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<h1 id="self-hosting-fathom-analytics-with-digitalocean">Self-Hosting Fathom Analytics with DigitalOcean</h1>
<p>2021-02-02</p>
<p>Since my previous post walked through the process of setting up Fathom PRO on Netlify, I figured it made sense to create a similar tutorial for the “Lite” variation, self-hosted on DigitalOcean.</p>
<p>Please note that while I think the PRO version of Fathom Analytics is truly great, for my small, niche blog it seemed overkill compared to self-hosting. Switching over from $14/mo to $5/mo while retaining most of the same functionality was a no-brainer. Choose the option that best suits your needs (or in the case - budget & bandwidth).</p>
<p>With that cleared up - let’s get into it!</p>
<h2 id="prerequisites">Prerequisites</h2>
<ol>
<li>One or more website(s) where you would like to include analytics</li>
<li>DigitalOcean account (<strong>this link will give you a $100 credit!</strong>)</li>
<li>Positive attitude and passion for privacy-respecting analytics!</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="create-a-droplet">Create a Droplet</h2>
<p>Once your DigitalOcean account is setup, navigate to the Marketplace and search for <code>Fathom Analytics</code>. Then click the <code>Create Fathom Analytics Droplet</code>.</p>
<p>From here you’ll be brought to a page that allows you to customize the specifications of your new droplet. If you’re a smaller traffic site (personal blog, etc) selecting the <strong>$5/month</strong> Basic Shared CPU option is your best bet.</p>
<p>Select the data-center region based on where most of your traffic originates from. I would suggest enabling <code>IPv6</code> and setting up your authentication via SSH instead of a regular password system. Adding backups is entirely at your own discretion.</p>
<p>Once you’re ready, click <strong>Create Droplet</strong>.</p>
<h2 id="enter-the-matrix-not-really">Enter the Matrix (not really)</h2>
<p>Once DigitalOcean finishes spinning up your new droplet, open a terminal and connect to it by entering:</p>
<pre><code>ssh root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP
</code></pre>
<p>If you setup your login via SSH everything should work as-is. If you went the password route, you’ll given a prompt to enter it.</p>
<p>Now that you’re connected, Fathom will guide you through a simple configuration setup. It’s fairly straightforward and painless. Once complete, move to the next step.</p>
<h2 id="domains">Domains</h2>
<p>You’ll most likely want to host this instance on your own domain or subdomain - instead of connecting directly via the droplet’s <code>IP</code>. Head over to your <strong>Networking</strong> page in the sidebar of DigitalOcean and add your custom domain.</p>
<p>Then, click on that newly added domain - we need to add some new records. You’re going to add two new <code>A</code> records to this domain:</p>
<p>The last thing you need to do is set your nameservers to point to DigitalOcean:</p>
<pre><code>ns1.digitalocean.com
ns2.digitalocean.com
ns3.digitalocean.com
</code></pre>
<p>Give it some time to propagate and you’ll be in business!</p>
<h2 id="ssl-ftw">SSL FTW</h2>
<p>There is hardly a good reason not to practice security on the web, so setting up your new analytics to be served over <code>HTTPS</code> is just the smart thing to do. Did I mention that this is completely free as well? See - no excuses.</p>
<p>In order to get a free SSL certificate setup, you’ll need to install <code>certbot</code>. While connected to your droplet, enter the following:</p>
<pre><code>sudo apt-get install python-certbot-nginx
</code></pre>
<p>Once installed, enter the following to setup SSL (remember to swap out the domain with your own):</p>
<pre><code>certbot --nginx -d your-cool-domain.com
</code></pre>
<p>Follow the steps (it’s very quick and easy) and you’ll have <code>HTTPS</code> setup in a jiffy!</p>
<h2 id="the-final-lap">The Final Lap</h2>
<p>The last thing to do is login to your newly self-hosted Fathom instance, add your site you wish to track, grab the generated tracking code and then slap that badboy on whatever pages you need to track!</p>
<p>Congrats! You’re now officially running your own set of analytics tools. You should be happy about what you’ve accomplished and proud for respecting your users’ privacy!</p>
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