Databases
Product Analytics

How to load data from Plausible to Clickhouse

Learn how to use Airbyte to synchronize your Plausible data into Clickhouse within minutes.

TL;DR

This can be done by building a data pipeline manually, usually a Python script (you can leverage a tool as Apache Airflow for this). This process can take more than a full week of development. Or it can be done in minutes on Airbyte in three easy steps:

  1. set up Plausible as a source connector (using Auth, or usually an API key)
  2. set up Clickhouse as a destination connector
  3. define which data you want to transfer and how frequently

You can choose to self-host the pipeline using Airbyte Open Source or have it managed for you with Airbyte Cloud.

This tutorial’s purpose is to show you how.

What is Plausible

Appreciable Analytics is an open-source project dedicated to making web analytics more privacy-friendly. Our goal is to reduce corporate surveillance by providing an alternative web analytics tool that doesn't come from the AdTech world. Trusted by thousands of paying customers. We are completely independent, self-funded, and bootstrapped. The legal entity is incorporated in Estonia, while our team works remotely and flexibly.

What is Clickhouse

ClickHouse is an open-source, column-oriented OLAP database management system that allows users to generate analytical reports using SQL queries. Also offered as a secure and scalable service in the cloud, ClickHouse Cloud allows anyone to effortlessly take advantage of efficient real time analytical processing​.

Integrate Plausible with Clickhouse in minutes

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Prerequisites

  1. A Plausible account to transfer your customer data automatically from.
  2. A Clickhouse account.
  3. An active Airbyte Cloud account, or you can also choose to use Airbyte Open Source locally. You can follow the instructions to set up Airbyte on your system using docker-compose.

Airbyte is an open-source data integration platform that consolidates and streamlines the process of extracting and loading data from multiple data sources to data warehouses. It offers pre-built connectors, including Plausible and Clickhouse, for seamless data migration.

When using Airbyte to move data from Plausible to Clickhouse, it extracts data from Plausible using the source connector, converts it into a format Clickhouse can ingest using the provided schema, and then loads it into Clickhouse via the destination connector. This allows businesses to leverage their Plausible data for advanced analytics and insights within Clickhouse, simplifying the ETL process and saving significant time and resources.

Step 1: Set up Plausible as a source connector

1. First, navigate to the Plausible source connector page on Airbyte.com.
2. Click on the "Create a new connection" button.
3. Enter a name for your connection and click "Next".
4. Enter your Plausible credentials, including your domain name and API key.
5. Click "Test connection" to ensure that your credentials are correct and that Airbyte can connect to your Plausible account.
6. Once the connection is successful, select the data you want to replicate from Plausible.
7. Choose the destination where you want to send your Plausible data.
8. Configure any additional settings, such as scheduling and data mapping.
9. Click "Create connection" to start replicating your Plausible data to your chosen destination.

It's important to note that you will need to have a Plausible account and API key in order to connect to Airbyte. You can find more detailed instructions on how to obtain your API key in the Plausible documentation. Additionally, Airbyte offers a variety of destinations that you can send your Plausible data to, including databases, data warehouses, and cloud storage services. Be sure to choose the destination that best fits your needs and follow any additional setup instructions provided by Airbyte.

Step 2: Set up Clickhouse as a destination connector

Step 3: Set up a connection to sync your Plausible data to Clickhouse

Once you've successfully connected Plausible as a data source and Clickhouse as a destination in Airbyte, you can set up a data pipeline between them with the following steps:

  1. Create a new connection: On the Airbyte dashboard, navigate to the 'Connections' tab and click the '+ New Connection' button.
  2. Choose your source: Select Plausible from the dropdown list of your configured sources.
  3. Select your destination: Choose Clickhouse from the dropdown list of your configured destinations.
  4. Configure your sync: Define the frequency of your data syncs based on your business needs. Airbyte allows both manual and automatic scheduling for your data refreshes.
  5. Select the data to sync: Choose the specific Plausible objects you want to import data from towards Clickhouse. You can sync all data or select specific tables and fields.
  6. Select the sync mode for your streams: Choose between full refreshes or incremental syncs (with deduplication if you want), and this for all streams or at the stream level. Incremental is only available for streams that have a primary cursor.
  7. Test your connection: Click the 'Test Connection' button to make sure that your setup works. If the connection test is successful, save your configuration.
  8. Start the sync: If the test passes, click 'Set Up Connection'. Airbyte will start moving data from Plausible to Clickhouse according to your settings.

Remember, Airbyte keeps your data in sync at the frequency you determine, ensuring your Clickhouse data warehouse is always up-to-date with your Plausible data.

