Open Web Analytics
Hosting
Install Open Web Analytics in one click on our fast, reliable UK web hosting. Fully managed with free SSL, daily backups, and dedicated expert support.
What is Open Web Analytics?
Open Web Analytics, usually shortened to OWA, is a free, open-source web analytics package written in PHP. It first appeared in 2008 as a self-hosted alternative to Google Analytics and at its peak offered features like pageview tracking, click heatmaps, mouse-movement recording and basic visitor session reports. It runs on PHP and MySQL and was historically a one-click install on most major hosting platforms.
The project is in deep maintenance mode in 2026. New releases are very rare, the codebase has not seen major modernisation, and the user community has largely migrated to actively-developed alternatives. The most common destination for ex-OWA users is Matomo, which provides a similar self-hosted analytics model with a much more current platform, active development and a clear long-term roadmap.
For people running an existing OWA install with historical data they want to preserve, the application can still operate on PHP 8.3 with care, though some features are flaky and security updates should not be assumed. For new analytics deployments, we recommend Matomo instead.
365i offers Open Web Analytics as a one-click install on shared hosting plans from £5.99/mo with PHP ' . PHP_VERSION_LATEST . ', MySQL 8, free SSL, daily backups and free migrations. We are honest about its age.
365i’s editorial review of Open Web Analytics
I want to be useful rather than diplomatic about Open Web Analytics. It was a good answer in 2010. It is a poor answer in 2026. The project has not kept pace with the modern web, the codebase shows its age, and the analytics market has moved on. I host OWA installs because some customers have historical data they want to keep accessible, but I would not recommend a new project start on it.
If you're considering self-hosted analytics today, Matomo is what you want. It does what OWA does, plus a great deal more, on a platform that is actively maintained, security-patched, and supported by a healthy contributor community. Matomo also has an OWA importer for some basic data types, which means a transition is possible without losing your historical foundation entirely. We have a Matomo install guide and we'll happily help you make the switch.
"There are applications I keep hosting out of respect for the customers who built things on them. Open Web Analytics is one of those. But if you ask me what to install for a new analytics project, the answer is Matomo, every single time."
Mark McNeece, Founder, 365i Hosting
For existing OWA users, the technical reality on our platform is workable. PHP 8.3 runs the application with some deprecation warnings rather than fatal errors in most cases. MySQL 8 handles the schema. The cron job that aggregates the raw event data into reports works as it always did. Free SSL is automatic, daily backups are included, and migrations from another host are part of the standard service.
The honest concerns are these. Security: there have been no notable OWA security advisories in years, but that's because nobody is auditing the codebase, not because it's necessarily clean. Performance: the database aggregation cron is inefficient compared to current analytics tools, and large databases can struggle. Feature completeness: the heatmap and session-recording features that drew people to OWA in 2010 have not been improved since, while other tools have leaped ahead. Mobile: the dashboard does not handle mobile screens gracefully. Cookie consent: the application predates the GDPR-aware design patterns built into modern alternatives.
For someone deciding what to do with an existing OWA install, I usually suggest a phased approach. Migrate the install to our hosting under the free migration service to get onto a current PHP and MySQL stack with daily backups. Run OWA in parallel with a fresh Matomo install for three months to build comparable historical data on the new platform. Then retire OWA, keeping the database dump as an archive, and continue with Matomo as the live analytics tool.
For someone setting up analytics for a new site in 2026, skip OWA entirely. Install Matomo from day one. The Matomo dashboard, GDPR tooling, real-time reporting and active development will save you from the same conversation in five years' time when OWA is even more out of date than it is now.
Why Host Open Web Analytics with 365i?
Our web hosting is built for PHP applications like Open Web Analytics. Every plan includes everything you need to launch and grow.
One-Click Installation
Install Open Web Analytics with a single click from your control panel. No manual configuration, no FTP uploads, no database setup.
Free SSL Certificate
Every site gets a free SSL certificate, automatically configured and renewed. Keep your Open Web Analytics installation secure from day one.
99.9%+ Uptime Track Record
Enterprise-grade data centres in the UK, US & Asia with redundant power, cooling, and network connectivity. Shared hosting runs on autoscaling cloud infrastructure with a 99.9%+ historical uptime record; Managed Cloud Servers target 99.99% uptime; our VPS products carry a contractual 99.99% network availability SLA with service credits.
Daily Backups
Automatic daily backups with easy one-click restore. Your Open Web Analytics data is always safe and recoverable.
7-Day Expert Support
UK-based hosting specialists available 7 days a week including evenings, weekends, and bank holidays. Real people, real help.
SSD Storage
All plans run on fast SSD storage for snappy page loads and responsive admin panels. Open Web Analytics performs at its best.
Where Open Web Analytics Fits
Best for
Existing OWA installations being moved to a current PHP 8.5 / MySQL 8 hosting platform, where the priority is preserving historical analytics data while planning a transition to a modern alternative. Suitable as a short-term home for legacy data while Matomo or another modern tool is set up for live tracking. Not recommended for new deployments.
Watch for
Open Web Analytics is in deep maintenance with very rare releases. Security audits are not happening at the project level. Heatmap and session-recording features have not improved since the early 2010s. The dashboard does not work well on mobile screens. There's no native GDPR consent flow, no modern cookie-less mode, and no support contract behind the project. Plan a migration to Matomo or another current tool over time.
