Deploy Chatwoot — Open-Source Customer Support — to Your Own Server

Chatwoot is an open-source customer support platform that gives you a unified inbox for live chat, email, social media, and messaging channels. It's the self-hosted alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, and Freshdesk — with full data ownership and no per-agent pricing.

Setting it up manually involves PostgreSQL, Redis, Ruby on Rails, Sidekiq, Nginx, and a fair amount of configuration. With HowToDeploy, the entire stack is provisioned and configured in minutes.

Why Chatwoot?

Unified inbox — email, live chat, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, LINE, and more in one place
Live chat widget — embed on your website with a single script tag
Team collaboration — assign conversations, add private notes, mention teammates, and set SLAs
Automations — auto-assign, auto-label, and trigger workflows based on conversation events
CSAT surveys — measure customer satisfaction directly in the conversation flow
No per-agent pricing — unlimited agents, unlike Intercom ($39/seat) or Zendesk ($55/seat)
Custom domain + SSL — serve Chatwoot on your own domain with automatic HTTPS

Prerequisites

Before you start, you'll need:

A HowToDeploy account (sign up free)
A cloud provider API key (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Vultr, Linode, or AWS)

Step 1: Connect your cloud provider

Go to Settings → Cloud Providers and paste your API key.

Tip: Chatwoot needs PostgreSQL and Redis running alongside the Rails app. The default 4GB RAM / 2 CPU server handles a small-to-mid support team comfortably.

Step 2: Deploy Chatwoot

Head to the Dashboard and find Chatwoot in the app catalog. Click the card to open the deploy form.

Fill in two fields:

Admin Email — your login email for the Chatwoot dashboard
Admin Password — at least 6 characters

Server size (4GB RAM, 2 CPU, 80GB disk), region, PostgreSQL, and Redis are all pre-configured.

Step 3: Configure email (optional)

If you want Chatwoot to send and receive emails, expand Advanced Settings and add your SMTP credentials:

SMTP Host — e.g. smtp.sendgrid.net
SMTP Port — typically 587
SMTP Username and Password

Without SMTP, Chatwoot works for live chat and messaging channels — email as a channel just won't be available.

Step 4: Add a custom domain (optional)

Want your support dashboard at support.yourbrand.com? Enter your domain in Advanced Settings.

After deployment, point an A record for your domain to the server IP, click Verify DNS, and Caddy issues the SSL certificate automatically.

Step 5: Set up your first inbox

Once deployment completes, sign in to the Chatwoot dashboard and create your first inbox:

Live chat (fastest to set up)

Go to Settings → Inboxes → Add Inbox
Choose Website
Enter your website name and URL
Copy the JavaScript widget code and paste it into your site's <head> tag

That's it — you'll start seeing live conversations the moment visitors land on your site.

Other channels

From the same Inboxes page, you can connect:

Email — forward a support inbox to Chatwoot
Facebook — connect your Facebook Page
Twitter — connect your Twitter account
WhatsApp — via the WhatsApp Business API or Twilio
Telegram — connect a Telegram bot
LINE — connect your LINE Official Account

What's included

Every Chatwoot deployment includes:

PostgreSQL — pre-configured as the primary database
Redis — for background jobs, caching, and real-time features
Sidekiq — background job processor for emails, webhooks, and automations
Caddy — automatic HTTPS with Let's Encrypt (when using a custom domain)
Full SSH access — your server, your support data, your rules

Chatwoot vs. Intercom vs. Zendesk

Feature	Chatwoot	Intercom	Zendesk
Monthly cost	$12-24/month (server)	$39/seat/month	$55/agent/month
Agents	Unlimited	Pay per seat	Pay per agent
Open source	✅	❌	❌
Data ownership	Your server	Intercom's servers	Zendesk's servers
Live chat	✅	✅	✅ (add-on)
Email channel	✅	✅	✅
Social channels	✅ Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, LINE	✅ Limited	✅ Limited
Automations	✅	✅ (paid plans)	✅ (paid plans)
CSAT	✅	✅ (paid)	✅ (paid)

Choose Chatwoot if: you want Intercom-level features without per-seat pricing, with full control over your customer data.

Pricing

You pay your cloud provider directly for the server (typically $12-24/month for the recommended spec). HowToDeploy charges a small monthly management fee for monitoring and support.

Start with a 7-day free trial — no credit card required.

Ready to own your customer support? Deploy Chatwoot now →