# Open source web analytics

Getting Started

Before you get started, ensure that you have the following:

• A web server, shared hosting or dedicated server.
  If you do not have a web server or shared host to install Piwik on, you can get a pre-installed Piwik for only $4 per month. See our top Piwik web hosts.
• Access to your web server (via shell or FTP)
• An FTP Client (if you are installing Piwik on a remote server)

Start the Installation

Check to make sure that your web host meets the minimum requirements to run Piwik.
If your web host offers one-click software (Simplescripts or Softaculous, for example), you can install Piwik in one click. Otherwise, follow these steps:

1. Download the latest release of Piwik from http://piwik.org/latest.zip
2. Unzip the zip file to a folder on your hard drive. This will create a "piwik" folder containing the files and directories.
3. Open your FTP client and upload the Piwik files in 'binary mode' to the desired location on your web server.
   All files can be uploaded to a "piwik" sub-directory in your public www folder, for example http://yourdomain.org/analytics/, or you could setup Piwik in its own subdomain, http://analytics.example.org/
   
   If you have SSH access to your server, you can use it instead of FTP as it is much faster: run 'wget http://piwik.org/latest.zip && unzip latest.zip'.

When Piwik is uploaded you can move on to the next step!

The 5-minute Piwik Installation

Open your web browser and navigate to the URL to which you uploaded Piwik. If everything is uploaded correctly, you should see the Piwik Installation Welcome Screen. If there are any problems, Piwik will identify them and help you out with a solution.

The Welcome Screen

Time to get started with the point-and-click installation! Click Next »

System Check

Piwik will check to make sure that your server meets the Piwik requirements. If everything is okay, you'll see a long list like this:

If there is a problem, Piwik will identify it and tell you how to solve it, as in this example:

When all the requirements are met, click Next »

MySQL Database Setup

You should already have set up your MySQL database. If you do not have the database information, you may need to ask your web host or technical staff.

Security note: for added security, we recommend that you install Piwik in its own MySQL database and specify a username and password for a user that only has access to that database.

Once you have filled in the form, click Next »

Piwik will add the necessary tables to your database:

Click Next »

Super User

The super user is the user that you create when you install Piwik. This user has the highest permissions. Choose your username and password:

Do not lose this information; it is the only way for you to log in to Piwik for the first time. There is only one super user in each Piwik installation. The super user can perform administrative tasks such as adding new websites to monitor, adding users, changing user permissions, and enabling and disabling plugins.

By default the super user will be signed up for upgrade and security alerts, as well as for community updates. Uncheck these boxes if you do not want to receive these emails.

Fill in the information and click Next »

Set up Your First Website

Enter the name and URL of the first website you want to track. You can add more websites once the installation is complete.

Click Next »

Install the JavaScript Tracking Tag

Piwik will issue you with a JavaScript tag. This code must appear on every page that you want Piwik to analyze. We recommend that you put this code just before your </body> tag at the bottom of your pages (or in a general footer file that is included at the bottom of all your pages).

If you use a CMS such as WordPress, Drupal or Joomla!, you can use an add-on, extension or plugin to make sure this tag appears where it needs to.

• WP-Piwik Plugin
• Piwik Web Analytics Drupal Module
• Piwik Analytics Joomla! extension

Otherwise you will need to insert your tracking tag manually.

When you have copied your tracking tag click Next »

Congratulations!

Piwik is installed and ready to track your visitors. As soon as visitors start arriving, Piwik will be keeping track of their data. Piwik reports are generated in real time, so you should see data in your Piwik dashboard straight away.

Click Continue to Piwik » and log in to your dashboard!

Configuring Piwik

If the Piwik JavaScript tracking tag is properly installed on your website, you'll be receiving real time analytics data. If you are not receiving any data, make sure that you have copied and pasted the Piwik Javascript code to your website's pages.

If you want to give other users access to Piwik, monitor more than one website, rebrand Piwik or install third party plugins, you will need to use the Settings page. The link is at the top right hand side of your dashboard.

When you have finished configuring Piwik, you can set more restrictive permissions (ie. read only) to the "piwik/config/" folder. Piwik will always write its data inside the "piwik/tmp/" folder, so this is the only folder that requires write permissions.

Medium and High-Traffic Websites

If your website is a medium or high-traffic website (more than a few hundred visits per day) you may have to set up auto-archiving so that Piwik calculates your reports periodically. If you do not do this, Piwik will recalculate your statistics every time you visit a Piwik page, which will slow Piwik down and increase the load on your database.

Instructions for setting up auto-archiving can be found on the Piwik website at How to setup Piwik auto-archiving.

Updates, Recommended Server Configuration, and More

Check also the Piwik Installation, Update & Optimization documentation for more information.

You may also be interested in...

• Documentation homepage
• FAQ