---
title: "Deploy traffic-source"
description: "Self-hosted analytics with Stripe tracking & affiliates."
category: "Analytics"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/traffic-source
---

# Deploy traffic-source

Self-hosted analytics with Stripe tracking & affiliates.

**[Deploy traffic-source on Railway](https://railway.com/template/traffic-source)**

- **Creator:** Mohd Danish's Projects
- **Category:** Analytics
- **Total deploys:** 84

## Template content

### traffic-source

- **Source:** mddanishyusuf/traffic-source
- **Public domain:** Yes

## Documentation

# Traffic Source

Open-source, self-hosted web analytics with conversion tracking and affiliate management. Deploy on a $4 VPS, own your data forever.

**No monthly fees. No data sharing. No limits.**

![Traffic Source Dashboard](https://github.com/mddanishyusuf/traffic-source/raw/main/demo-image.png)

Built by the team behind [SuperDevPro](https://superdevpro.com) · [NoCode Web Scraper](https://nocodewebscraper.com) · [CrawlAPI](https://crawlapi.dev) · [MailLayer](https://maillayer.com) · [ClickDash](https://clickdash.io)

## Features

- **Real-time Analytics** — Live visitor count, pageviews, sessions, bounce rate, and session duration
- **Traffic Sources** — Referrers, UTM parameters (source, medium, campaign, term, content)
- **Geo Tracking** — Country and city-level visitor data via Cloudflare proxy headers
- **Device & Browser** — Browser, OS, device type, and screen resolution breakdowns
- **Google Search Console** — One-click connect, drill into any keyword to see its pages, countries, and devices on a single screen
- **Conversion Tracking** — Stripe integration that auto-syncs payments every 60 seconds — no webhooks needed
- **Affiliate System** — Create affiliates with custom commission rates, shareable referral links, and public dashboards
- **Visitor Journeys** — Full session replay showing every page a visitor viewed before converting
- **Multi-site** — Track multiple websites from a single dashboard
- **Lightweight Script** — ~3KB tracking snippet with SPA support (pushState/popstate)
- **Privacy-first** — No cookies for tracking, all data stays on your server
- **SQLite** — Zero-config database, no external services needed

## Tech Stack

- **Framework:** Next.js 16 + React 19
- **Database:** SQLite (better-sqlite3) with WAL mode
- **Payments:** Stripe API (polling-based, no webhooks)
- **Auth:** JWT with httpOnly cookies
- **Styling:** SASS
- **Charts:** Recharts

## Quick Start

### Option 1: One-click deploy on Railway

No VPS setup needed — deploy in one click and you're live in under a minute.

[![Deploy on Railway](https://railway.app/button.svg)](https://railway.com/deploy/traffic-source)

### Option 2: Self-host on a VPS

#### Prerequisites

- Node.js 20+
- A VPS ($4/mo on Hetzner or $6/mo on DigitalOcean works great)
- Cloudflare account (free tier) for geo data + CDN

#### 1. Clone and install

```bash
git clone https://github.com/mddanishyusuf/traffic-source.git
cd traffic-source
npm install
```

#### 2. Configure environment

```bash
cp .env.local .env.production
```

Edit `.env.production`:

```env
JWT_SECRET=your-random-64-char-hex-string
JWT_EXPIRY=7d
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL=https://your-domain.com
DATABASE_PATH=./data/analytics.db
```

Generate a secure JWT secret:

```bash
openssl rand -hex 32
```

#### 3. Build and run

```bash
npm run build
npm start
```

The app runs on port 3000 by default.

#### 4. Set up Cloudflare proxy

1. Add your domain to Cloudflare (free plan)
2. Point DNS A record to your VPS IP
3. Enable the orange cloud (proxy) toggle
4. Done — Cloudflare will now send `cf-ipcountry` and `cf-ipcity` headers automatically

#### 5. First login

Visit your domain and register. Only the first user can register — after that, registration is disabled.

## Production Deployment (VPS)

### Using PM2 (recommended)

```bash
# Install PM2 globally
npm install -g pm2

# Start the app
pm2 start npm --name "trafficsource" -- start

# Auto-restart on reboot
pm2 startup
pm2 save
```

### Zero-downtime deploys

The included deploy script pulls latest changes, builds in a temp directory, swaps atomically, and restarts PM2:

```bash
npm run deploy
```

### Nginx reverse proxy

```nginx
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your-domain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}
```

Since Cloudflare handles SSL, you can use Cloudflare's Origin CA certificate or Full (Strict) mode.

