Whether you’re a startup founder, a developer, or a self-hosting enthusiast, this guide will help you understand what Rybbit is, why it’s worth self-hosting, and how to deploy it with Docker on an Ubuntu server.

What is Rybbit?

Rybbit is a modern open-source product and web analytics platform designed with privacy, performance, and flexibility in mind. Built as an alternative to services like Google Analytics, Rybbit allows teams to track user activity without compromising privacy or depending on third-party vendors.

Unlike traditional analytics platforms, Rybbit is cookieless by default, offers public dashboards, and can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure—giving you complete ownership of your analytics data.

Fun Fact: Rybbit powers analytics for websites handling 15+ million events per month—proving its scalability and reliability.

Key Features of Rybbit

Rybbit offers everything you’d expect from a modern analytics platform, and more:

• Ready-to-use dashboards for websites and products
• Privacy-first & GDPR-friendly with no cookies required
• Make dashboards public (great for transparency or stakeholders)
• Multi-organization support for team collaboration
• Advanced product analytics like:
  • User retention tracking
  • Funnel analysis
  • Custom reports
  • User journeys
• Customizable and developer-friendly
• Quick setup—just a few minutes on any website
• Docker-based deployment for easy hosting

Whether you’re tracking blog visitors or monitoring user behavior in a SaaS app, Rybbit has you covered.

Why Self-Host Rybbit?

Self-hosting Rybbit gives you:

• Full data ownership: No third-party cloud storage or tracking.
• Cost savings: Avoid monthly fees by hosting it on a budget VPS.
• Better privacy compliance: No cookie banners needed.
• Flexibility: Customize the platform to meet your business needs.
• Speed: Local infrastructure = low-latency dashboards.

For privacy-conscious teams and developers who value autonomy, Rybbit is a great fit.

Prerequisites

1. Minimum specs: 2GB RAM, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (x86_64)
2. You’ll need a domain or subdomain (like analytics.yourdomain.com) pointed to your VPS IP.

Install Docker on Ubuntu 24.04

To self-host the rybbit GitHub repository requires docker to installed on server. Host the rybbit with docker is one of the best way to host the opens source repository rybbit. To install the docker on your server run the below commands:

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

The above steps are complete step to install the docker on your ubuntu machine. To verify the docker installtion is successful or not run the below comnad.. i fthe version of the docker of pecify then it means the docker is installed successfully.

docker -v

docker -v

Step-by-Step Guide to Host Rybbit

Step 1: Configure DNS
Go to your DNS provider (e.g., Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap) and:

• Add an A record for your subdomain:
  • Name: tracking (or your choice)
  • Type: A
  • Value: Your VPS IP address
  • Proxy: DNS only (or enable proxy and use Full SSL mode in Cloudflare)

DNS propagation can take a few minutes. Check with DNS Checker.

Step 2: Clone the Rybbit repository
To host the rybbit application requires to the clone the git reposiorty form the github. You can check the repsoitory form here. 

git clone https://github.com/rybbit-io/rybbit.git
cd rybbit

git clone https://github.com/rybbit-io/rybbit.git
cd rybbit

To fix the file permisson of the .sh file use the below command. It will  assign permssion to execute the file with .sh extensions.

chmod +x *.sh

chmod +x *.sh

Step 3: Run the setup script

To slef-host the rybbit git repository  provide the setup.sh script to setup the complete app through one command without configure or taking care of anything else.Replace your.domain.com with your domain or subdomain:

./setup.sh tracking.yourdomain.com

./setup.sh tracking.yourdomain.com

This script will:

• Generate the .env file with secrets
• Pull and build Docker containers
• Launch services using Docker Compose
• Automatically install and configure Caddy for HTTPS

The first run might take several minutes depending on your server speed.

Access your Rybbit instance

Once the setup process is compelted. You can acces the application by visiting the domain. In the setup process it will setup the datbase, install  SSL certificate for your domain. 

• Visit https://tracking.yourdomain.com/signup

• Create your admin account
• You can now log in and start using Rybbit’s powerful dashboards!

Step 5: Managing your Rybbit installation

Rybbit provides helper scripts for easier server management:

Edit# Start services
./start.sh

# Stop all services
./stop.sh

# Restart services
./restart.sh

# Update to latest version
git pull
./update.sh

Edit# Start services
./start.sh

# Stop all services
./stop.sh

# Restart services
./restart.sh

# Update to latest version
git pull
./update.sh

Conclusion

Rybbit is an excellent choice for developers and startups that want powerful analytics without relying on third-party services. With easy Docker deployment and privacy-first design, it’s a top-tier alternative to tools like Google Analytics, Plausible, or PostHog.

By self-hosting Rybbit, you gain:

• Total control over your data
• Compliance with privacy regulations
• Fast, real-time analytics
• A beautiful and flexible dashboard

Take back your analytics and run them on your terms.

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