What is Keitaro?
Keitaro is a self-hosted tracker for media buying and affiliate marketing. You install it on your own VPS or dedicated server; clicks, logs, and reports live on that machine, not in the vendor’s cloud. The product site is keitaro.io. License terms and current prices exist only there; this page does not copy numbers.
In the CIS market Keitaro is a default self-hosted stack: campaigns with streams, local landings, offers, traffic sources, and affiliate-network cards with postback templates. This article defines the product. It is not a “switch from Keitaro” page — brand comparison sits on Keitaro vs ATracker.
The tracking loop
The ad hits a Keitaro campaign URL. The tracker writes the click, issues a click ID, and sends the user to a landing or straight to the offer under stream rules. The click ID goes into the offer URL via the network macro. When the network records a conversion, it calls Keitaro’s postback with the same ID, a status, and a payout. Reports join that payout to cost if cost was entered.
A stream is the routing unit inside a campaign: filters (GEO, device, browser, carrier, bots, and others), scheme (landing → offer, offer only, several landings), schedule, and traffic share. Several streams in one campaign are the usual way to split offers or dump bots onto a safe page.
Objects the buyer creates
- Campaigns and streams — the click ledger and routing rules.
- Landings — local or remote pre-landers. Local pages often run a client script (Keitaro docs call it KClient) so the visit keeps the click ID.
- Offers — network URLs with macros.
- Traffic sources — token maps from the ads account (sub, creative id, placement).
- Affiliate networks — the tracker postback URL and the network’s parameter names.
A Click API lets external scripts and landings create or read a click without a full redirect through the tracker domain. Same click ID, different entry.
License and the server
Billing is a license on the instance, not a per-click fee to the vendor. Volume is bounded by hardware and ops (disk, CPU, log retention), not a cloud “event pack.” The tradeoff: DNS and SSL for tracking domains, backups, updates, and SSH access sit with the server owner. Cloud trackers take that layer and charge a subscription or event tiers instead.
What Keitaro is not
- Not the class “tracker.” Tracker is the category. Keitaro is one self-hosted product in it, next to Binom and ATracker.
- Not cloud Voluum/RedTrack. Voluum and similar SaaS products host and bill differently.
- Not a comparison page. No “who wins” tables and no call to change stack.
- Not site analytics and not an MMP. Session tags and app attribution are other loops.
It is also not an affiliate network: Keitaro does not issue offers or pay webmasters. It accounts for someone else’s traffic and payouts on the buyer’s server.