalOcean publishes about each. DigitalOcean documents 4 of the 4.

Managed databases

Supported

Plausible needs PostgreSQL for application data alongside ClickHouse for events. The Postgres half is the part a managed database service can take off your hands; ClickHouse you run yourself.

Sources (1) →

Persistent storage

Supported

ClickHouse writes the event store to disk, and that store is the whole point of running Plausible. An ephemeral filesystem loses your analytics history on every deploy.

Sources (1) →
  • Volumes Block Storage Features | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗

    “Volumes are network-attached block storage. You can use them with Droplets or Kubernetes clusters, move or resize them, and create snapshots at any time. When attached to a Droplet, Volumes function like local block devices.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official docs

Memory (entry plan)

512 MiB on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo, size slug s-1vcpu-512mb-10gb)

ClickHouse holds a great deal in memory. An instance sized for a small blog will not run a Plausible stack, so the entry plan's RAM decides whether this is viable at all.

Sources (1) →
  • Droplet Pricing | DigitalOcean ↗

    “Memory | vCPU | Transfer | SSD | $/hr | $/mo — 512 MiB | 1 vCPU | 500 GiB | 10 GiB | $0.00595 | $4.00”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing

Docker deployment

Supported

The supported self-hosted install is a Docker Compose stack of Plausible, PostgreSQL and ClickHouse together, not a single process.

Sources (1) →

The requirement and the reason it matters are ours. Every value beside them was read from DigitalOcean's own pages — expand a source to see the sentence it came from.

02.

What DigitalOcean documents.

DigitalOcean publishes its own guide for deploying Plausible Analytics.

In addition to creating a Droplet from the Plausible Analytics 1-Click App via the control panel, you can also use the DigitalOcean API.

Sources (1) →
03.

What it costs to run there.

Entry paid plan
$4.00
Pricing model
billed per second with a minimum charge of 60 seconds or $0.01, whichever is higher
When you exceed a cap
Billed automatically — outbound transfer beyond the pooled plan allowance is charged at $0.01 per GiB; inbound transfer is free
Regions
NYC1, NYC2, NYC3 (New York City, United States); AMS3 (Amsterdam, the Netherlands); SFO2, SFO3 (San Francisco, United States); SGP1 (Singapore); LON1 (London, United Kingdom); FRA1 (Frankfurt, Germany); TOR1 (Toronto, Canada); BLR1 (Bangalore, India); SYD1 (Sydney, Australia); ATL1 (Atlanta, United States); RIC1 (Richmond, United States); MKC1 (Kansas City, United States); MEM1 (Memphis, United States)
Sources (3) →
  • Droplet Pricing | DigitalOcean ↗

    “512 MiB / 1 vCPU / 500 GiB transfer / 10 GiB SSD — $0.00595 /hr, $4.00 /mo”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing

  • Droplet Pricing | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗

    “billed per second with a minimum charge of 60 seconds or $0.01, whichever is higher”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official docs

  • Regional Availability | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗

    “NYC1 New York City, United States nyc1 / NYC2 New York City, United States nyc2 / NYC3 New York City, United States nyc3 / AMS3 Amsterdam, the Netherlands ams3 / SFO2 San Francisco, United States sfo2 / SFO3 San Francisco, United States sfo3 / SGP1 Singapore sgp1 / LON1 London, United Kingdom lon1 / FRA1 Frankfurt, Germany fra1 / TOR1 Toronto, Canada tor1 / BLR1 Bangalore, India blr1 / SYD1 Sydney, Australia syd1 / ATL1 Atlanta, United States atl1 / RIC1 Richmond, United States ric1 / MKC1 Kansas City, United States mkc1 / MEM1 Memphis, United States mem1”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official docs

04.

Whether it suits you.

Teams that want plain Linux virtual machines with predictable per-second billing from $4 a month, and the option of managed databases beside them. App Platform adds Git and Docker deploys on top.

Consider something else if…

You want a platform that manages the runtime for you rather than a server you administer.

Written by Palash Bagchi on 2026-09-05. This is a recommendation, not a sourced fact — it carries no citation because it is an opinion.

Visit DigitalOcean documentation