How To Install Matomo on Debian 12

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Matomo on Debian 12. Matomo, a powerful web analytics platform, stands out for its privacy-focused approach. By self-hosting Matomo on your Debian 12 server, you retain complete control over your data, ensuring compliance with data protection regulations. Matomo offers a plethora of features, including real-time tracking, custom reports, and insightful dashboards, all designed to empower you with actionable insights.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the Matomo on a Debian 12 (Bookworm).

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Debian 12 (Bookworm).
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• An active internet connection. You’ll need an internet connection to download the necessary packages and dependencies for Matomo.
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install Matomo on Debian 12 Bookworm

Step 1. Before we install any software, it’s important to make sure your system is up to date by running the following apt commands in the terminal:

sudo apt update

This command will refresh the repository, allowing you to install the latest versions of software packages.

Step 2. Installing LAMP Stack.

Next, set up a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack, the foundation for hosting Matomo. Lastly, follow best practices to secure your server, safeguarding your data from potential threats:

sudo apt install apache2 mysql-server php php-mysql

Strengthen your server’s security:

• Configure a firewall: Use ufw to allow necessary ports and deny unauthorized access.
• Secure MySQL: Run mysql_secure_installation to set a root password and remove unnecessary users.
• Harden Apache: Adjust settings to minimize vulnerabilities.

Step 3. Installing Matomo on Debian 12.

Now download the latest version of Matomo from the Matomo website:

cd /var/www/html
sudo wget https://builds.matomo.org/matomo.zip

Unzip the downloaded file and adjust ownership:

sudo unzip matomo.zip
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/matomo

Step 4. Configuring MariaDB.

Next, we will need to log in to the MariaDB console and create a database for Matomo. Run the following command:

mysql -u root -p

This will prompt you for a password, so enter your MariaDB root password and hit Enter. Once you are logged in to your database server you need to create a database for Matomo installation:

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE matomo_database;
MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'matomo_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_strong_password';
MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON matomo_database.* TO 'matomo_user'@'localhost';
MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Step 5. Configure Apache.

Create a new virtual host configuration file for Matomo:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/matomo.conf

Add the following lines to the file:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/matomo
ServerName your-domain.com

<Directory /var/www/html/matomo>
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/matomo_error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/matomo_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Enable the new virtual host configuration:

sudo a2ensite matomo.conf

Restart Apache:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 6. Accessing Matomo Web Interface.

Navigate to your server’s URL (e.g., http://your-domain.com/matomo) and follow the web-based installation steps. Provide the database details, create a super user account, and customize settings as needed.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Matomo. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the latest version of Matomo on Debian 12 Bookworm. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official Matomo website.