Plausible

Plausible is a lightweight, GDPR-compliant alternative to Google Analytics. No cookies, no consent banner needed, no personal data collection.

The template integrates Plausible via next-plausible, which proxies the tracking script through your own domain so ad blockers don't strip it.

Setup

1. Sign up at plausible.io and add your site (e.g., my-directory.com)
2. Set the env var:

NEXT_PUBLIC_PLAUSIBLE_DOMAIN=my-directory.com

Use the exact domain you registered in Plausible — not www. prefixed, not a URL, just the hostname.

3. Redeploy. Analytics start collecting immediately.

If the var is empty, the tracking script isn't rendered at all.

Self-hosted Plausible

If you run your own Plausible instance (e.g., at stats.my-directory.com), also set:

PLAUSIBLE_CUSTOM_DOMAIN=https://stats.my-directory.com

The proxy routes your site's tracking requests through this host instead of plausible.io. Leave empty to use the hosted plausible.io.

What's tracked by default

• Page views (automatic)
• Outbound link clicks (via Plausible's script)

Custom events (vote, submit, sign-up) are not instrumented out of the box. See Voting for an example of wiring one up.

Adding custom events

"use client"
import { usePlausible } from "next-plausible"

export function MyButton() {
  const plausible = usePlausible()
  return (
    <button onClick={() => plausible("Clicked CTA")}>
      Click me
    </button>
  )
}

Events appear in the Plausible dashboard under Goals.

Removing Plausible

If you prefer another analytics provider (or none at all):

1. Remove NEXT_PUBLIC_PLAUSIBLE_DOMAIN from your env
2. In next.config.mjs, remove the withPlausibleProxy(...) wrapper and the next-plausible import
3. In app/layout.tsx, remove the <PlausibleProvider> block and its import
4. bun remove next-plausible

Common issues

No events showing — Make sure NEXT_PUBLIC_PLAUSIBLE_DOMAIN matches exactly the domain registered in Plausible. Check the browser network tab for requests to /_plausible/... — they should return 200.

Events blocked by ad blockers — You're not using the proxy. Confirm the withPlausibleProxy wrapper is in next.config.mjs and the script loads from your own domain (not plausible.io).

Self-hosted instance not recognized — PLAUSIBLE_CUSTOM_DOMAIN must include the protocol (https://) and no trailing slash.