## Adding the Tracking Script

After creating a site in the dashboard, add this to your website's ``:

```html

```

That's it. The script automatically tracks:
- Pageviews (including SPA navigation)
- Referrers and UTM parameters
- Screen dimensions
- Affiliate referrals (`?ref=affiliate-slug`)

## Stripe Conversion Tracking

1. Go to your site's Settings and add your Stripe Secret Key
2. When creating Stripe Checkout Sessions in your app, pass the visitor tracking IDs:

```javascript
const session = await stripe.checkout.sessions.create({
  // ...your checkout config
  metadata: {
    ts_visitor_id: window.__ts.vid,
    ts_session_id: window.__ts.sid(),
  },
});
```

Traffic Source polls Stripe every 60 seconds and automatically matches payments to visitor sessions — no webhook setup required.

## Google Search Console

Connect your Google Search Console once and link any site to its property with a single click. Traffic Source keeps the last 90 days of keyword data and surfaces what's actually actionable: winners, losers, opportunities, quick wins, and a keyword explorer that shows pages, countries, and devices for any single query — something GSC's own UI doesn't surface together.

### One-time setup (per Traffic Source instance)

You need a Google Cloud OAuth client. Anyone using this instance shares the same client — you only do this once.

1. **Create a Google Cloud project** — [console.cloud.google.com/projectcreate](https://console.cloud.google.com/projectcreate)
2. **Enable the Search Console API** — [Search Console API](https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/library/searchconsole.googleapis.com) → Enable
3. **Configure the OAuth consent screen** — [OAuth consent screen](https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials/consent)
   - User type: **External**
   - Add scope: `.../auth/webmasters.readonly`
   - Add yourself (and any other users) under **Test users**
4. **Create OAuth credentials** — [Credentials](https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials) → **Create credentials → OAuth client ID**
   - Application type: **Web application**
   - Under **Authorized redirect URIs**, paste the URI shown in Traffic Source → **Settings → Integrations** (auto-detected from your deployed domain)
5. **Save Client ID + Client Secret in Traffic Source** — Settings → Integrations → paste both → Save
6. **Click "Connect Google Search Console"** — authorize once, done

Credentials and refresh tokens are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM. The encryption key is auto-generated on first use and stored in `data/.appkey` (back this up alongside the database).

### Linking a site

On any site → **Search Console** tab → pick the matching property → backfill runs in the background. From then on, sync runs hourly (each site throttled to once per 12h).

## Affiliate System

1. Go to your site's Affiliates page
2. Create an affiliate with a name, slug, and commission rate
3. Share their referral link: `https://your-site.com?ref=affiliate-slug`
4. Affiliates can view their own public dashboard via a share link

When a visitor arrives via a referral link and later converts, the affiliate is automatically credited.

## Environment Variables

| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|----------|----------|---------|-------------|
| `JWT_SECRET` | Yes | — | Random hex string for signing auth tokens |
| `JWT_EXPIRY` | No | `7d` | Auth token expiry duration |
| `NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL` | Yes | — | Public URL of your Traffic Source instance |
| `DATABASE_PATH` | No | `./data/analytics.db` | Path to SQLite database file |
| `CRON_SECRET` | No | — | Secret for protecting cron endpoints |

## Database

Traffic Source uses SQLite with WAL mode — no external database to set up or maintain. The database file lives at `DATABASE_PATH` and includes automatic migrations.

**Backup your database:**

```bash
cp ./data/analytics.db ./data/analytics-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).db
```

## Project Structure

```
├── public/
│   └── t.js                    # Tracking script (served to client sites)
├── scripts/
│   └── deploy.sh               # Zero-downtime deploy script
├── src/
│   ├── components/             # React components
│   ├── contexts/               # Auth, DateRange, Theme contexts
│   ├── hooks/                  # useAnalytics, custom hooks
│   ├── lib/
│   │   ├── db.js               # Database connection & migrations
│   │   ├── analytics.js        # Analytics query logic
│   │   ├── auth.js             # JWT & password helpers
│   │   ├── stripe-sync.js      # Stripe payment polling
│   │   └── withAuth.js         # Auth middleware for API routes
│   ├── pages/
│   │   ├── api/                # API routes (collect, auth, analytics, cron)
│   │   ├── analytics/          # Dashboard pages
│   │   └── sites/              # Site management
│   └── styles/                 # SASS stylesheets
├── data/                       # SQLite database directory
└── .env.local                  # Environment config
```

## License

MIT


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