Installation

HitKeep is self-hosted web analytics with one Go binary, embedded DuckDB, and embedded NSQ. It runs on your infrastructure: a $6/month VPS, a VM, a bare-metal server, a Kubernetes cluster, or a restricted internal network.

Use this page when you want analytics under your control without adding PostgreSQL, Redis, ClickHouse, Kafka, or a hosted analytics vendor. If you want the same product without managing upgrades, backups, SMTP, or servers, start with HitKeep Cloud instead.

Choose the deployment method that fits your environment and security requirements:

Single Binary Download and run directly on bare metal or VMs. Best for low-resource Linux servers, Raspberry Pi, and restricted networks.

Docker Compose Pre-configured networking and persistent storage volumes. The fastest path from zero to production with a reverse proxy.

Kubernetes StatefulSet deployment with PVC for persistent data. Fits into your existing cluster security and RBAC policies.

Trusted Proxies Required if running behind Caddy, Traefik, nginx, or a cloud load balancer. Ensures real client IPs are used for analytics and rate limiting.

After Installation

Once HitKeep is running, the setup wizard guides you through creating the first admin user and adding your first site. Paste the tracking snippet into your site’s <head> and analytics begins flowing into your database immediately.

The browser snippet records normal pageviews, automatic events, and AI-referred human visits. If you also need AI crawler fetches, add a server-side feed after the first site is working. If you need approved assistants or internal reporting tools to query aggregate analytics, enable MCP and create a scoped API client token.

All data is stored under HitKeep’s data directory on your server. In single-team installs that is just hitkeep.db; multiteam installs also include tenants/*/hitkeep.db. Back up the full directory tree. Export it any time in open formats. Move it to any platform. It’s yours.

Prefer managed infrastructure with explicit region choice? HitKeep Cloud → runs HitKeep in your chosen managed region: EU (Frankfurt) or US (Virginia).

Next paths: