TideMeter

Self-hosted, privacy-focused web analytics for developers and small teams

Website · Docs · Live Demo · Docker Hub

• Privacy-focused — no cookies, no fingerprinting, GDPR-friendly by design
• Lightweight tracker — ~1.5 KB gzipped, zero dependencies
• Real-time dashboard — interactive charts powered by Recharts
• Funnels & journeys — built-in conversion funnels and visitor path visualization
• Multiple database support — PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, or SQLite for analytics storage
• Built on PayloadCMS 3 + Next.js 16 — modern, extensible full-stack architecture
• Docker image on Docker Hub — docker pull tidemeter/tidemeter and you're running
• SPA support — automatic history API interception for single-page apps
• Custom event tracking — track signups, clicks, purchases, anything
• Team collaboration — multi-user with role-based access
• Public dashboards — share read-only analytics views without requiring login
• REST API — query your analytics data programmatically

Pull the pre-built image from Docker Hub — no cloning, no build step:

# Start a PostgreSQL database (skip if you already have one)
docker run -d \
  --name tidemeter-db \
  -p 5432:5432 \
  -e POSTGRES_USER=postgres \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres \
  -e POSTGRES_DB=tidemeter \
  postgres:16-alpine

# Pull and run TideMeter
docker run -d \
  -p 3700:3700 \
  -e DATABASE_URL="postgresql://postgres:postgres@host.docker.internal:5432/tidemeter" \
  -e PAYLOAD_SECRET="your-secret-key-minimum-32-characters" \
  -e NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL="http://localhost:3700" \
  tidemeter/tidemeter:latest

Browse all available tags on Docker Hub → tidemeter/tidemeter.

Clone the repo and bring up everything (app + database) with one command:

git clone https://github.com/tidemeter/tidemeter.git
cd tidemeter
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env — at minimum, set PAYLOAD_SECRET and SESSION_SALT_SECRET
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up -d

Visit http://localhost:3700 to create your admin account and add your first website.

Full documentation: tidemeter.com/docs

For contributors and anyone who wants to build from source.

• Node.js 22+
• pnpm 9+
• PostgreSQL 16+ (or use Docker for the database)

git clone https://github.com/tidemeter/tidemeter.git
cd tidemeter
pnpm install

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env — point DATABASE_URL to your PostgreSQL instance

pnpm dev        # Start dev server with Turbopack HMR
pnpm build      # Production build
pnpm test       # Run tests
pnpm lint       # Lint

The dev server starts at http://localhost:3700.

Add the tracking script to any website you want to monitor. The data-website-id comes from your TideMeter dashboard after adding a site.

<script
  defer
  data-website-id="YOUR_WEBSITE_ID"
  src="https://your-tidemeter-domain.com/t.js"
></script>

// Track a named event
tidemeter.track("signup", { plan: "pro" });

// Track a pageview manually (when auto-track is disabled)
tidemeter.track();

TideMeter is a Turborepo monorepo with a clear separation between the application layer and the analytics data layer.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  apps/web                   │
│        Next.js 16 + PayloadCMS 3            │
│     (dashboard, admin, API routes)          │
├──────────────┬──────────────┬───────────────┤
│ @tidemeter/  │ @tidemeter/  │ @tidemeter/   │
│   tracker    │  analytics   │      ui       │
│  (t.js)      │ (Drizzle ORM)│  (components) │
└──────────────┴──────┬───────┴───────────────┘
                      │
          ┌───────────┼───────────┐
          │           │           │
      PostgreSQL  ClickHouse   SQLite

• Dual database design — PayloadCMS manages application data (users, sites, settings) in PostgreSQL; analytics events are stored in a separate database that can be PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, or SQLite.
• Repository pattern — the @tidemeter/analytics package defines an AnalyticsRepository interface with swappable adapters (postgres, clickhouse), selected at runtime via the ANALYTICS_DB_TYPE env var.
• Tracker — @tidemeter/tracker compiles to a single t.js file via Rollup, served as a static asset.

All configuration is done through environment variables. Copy .env.example to .env and adjust:

See .env.example for the full annotated reference.

For high-traffic sites, use ClickHouse as the analytics storage engine. The override compose file adds a ClickHouse container and reconfigures the app:

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml -f docker/docker-compose.ch.yml up -d

This starts PostgreSQL (for PayloadCMS) + ClickHouse (for analytics) + the TideMeter app.

TideMeter runs anywhere Docker runs. Minimum requirements: 1 CPU core, 1 GB RAM.

For production, place TideMeter behind a reverse proxy (Nginx, Caddy, Traefik) for HTTPS. See the Deployment Guide for Nginx/Caddy examples, Railway, Fly.io, and DigitalOcean instructions.

• NODE_ENV=production
• PAYLOAD_SECRET — strong random value (32+ characters)
• SESSION_SALT_SECRET — strong random value
• NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL — your actual domain
• HTTPS via reverse proxy
• Database backups scheduled

tidemeter/
├── apps/
│   └── web/                 # Next.js 16 + PayloadCMS application
├── packages/
│   ├── analytics/           # Analytics data layer (Drizzle ORM, adapters)
│   │   └── src/
│   │       ├── adapters/    # postgres, clickhouse implementations
│   │       ├── schema/      # Drizzle table definitions
│   │       ├── types.ts     # Core interfaces (AnalyticsRepository, etc.)
│   │       └── factory.ts   # Adapter factory
│   ├── tracker/             # Lightweight tracking script (Rollup → t.js)
│   ├── ui/                  # Shared UI components
│   └── tsconfig/            # Shared TypeScript configs
├── docker/
│   ├── Dockerfile           # Multi-stage production build
│   ├── docker-compose.yml   # Default stack (PostgreSQL)
│   ├── docker-compose.ch.yml # ClickHouse override
│   └── clickhouse/          # ClickHouse init scripts
├── turbo.json               # Turborepo pipeline config
├── pnpm-workspace.yaml      # pnpm workspace definition
└── package.json             # Root scripts (dev, build, test, lint)

MIT © 2026 TideMeter