Reverse Proxy

This guide outlines how to set up a reverse proxy for Plausible CE using Caddy, Nginx, or Apache. The guide assumes you got here from quickstart.

Expose Plausible

To make it possible for the reverse proxy to reach Plausible, you would need to modify the compose.override.yml file to expose Plausible ports to the host:

$ echo "HTTP_PORT=8000" >> .env

$ cat > compose.override.yml << EOF
services:
  plausible:
    ports:
      - 127.0.0.1:8000:${HTTP_PORT}
EOF

$ docker compose up -d

$ curl --head http://localhost:8000
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
access-control-allow-credentials: true
access-control-allow-origin: *
access-control-expose-headers:
cache-control: max-age=0, private, must-revalidate
content-length: 15363
content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
date: Tue, 24 Sep 2024 07:36:48 GMT
referrer-policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
server: Cowboy
x-content-type-options: nosniff
x-download-options: noopen
x-frame-options: SAMEORIGIN
x-permitted-cross-domain-policies: none
x-request-id: F_gd-E81vrjy83UABkjh
x-robots-tag: noindex, nofollow

Caddy

Caddy automatically handles HTTPS and WebSockets with minimal configuration. Below is an example Caddyfile setup:

example.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8000
}

Replace example.com with your actual domain name. It needs to be the same as in $BASE_URL. Save this configuration in a file called Caddyfile, and then run Caddy with:

$ caddy run --config /path/to/Caddyfile

Nginx

For Nginx, use the following server block configuration:

server {
    server_name example.com;

    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    }

    location = /live/websocket {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "Upgrade";
    }
}

Replace example.com with your actual domain name. It needs to be the same as in $BASE_URL. To enable this configuration:

1. Save the configuration to a file named plausible in your Nginx configuration directory.

2. Create a symbolic link in the sites-enabled directory:

   $ cp /path/to/plausible /etc/nginx/sites-available/
   $ ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/plausible /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/plausible

3. Restart Nginx:

   $ systemctl restart nginx

Apache

For Apache, use the following configuration in your plausible.conf file:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin admin@example.com
    ServerName example.com

    ProxyPreserveHost On
    ProxyAddHeaders On
    ProxyPassMatch ^/(live/websocket)$  ws://localhost:8000/$1
    ProxyPass / http://localhost:8000/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:8000/

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Replace example.com with your actual domain name. It needs to be the same as in $BASE_URL. Follow these steps to set it up:

1. Enable the necessary Apache modules:

   $ a2enmod proxy proxy_http proxy_ajp remoteip headers proxy_wstunnel
   $ systemctl restart apache2

2. Copy the configuration to Apache’s configuration folder:

   $ cp /path/to/plausible.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/
   $ a2ensite plausible.conf
   $ systemctl restart apache2