Using Matomo to Build a Website Traffic Statistics System

Scenarios

Matomo is a powerful open-source network analysis platform that has full data ownership and ensures that the business complies with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). FlexusL provides a Matomo application image running on Ubuntu 24.04 and deployed with Docker. The image comes pre-installed with Nginx, MySQL, phpMyAdmin, and Docker. You can use this application image to analyze website data.

If your Matomo application image was purchased before August 28, 2026, see Using Matomo to Build a Website Traffic Statistics System (Historical Version) for instructions.

Resource Planning and Costs

Procedure

Step 1: Purchase a FlexusL Instance

1. Log in to the FlexusL console and click Buy FlexusL.
2. Specify required parameters for the FlexusL instance.
   

   Parameter	Example Value	Description
   Region	CN-Hong Kong	For low network latency and quick resource access, select the region nearest to your target users. After a FlexusL instance is created, the region cannot be changed. Exercise caution when selecting a region.
   Application Images	Matomo	Select the Matomo application image.
   Instance Specifications	2 vCPUs | 2 GiB of memory and 60 GiB of the system disk	Select instance specifications as needed.
   Instance Name	Matomo-Example	Customize an instance name that is easy to identify, for example, Matomo-Example.
   (Optional) Associated Services	Data Disk: 10 GiB Host Security Cloud Backup Vault: 70 GB	You can bundle any of EVS, HSS (basic edition), and CBR to your FlexusL instances as needed and set specifications as needed.
   Required Duration	1 month	Set the required duration. FlexusL supports auto-renewal. Once enabled, FlexusL instances automatically renew before they expire. If you do not enable auto-renewal during purchase, you can still enable it after your FlexusL instances are created. For more information about auto-renewal rules, see Auto-Renewal Rules.
   Quantity	1	Set the number of FlexusL instances to be purchased.

3. Click Next: Confirm.

   On the displayed page, confirm the order details, read and select the agreement, and click Submit.

4. Select a payment method and complete the payment.
5. Go back to the FlexusL console and view the purchased FlexusL instance.

Step 2: Configure Security Groups

Add inbound security group rules to ensure that the application pre-installed in the image can be accessed.

1. Log in to the FlexusL console and click the target resource card or instance name to go to the instance details page.
2. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Cloud Servers and click the target server name to view its details.

   

3. On the Security Groups tab, click Add Rule to add the rules listed in the following table.

   The following only lists common rules. You can add more rules as needed.

   Table 1 Security group rules

   Priority	Action	Type	Protocol & Port	Source	Description
   1	Allow	IPv4	TCP: 80	0.0.0.0/0	Allows HTTP access to the application dashboard.

Step 3: Reset the Password and Log In to the FlexusL Instance

This section describes how to log in to a FlexusL instance. A FlexusL instance does not have an initial password. After creating a FlexusL instance, set a password for the FlexusL instance before logging in to it.

1. In the Image area on the Overview page of the FlexusL console, click Access to go to the application dashboard and check whether the application has been up and running. If yes, go to the next step.
   

   Wait for several minutes until the application is up and running. Then, you can perform operations such as restarting or stopping the instance, or resetting the password. Otherwise, the initial password may become invalid and you cannot log in to the application dashboard.

   Figure 1 Access to the application dashboard
   

   After the application is started, the initialization wizard page of the dashboard is displayed.

   Figure 2 Initialization wizard page of the Matomo dashboard
   
   

   If the dashboard is not properly displayed, check the following causes:

   • The port for accessing the dashboard is not enabled. Enable it as needed.
   • The dashboard is being started. Try again later.
2. Locate the resource card and choose > Reset Password. Alternatively, in the list view, click Reset Password in the Operation column to reset the password for the FlexusL instance.

   A FlexusL instance does not have an initial password. Set a password for the FlexusL instance before logging in to it. For details, see Resetting the Password for a FlexusL Instance.

   Figure 3 Resetting a password
   
3. Locate the resource card and click Remote Login. Alternatively, in the list view, click Remote Login in the Operation column. In the displayed dialog box, click VNC Login and enter the username and password as prompted to log in to the FlexusL instance. For more login methods, see Login Modes.

   The username is root, and the password is the one you set in the previous step.

   

Step 4: Initialize Matomo

Application images use code-based Ubuntu. They provide graphical user interfaces to make your operations easier. You need to initialize the application dashboard upon the first login. Then you can directly log in to the dashboard from the FlexusL console afterwards.

Step 5: Use Matomo to Monitor Websites

1. On the dashboard, click the TRACKING CODE tab and copy the tracking code in the Tracking Code area.

   

2. Copy the tracking code to each page of the website you want to monitor.

   Matomo can collect real-time analysis data of the website with the tracking code.

   

   For details about how to install the Matomo tracking code, see the official documentation.

3. Select All Websites to view the access to the monitored websites.