How to add analytics to a Laravel app

The browser tag covers traffic. Laravel apps usually also want two server-side pieces: signups recorded where the account is actually created, and revenue tied to the visit that earned it. Both use the visitor id the tracker stores in a first-party _vt_vid cookie — which Laravel can read once you exclude it from cookie encryption.

How to install VisitTrack on Laravel

1. 1

   Step 1: Add your keys to config/services.php

   Put the site id (public) and a secret API key from VisitTrack's Settings → API / MCP in .env, and expose them through config.

   config/services.phpCopy

   // config/services.php
   'visitrack' => [
       'site_id' => env('VISITRACK_SITE_ID'),
       'key' => env('VISITRACK_API_KEY'), // server-side only
   ],

2. 2

   Step 2: Add the tag to your Blade layout

   In the layout every page extends, inside <head>. @production renders it only when APP_ENV=production.

   resources/views/layouts/app.blade.phpCopy

   <head>
       <meta charset="utf-8">
       <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
       @vite(['resources/css/app.css', 'resources/js/app.js'])
       @production
           <script defer data-site="{{ config('services.visitrack.site_id') }}" src="https://visitrack.app/tracker.js"></script>
       @endproduction
   </head>

3. 3

   Step 3: Let Laravel read the visitor cookie

   Laravel encrypts cookies and ignores ones it can't decrypt. The tracker's _vt_vid cookie is written by the browser, so exclude it from encryption (Laravel 11+ shown; on Laravel 10, add it to $except in App\Http\Middleware\EncryptCookies).

   bootstrap/app.phpCopy

   // bootstrap/app.php
   ->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
       $middleware->encryptCookies(except: ['_vt_vid']);
   })

4. 4

   Step 4: Deploy and browse

   Deploy with APP_ENV=production, open the live site and click around. Local php artisan serve traffic is excluded twice over: by @production and by the tracker's localhost check.

How to check VisitTrack is working on Laravel

1. View source on the live site — the tag is in <head> with your site id.
2. Browse two pages; VisitTrack's live view shows you and the Pages tab lists both routes.
3. In DevTools → Application → Cookies, you'll see _vt_vid on your domain (standard mode). That's the id your controllers can now read.

Does VisitTrack track Laravel page navigation?

Classic Blade apps do full page loads — one pageview each. With Livewire's wire:navigate or Inertia, pages change without a reload and the URL is updated through the History API, which the tracker follows. Livewire runs scripts in <head> only on the first visit and keeps them across navigations, so the tag isn't executed twice.

Keep logged-in areas out of your marketing numbers with data-exclude="/dashboard*,/admin*" on the tag, or use a separate VisitTrack site for the app.

How to track custom events and goals in Laravel

Record signups on the server, where you know the account exists. Breeze and Jetstream fire Illuminate\Auth\Events\Registered after creating a user, so a listener is the cleanest hook:

// app/Listeners/SendSignupToVisitTrack.php
namespace App\Listeners;

use Illuminate\Auth\Events\Registered;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;

class SendSignupToVisitTrack
{
    public function handle(Registered $event): void
    {
        $visitorId = request()->cookie('_vt_vid');
        if (! $visitorId) return; // cookieless mode or blocked tracker

        Http::withToken(config('services.visitrack.key'))
            ->timeout(3)
            ->post('https://visitrack.app/api/track', [
                'type' => 'event',
                'visitorId' => $visitorId,
                'name' => 'signup',
                'props' => ['method' => 'email'],
            ]);

        Http::withToken(config('services.visitrack.key'))
            ->timeout(3)
            ->post('https://visitrack.app/api/track', [
                'type' => 'identify',
                'visitorId' => $visitorId,
                'externalId' => (string) $event->user->id,
                'traits' => ['email' => $event->user->email, 'plan' => 'free'],
            ]);
    }
}

Laravel 11+ discovers listeners in app/Listeners automatically. An event named signup fills the Signups tab; identify puts the user in People. Prefer a queued listener (implements ShouldQueue) — but then capture the cookie value in the controller first, since a queued job has no request. Browser-side, data-vt-goal="…" and window.visitrack() work in Blade and Livewire views as usual. Reference: server-side events.

Revenue attribution on Laravel

Laravel Cashier (Stripe) creates Stripe Checkout Sessions, and its checkout() methods accept session options — so passing the visitor id as client_reference_id is one line. Connect Stripe in VisitTrack's Settings → Revenue and every payment is credited to the referrer, campaign and landing page that first brought that visitor. See Stripe revenue attribution.

// One-off payment
return $request->user()->checkout(['price_xxx' => 1], [
    'success_url' => route('checkout.success'),
    'cancel_url' => route('pricing'),
    'client_reference_id' => $request->cookie('_vt_vid'),
]);

// Subscription
return $request->user()
    ->newSubscription('default', 'price_monthly')
    ->checkout([
        'success_url' => route('dashboard'),
        'cancel_url' => route('pricing'),
        'client_reference_id' => $request->cookie('_vt_vid'),
    ]);

// app/Http/Middleware/ReportCrawlers.php — append it in bootstrap/app.php
public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next): Response
{
    return $next($request);
}

public function terminate(Request $request, Response $response): void
{
    try {
        Http::timeout(2)->post('https://visitrack.app/api/collect-bot', [
            'siteId' => config('services.visitrack.site_id'),
            'path' => '/' . ltrim($request->path(), '/'),
            'userAgent' => $request->userAgent(),
            'ip' => $request->ip(),
        ]);
    } catch (\Throwable) {
        // never let analytics break a request
    }
}

Script options you might need on Laravel

All optional — add them to the same tag. Full reference: script configuration.

Laravel troubleshooting

Not on Laravel? See all 29 integration guides.