matomo-org/matomo

Empowering People Ethically 🚀 — Matomo is hiring! Join us → https://matomo.org/jobs Matomo is the leading open-source alternative to Google Analytics, giving you complete control and built-in privacy. Easily collect, visualise, and analyse data from websites & apps. Star us on GitHub ⭐️ – Pull Requests welcome!

21,390 stars PHP 11 components 20 connections

Open-source web analytics platform competing with Google Analytics

Website tracking data flows from JavaScript tracker to database, gets aggregated by archive processes, then served through API to frontend visualizations

Under the hood, the system uses 2 feedback loops, 3 data pools, 3 control points to manage its runtime behavior.

Structural Verdict

A 11-component dashboard with 20 connections. 3858 files analyzed. Highly interconnected — components depend on each other heavily.

How Data Flows Through the System

Website tracking data flows from JavaScript tracker to database, gets aggregated by archive processes, then served through API to frontend visualizations

Track — JavaScript tracker collects user interactions and sends to Matomo
Process — Tracker core processes and validates incoming data
Store — Raw tracking data stored in MySQL database tables
Archive — Background processes aggregate raw data into metrics
Serve — API serves aggregated data to frontend for visualization
Visualize — Vue.js frontend renders charts and tables from API data

System Behavior

How the system actually operates at runtime — where data accumulates, what loops, what waits, and what controls what.

Data Pools

Raw Tracking Data (database)
Incoming visitor interactions before aggregation

Archive Tables (database)
Aggregated metrics and reports by period

Configuration Cache (cache)
Cached plugin settings and system configuration

Feedback Loops

Archive Processing (scheduled-job, balancing) — Trigger: Cron or visitor request. Action: Process raw data into aggregated reports. Exit: All periods processed.
Plugin Hook Chain (recursive, reinforcing) — Trigger: Plugin event. Action: Execute registered hook callbacks. Exit: No more hooks.

Delays & Async Processing

Archive Generation (batch-window, ~variable) — Reports may show delayed data until next archive run
Real-time Updates (eventual-consistency, ~seconds to minutes) — Live visitor data appears with slight delay

Control Points

Archive Processing (env-var) — Controls: When and how often data aggregation runs
Plugin Activation (runtime-toggle) — Controls: Which analytics features are enabled
Tracking Settings (feature-flag) — Controls: Data collection and privacy compliance

Technology Stack

PHP (framework)
Backend web application framework

MySQL (database)
Primary data storage for tracking and configuration

Vue.js (framework)
Frontend JavaScript framework for UI components

jQuery (library)
DOM manipulation and AJAX requests

PHPUnit (testing)
PHP unit testing framework

Jest (testing)
JavaScript testing framework

Webpack (build)
JavaScript bundling and asset management

Key Components

Tracker (module) — Processes and stores website tracking data from JavaScript core/Tracker/
API (module) — RESTful API layer for data retrieval and configuration core/API/
Plugin (module) — Plugin system for modular feature extension core/Plugin/
DataTable (class) — Data structure for analytics results with filtering and formatting core/DataTable/
Archive (module) — Aggregates raw tracking data into reportable metrics core/Archive/
MatomoUrl (class) — Frontend URL management and hash-based navigation plugins/CoreHome/vue/src/MatomoUrl/MatomoUrl.ts
Periods (class) — Date period parsing and management (day, week, month, year) plugins/CoreHome/vue/src/Periods/Periods.ts
AjaxHelper (class) — Frontend AJAX request handling with error management and queuing plugins/CoreHome/vue/src/AjaxHelper/AjaxHelper.ts
Goals (plugin) — Conversion tracking and goal management functionality plugins/Goals/
Live (plugin) — Real-time visitor tracking and live view reports plugins/Live/
ComparisonsStore (class) — Frontend state management for period and segment comparisons plugins/CoreHome/vue/src/Comparisons/Comparisons.store.ts

Configuration

composer.json (json)

name (string, unknown) — default: matomo/matomo
type (string, unknown) — default: project
description (string, unknown) — default: Matomo is the leading Free/Libre open analytics platform
keywords (array, unknown) — default: piwik,matomo,web,analytics
homepage (string, unknown) — default: https://matomo.org
license (string, unknown) — default: GPL-3.0+
authors (array, unknown) — default: [object Object]
support.forum (string, unknown) — default: https://forum.matomo.org/
+54 more parameters

Explore the interactive analysis

See the full architecture map, data flow, and code patterns visualization.

Analyze on CodeSea

Related Dashboard Repositories

Frequently Asked Questions

What is matomo used for?

Open-source web analytics platform competing with Google Analytics matomo-org/matomo is a 11-component dashboard written in PHP. Highly interconnected — components depend on each other heavily. The codebase contains 3858 files.

How is matomo architected?

matomo is organized into 4 architecture layers: Core Framework, Plugin System, JavaScript Tracking, Vue.js Frontend. Highly interconnected — components depend on each other heavily. This layered structure enables tight integration between components.

How does data flow through matomo?

Data moves through 6 stages: Track → Process → Store → Archive → Serve → .... Website tracking data flows from JavaScript tracker to database, gets aggregated by archive processes, then served through API to frontend visualizations This pipeline design reflects a complex multi-stage processing system.

What technologies does matomo use?

The core stack includes PHP (Backend web application framework), MySQL (Primary data storage for tracking and configuration), Vue.js (Frontend JavaScript framework for UI components), jQuery (DOM manipulation and AJAX requests), PHPUnit (PHP unit testing framework), Jest (JavaScript testing framework), and 1 more. A focused set of dependencies that keeps the build manageable.

What system dynamics does matomo have?

matomo exhibits 3 data pools (Raw Tracking Data, Archive Tables), 2 feedback loops, 3 control points, 2 delays. The feedback loops handle scheduled-job and recursive. These runtime behaviors shape how the system responds to load, failures, and configuration changes.

What design patterns does matomo use?

5 design patterns detected: Plugin Architecture, Event-Driven Hooks, Request Routing, Vue Composables, Translation System.

Analyzed on March 31, 2026 by CodeSea. Written by Karolina Sarna.