Use Cases to transfer your Plausible data to Clickhouse

Integrating data from Plausible to Clickhouse provides several benefits. Here are a few use cases:

  1. Advanced Analytics: Clickhouse’s powerful data processing capabilities enable you to perform complex queries and data analysis on your Plausible data, extracting insights that wouldn't be possible within Plausible alone.
  2. Data Consolidation: If you're using multiple other sources along with Plausible, syncing to Clickhouse allows you to centralize your data for a holistic view of your operations, and to set up a change data capture process so you never have any discrepancies in your data again.
  3. Historical Data Analysis: Plausible has limits on historical data. Syncing data to Clickhouse allows for long-term data retention and analysis of historical trends over time.
  4. Data Security and Compliance: Clickhouse provides robust data security features. Syncing Plausible data to Clickhouse ensures your data is secured and allows for advanced data governance and compliance management.
  5. Scalability: Clickhouse can handle large volumes of data without affecting performance, providing an ideal solution for growing businesses with expanding Plausible data.
  6. Data Science and Machine Learning: By having Plausible data in Clickhouse, you can apply machine learning models to your data for predictive analytics, customer segmentation, and more.
  7. Reporting and Visualization: While Plausible provides reporting tools, data visualization tools like Tableau, PowerBI, Looker (Google Data Studio) can connect to Clickhouse, providing more advanced business intelligence options. If you have a Plausible table that needs to be converted to a Clickhouse table, Airbyte can do that automatically.

Wrapping Up

To summarize, this tutorial has shown you how to:

  1. Configure a Plausible account as an Airbyte data source connector.
  2. Configure Clickhouse as a data destination connector.
  3. Create an Airbyte data pipeline that will automatically be moving data directly from Plausible to Clickhouse after you set a schedule

With Airbyte, creating data pipelines take minutes, and the data integration possibilities are endless. Airbyte supports the largest catalog of API tools, databases, and files, among other sources. Airbyte's connectors are open-source, so you can add any custom objects to the connector, or even build a new connector from scratch without any local dev environment or any data engineer within 10 minutes with the no-code connector builder.

We look forward to seeing you make use of it! We invite you to join the conversation on our community Slack Channel, or sign up for our newsletter. You should also check out other Airbyte tutorials, and Airbyte’s content hub!

What should you do next?

Hope you enjoyed the reading. Here are the 3 ways we can help you in your data journey:

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Easily address your data movement needs with Airbyte Cloud
Take the first step towards extensible data movement infrastructure that will give a ton of time back to your data team. 
Get started with Airbyte for free
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Talk to a data infrastructure expert
Get a free consultation with an Airbyte expert to significantly improve your data movement infrastructure. 
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Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and get the community’s new enlightening content along with Airbyte’s progress in their mission to solve data integration once and for all.
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Connectors Used

What should you do next?

Hope you enjoyed the reading. Here are the 3 ways we can help you in your data journey:

flag icon
Easily address your data movement needs with Airbyte Cloud
Take the first step towards extensible data movement infrastructure that will give a ton of time back to your data team. 
Get started with Airbyte for free
high five icon
Talk to a data infrastructure expert
Get a free consultation with an Airbyte expert to significantly improve your data movement infrastructure. 
Talk to sales
stars sparkling
Improve your data infrastructure knowledge
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and get the community’s new enlightening content along with Airbyte’s progress in their mission to solve data integration once and for all.
Subscribe to newsletter

Connectors Used

Frequently Asked Questions

What data can you extract from Plausible?

Plausible's API provides access to a variety of data related to website traffic and user behavior. The following are the categories of data that can be accessed through Plausible's API:  

1. Site Metrics: This category includes data related to the overall performance of a website, such as the number of page views, unique visitors, bounce rate, and average session duration.  
2. Traffic Sources: This category includes data related to the sources of traffic to a website, such as search engines, social media, direct traffic, and referral traffic.  
3. User Behavior: This category includes data related to user behavior on a website, such as the pages visited, time spent on each page, and the actions taken on the website.  
4. Geolocation: This category includes data related to the geographic location of website visitors, such as the country, region, and city.  
5. Devices: This category includes data related to the devices used by website visitors, such as desktop, mobile, and tablet.  
6. Browsers: This category includes data related to the browsers used by website visitors, such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer.  

Overall, Plausible's API provides a comprehensive set of data that can be used to analyze website traffic and user behavior, and to make data-driven decisions to improve website performance.

What data can you transfer to Clickhouse?

You can transfer a wide variety of data to Clickhouse. This usually includes structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data like transaction records, log files, JSON data, CSV files, and more, allowing robust, scalable data integration and analysis.

What are top ETL tools to transfer data from Plausible to Clickhouse?

The most prominent ETL tools to transfer data from Plausible to Clickhouse include:

  • Airbyte
  • Fivetran
  • Stitch
  • Matillion
  • Talend Data Integration

These tools help in extracting data from Plausible and various sources (APIs, databases, and more), transforming it efficiently, and loading it into Clickhouse and other databases, data warehouses and data lakes, enhancing data management capabilities.