An open source analytics tool for flutter -- Aptabase

Posted on 2025-07-21 In Tutorial Views: Word count in article: 3.6k Reading time ≈ 3 mins.

When I develop app using flutter, I tried to use plausible as analytics tool. However, I found that plausible is more suitable for website, did not work well cross platforms. So I decided to use another anaylytics tool. And I found aptabase finally, which works perfectly in flutter.

How to install aptabase

Docker configuration

Log into your server as root.

mkdir aptabase
git clone https://github.com/aptabase/self-hosting aptabase
cd aptabase
vim docker-compose.yml

services:
  # ClickHouse still lives in Docker
  aptabase_events_db:
    container_name: aptabase_events_db
    image: clickhouse/clickhouse-server:23.8.4.69-alpine
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - events-db-data:/var/lib/clickhouse
    environment:
      CLICKHOUSE_USER: aptabase
      CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD: your_password
    ulimits:
      nofile:
        soft: 262144
        hard: 262144

  aptabase:
    container_name: aptabase_app
    image: ghcr.io/aptabase/aptabase:main
    restart: always
    depends_on:
      - aptabase_events_db
    ports:
      - "8000:8080"
    # Tell the container where to find Postgres on the **host**
    environment:
      BASE_URL: https://aptabase.example.com
      AUTH_SECRET: c4rI4x8kz5DgKJ1is5Eiu9bNncSQ6ROD # get a strong secret from https://randomkeygen.com/
      DATABASE_URL: Server=host.docker.internal;Port=5432;User Id=aptabase;Password=your_password;Database=aptabase
      CLICKHOUSE_URL: Host=aptabase_events_db;Port=8123;Username=aptabase;Password=your_password
      # ── NEW: SMTP settings ──────────────────────────────
      SMTP_HOST: mail.example.com
      SMTP_PORT: "465"                       # 587 (STARTTLS) or 465 (implicit TLS)
      SMTP_USERNAME: aptabase@example.com
      SMTP_PASSWORD: your_password
      SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS: aptabase@example.com
    # Linux needs an explicit alias for host.docker.internal
    extra_hosts:
      - "host.docker.internal:host-gateway"

volumes:
  events-db-data:

1 2	su - postgres psql

1 2	CREATE ROLE aptabase WITH LOGIN PASSWORD 'your_password'; CREATE DATABASE aptabase OWNER aptabase;

1
2
3

\q
exit # switch to root
docker compose up -d

Nginx configuration

1	vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/aptabase.example.com

# 1. Plain-HTTP → HTTPS redirect
server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name aptabase.example.com;

    # HSTS preload requires HTTPS first, so redirect early.
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

# 2. HTTPS reverse-proxy
server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    server_name aptabase.example.com;

    # --- TLS ---
    ssl_certificate     /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;

    # Allow modern protocols
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;

    # HSTS (optional, enables preload after 6 months)
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload" always;

    # --- Proxy settings ---
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8000;          # Aptabase backend
        proxy_set_header Host $host;               # preserve original Host
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;   # client IP
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Connection "";            # enable keep-alive
    }

    # Optional: gzip or Brotli static compression, client_max_body_size, etc.
}

1 2	ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/aptabase.chinesefoodlab.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled service nginx restart

Now you can visit your website to use aptabase. This is the link guide you how to integrate it with flutter: https://aptabase.com/for-flutter. The only disadvantage is that there is no disable registeration option in aptabase. An alternative way to disable registeration is to delete smtp configure in docker compose file temprarily.

Reference

0%