Web Hosting for Open Web Analytics
Get Open Web Analytics up and running in minutes with our fast, reliable web hosting. Every plan includes one-click installation, free SSL, UK, US & Asia data centres, and dedicated expert support.
- 1 website
- 10 GB SSD storage
- Free SSL certificate
- 80+ 1-click installs
- Unlimited LVE resources
- Autoscaling cloud platform
- UK, US & Asia data centres
- 5 websites
- Unlimited SSD storage
- Free SSL certificate
- 80+ 1-click installs
- CDN included
- Unlimited LVE resources
- Autoscaling cloud platform
- UK, US & Asia data centres
- 10 websites
- Unlimited SSD storage
- Free SSL certificate
- 80+ 1-click installs
- CDN included
- Timeline Backup/Restore
- Unlimited LVE resources
- Autoscaling cloud platform
- UK, US & Asia data centres
All prices exclude VAT. No contract, cancel any time.
Need More Power for Open Web Analytics?
For high-traffic sites, large catalogues, or mission-critical deployments, our fully managed cloud servers give Open Web Analytics dedicated resources and enterprise-grade performance.
- Dedicated CPU, RAM & SSD storage
- 99.99% uptime
- Fully managed by our team
- Choose 365i, AWS, or Google Cloud
Servers
Servers
Servers
An Open Web Analytics case from our books
A small online publisher in Edinburgh came to us in late 2025 with a 12-year-old OWA install on a host that was retiring PHP 7. They had three years of historical analytics data they wanted to keep accessible for trend analysis on long-form articles, but they recognised OWA itself was no longer a sensible choice for live tracking.
We migrated the OWA install to the £5.99/mo shared plan under the free migration service, applied a couple of small patches for PHP 8.3 deprecation warnings, and got the historical data dashboard working again. In parallel, we installed Matomo on the same hosting account, configured GDPR-compliant tracking, and started building the new analytics record. The customer planned a six-month parallel-run period before retiring OWA entirely.
After the transition window, OWA was wound down, the database dumped to a long-term archive file, and Matomo became the sole live analytics tool. The customer kept their historical OWA records on hand for occasional trend lookups and gained a modern, GDPR-aware analytics platform for ongoing tracking.
What we would tell anyone in the same spot: don\'t panic-migrate OWA or panic-delete it. Run it alongside Matomo for a few months, then retire it gracefully with the database archived.
Anonymised at the client's request. Industry, scale, and timeline preserved.
What we look for in website analytics hosting
Self-hosted analytics applications have an unusual workload: very high write throughput from page-view ingestion, occasional heavy aggregation queries during reporting. We tune MySQL for sustained writes, recommend a separate database for analytics data so it does not compete with the main application, and set sensible retention policies because raw event data accumulates fast. For sites doing a few million page views a month, a managed cloud server with NVMe storage handles the workload without breaking sweat.
Open Web Analytics Hosting FAQ
Common questions we hear from people running Open Web Analytics on our hosting.
No. The project is in deep maintenance mode with very infrequent releases, no active security auditing and a feature set that hasn't kept pace with modern analytics tools. For a new self-hosted analytics deployment, install Matomo instead. It does everything OWA does, plus a great deal more, on a platform that is actively developed and security-patched. We host both, and we'll always recommend Matomo for new projects. The migration cost is low and the long-term position is much stronger.
In most cases, yes, with some PHP 8.3 deprecation warnings rather than fatal errors. The exact behaviour depends on your OWA version and any custom modifications. We test the install on PHP 8.3 during the free migration so any issues surface before going live, and we apply small compatibility patches as part of the move. If your OWA is heavily customised or uses third-party plugins, expect more work. For a stock install, the upgrade path is generally smooth.
There's a basic OWA-to-Matomo importer for some data types, but it's not perfect. Most teams approach this as a parallel-run rather than a hard cutover. Install Matomo alongside OWA, run both for two to six months, build comparable historical data on the new platform, then retire OWA. Keep the OWA database as a static archive for occasional historical lookups. We can help with both halves of this: the Matomo install on day one, and the eventual OWA retirement.
Yes. The OWA data lives in your MySQL database, which transfers to our platform during the free migration. You can keep the OWA install running read-only as a historical archive while Matomo handles live tracking, or take a database dump of the OWA tables and store it as a long-term archive file. Either approach preserves the historical record. Most customers find the parallel-run-then-archive pattern works best in practice.
OWA predates the modern GDPR-aware design patterns built into current analytics tools. It can be configured to be reasonably privacy-respecting (last-byte IP anonymisation, sensible retention) but the application doesn't have the built-in consent flow, data subject access tooling and right-to-be-forgotten workflows that Matomo has had built in since 2018. For a UK business taking GDPR seriously, that gap matters. It's another argument for transitioning to Matomo over time rather than treating OWA as a long-term home.
Because customers have historical OWA installs worth preserving, and we don't kick legacy applications off the platform when they still run on current PHP. The one-click installer is here for people moving an existing OWA site to a more current host. We're also honest in this guidance about what we'd actually recommend for a new project, which is Matomo. Self-hosting choices should be informed, and pretending OWA is still an active project would not be informed advice.
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