1st Party Tracking – 3 options to host Matomo
Matomo Analytics – a valid Google Analytics alternative
The web analytics software Matomo has been the open source alternative to Google Analytics – the de facto standard for web analytics software – for almost 20 years. Even if the Matomo interface is not quite as fancy as the Google alternative and even if the technology is sometimes a little less artificially intelligent, Matomo is an increasingly valid alternative to the American data aggregator.
In this article, we summarize how you can integrate Matomo into your website infrastructure and thus enjoy the benefits of more data protection compliance and 1st party tracking.
With the option of self-hosting on your own server under your own domain, Matomo is an extremely good alternative to browser and ad blocker mechanics.
1 | Self Hosting – own server
Price: Free (or web hosting costs from 1€ per month).
Matomo runs on a simple web hosting package with a LAMP stack. These packages cost from €1.80 per month (example:
The advantage: The Matomo instance can be operated on a subdomain via DNS routing: If the website runs under domain.de, Matomo can be provided under matomo.domain.de. This makes Matomo tracking extremely difficult to block by browsers and extensions and the data processing also takes place under your own control.
With a little Apache and nginx magic, Matomo can even be loaded from a subfolder(domain.de/matomo/).
2 | WordPress Plugin
Price: Free of charge.
Matomo not only offers an option for installation on a web hosting, but also a simple extension of a WordPress website via plugin. With just a few clicks, both Matomo Analytics and Matomo Tag Manager can be used from the comfort of the WordPress backend.
The Matomo extension is installed by default in a subfolder of the domain and is therefore extremely immune to blocking by browsers and/or operating systems. The fact that the software works within a WordPress construct does not actually lead to any restrictions in functionality. The only drawback: in order to gain access to the reports, users must not only become Matomo users, but also WordPress users.
The cookie-free option from Matomo may be sufficient for small websites without a large transactional element.
3 | Cloud (Matomo)
Price: from € 22 per month (Business Plan)
In addition to the open source project, Matomo ORG also operates a hosting service for its system. Prices start at €22 per month and are aimed at companies / websites that a) do not have the technical expertise to install and operate software on premise or b) have specific enterprise requirements for web analysis.
In the Business version, which can rise to a price of €822 per month, there is unfortunately no option for a custom domain. The Enterprise plan is already required for this. From the point of view of blocking avoidance, the cloud solution is therefore not quite as advantageous as the self-hosted versions.