Self-hosting web analytics got a whole lot easier! Introducing Matomo for WordPress beta

Are there any known issues?

• If you have configured a custom content directory using `WP_CONTENT_DIR` parts of the plugin likely won’t work
• If you have WP_DEBUG enabled, then some notices re MySQL might appear which can be ignored.

Isn’t there already a WP-Matomo plugin for WordPress available?

Yes, the existing WP-Matomo (WP-Piwik) plugin is an awesome plugin to connect your existing Matomo On-Premise or Matomo Cloud account with WordPress. The difference is that this new plugin installs Matomo Analytics fully in your WordPress. So you get the convenience of having a powerful analytics platform within your WordPress.

We highly recommend you install this new plugin if you use WordPress and are not running Matomo yet.  

If you are already using Matomo on our Cloud or On-Premise, we’d still highly recommend you use WP-Matomo (WP-Piwik). So that you get an easier way of inserting the tracking code into your WordPress site and get insights faster.

What are the differences between Matomo On-Premise and Matomo for WordPress?

• There are no users and no website management in Matomo itself. Instead users and websites are managed in WordPress. This way you only need to manage your users and sites in one place.
• Matomo HTTP API is not available, use the WordPress REST API instead 
• Widgets cannot be exported, we provide shortcodes to embed reports into your website instead
• Tag Manager is not available in WP Multisite
• Matomo Marketplace is not available (see more about this below)
• Matomo CLI tools (console) may not work in MultiSite mode
• The entire login/logout and authentication is all done through WordPress
• Individual Matomo core plugins cannot be disabled
• The Matomo mobile app for Android and iOS won’t work with Matomo for WordPress
• No custom logo can be uploaded in Matomo for WordPress
• Matomo for WordPress focuses on simplicity by doing a lot of the work you usually have to do in On-Premise, for you. For example it automatically configures Geolocation and you don’t need to set up any cronjob to generate reports.
• Please note: if you are thinking of migrating from On-Premise to Matomo for WordPress, this currently is not supported but we will see if we can add support for this later on.

I have a high traffic website, will it be an issue?

If you have a lot of traffic, we’d advise you to install Matomo On-Premise separately. There’s no specific traffic threshold we can give you on when it’s better to use Matomo On-Premise. It really depends on your server. We also need to await feedback from this beta test. 

We reckon if you have more than 500,000 page views a month, you may want to think about using Matomo On-Premise with WP-Matomo instead, but this is just an estimate. In general, if the load on your server is already quite high, then it might be better to install Matomo on a separate server. See also recommended server sizing for running Matomo.

Will it run on WordPress.com?

We don’t think so. As mentioned on the incompatible plugins guide, WordPress has found that SQL-heavy plugins can put a high strain on their servers and we reckon this plugin will fall into this category.

Does it support WP MultiSite?

Yes it does. When you have a MultiSite running, each blog has its own Matomo installation. In the network admin you can manage the tracking code for all sites in one convenient place. 

If you have a lot of sites – or a lot of traffic in your WordPress – we recommend you install Matomo On-Premise as it’ll be much faster and easier for you to maintain. This option still gives you the ability to White Label, whereas, Matomo on WordPress doesn’t.

Will plugins from the Matomo Marketplace work on WordPress?

Yes and no. In general, it will be possible for any existing Matomo plugin to be compatible with Matomo WordPress. There is an option for us to make them automatically compatible, as it only involves inserting a few lines of code. However, the problem is that each developer would need to put their plugin on the WordPress Marketplace first. The other option is you download it from our Marketplace and then upload it in WordPress manually. 

I want to extend the WordPress plugin, where is the documentation?

We cannot wait to see what you, the community, will come up with! 

We will make the documentation available closer to the release date on our Matomo Developer Zone. We’re already providing a few filters to hook into our plugin and you can also access Matomo data within any WordPress plugin. 

There are so many awesome ways to make this work and to figure out how the insights could be better integrated into WordPress, so please let us know your ideas, and keep an eye out!

Will Matomo Premium Features work?

Yes they will! Well, most of them. This means features like Heatmaps, Session Recordings, Form Analytics, Media Analytics, Custom Reports and many more will be available for WordPress. There are currently no such plugins available on the WordPress Marketplace unless you are using a third party service.

How does Matomo for WordPress work technically?

Thanks to the beauty of dependency injection; the event system; the config; and our plugin architecture in Matomo, we were able to hook into many central parts and replace them with WordPress internals. For example emails, database, authentication, logging, users management, and more. It’s important for us to apply as many WordPress best practices as possible to guarantee that it works on as many systems as possible out-of-the-box. This means you get to enjoy the authentic WordPress look and feel. We’re also making sure it works when you follow all the Hardening WordPress steps to secure your WordPress. 

How do I report a bug or request a new feature in Matomo for WordPress?

Please create an issue, on our repository whenever you find a bug or if you have any suggestion or ideas of improvement. We want to build an outstanding analytics experience for WordPress!