But I was hoping for a simple DIY guide for setting everything up? I mean with Google Analytics a dummy can set it up very quickly. I know it'll take more work with matomo, but I need a little more details then just "use docker".
I know I need a VPS, something like Digital Ocean.
I know I need the matomo docker image.
Matomo is just a set of php files. Upload them to any php hosting with a mysql database, in a matomo or matomoanalytics folder and point your browser to your domain name/matomo/ and the install setup should begin.
If you have 0 experience with docker and just needs matomo then forget about docker and start from the php file with a standard php/mysql host.
I have a full deployment of Matomo in Kubernetes on gitlab [1] if anyone would find it useful (includes correct settings for running in multiple pods).
1: https://gitlab.com/pcgamingwiki/webanalytics/-/tree/master/
You unzip it. Click through a setup wizard. Done.
(I also run in readonly noexec in an fpm chroot but that's not necessary.) I set it up for a couple of clients since the Piwik days and it's been pretty much set and forget, apart from the occasional upgrades.
There are plenty of advanced functionality which probably few people understand and use. For my personal projects I am fine with log analytics which I mostly use goaccess for.