Self-Hosting Guide: Deploy Chatwoot for Customer Support

Chatwoot is the open source Intercom and Zendesk alternative. Self-hosting gives you unlimited agents, unlimited conversations, and omnichannel support — website live chat, email, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, and more.

Requirements

VPS with 4 GB RAM minimum (8 GB recommended)
Docker and Docker Compose
Domain name (e.g., support.yourdomain.com)
20+ GB disk
SMTP service for email

Step 1: Clone and Configure

# Download Chatwoot Docker setup
git clone https://github.com/chatwoot/chatwoot.git
cd chatwoot

# Copy environment file
cp .env.example .env

Step 2: Configure Environment

Edit .env:

# App
SECRET_KEY_BASE=your-random-secret-key-here
FRONTEND_URL=https://support.yourdomain.com
DEFAULT_LOCALE=en

# Database
POSTGRES_HOST=postgres
POSTGRES_USERNAME=chatwoot
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your-strong-password
POSTGRES_DATABASE=chatwoot

# Redis
REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379

# SMTP
MAILER_SENDER_EMAIL=support@yourdomain.com
SMTP_ADDRESS=smtp.resend.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USERNAME=resend
SMTP_PASSWORD=re_your_api_key
SMTP_AUTHENTICATION=plain
SMTP_ENABLE_STARTTLS_AUTO=true

# Storage (local or S3)
ACTIVE_STORAGE_SERVICE=local

Generate secret key:

openssl rand -hex 64

Step 3: Docker Compose Setup

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  chatwoot:
    image: chatwoot/chatwoot:latest
    container_name: chatwoot
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    env_file: .env
    environment:
      - RAILS_ENV=production
      - NODE_ENV=production
    volumes:
      - chatwoot_storage:/app/storage
    depends_on:
      - postgres
      - redis
    command: bundle exec rails s -p 3000 -b 0.0.0.0

  sidekiq:
    image: chatwoot/chatwoot:latest
    container_name: chatwoot-sidekiq
    restart: unless-stopped
    env_file: .env
    environment:
      - RAILS_ENV=production
    volumes:
      - chatwoot_storage:/app/storage
    depends_on:
      - postgres
      - redis
    command: bundle exec sidekiq -C config/sidekiq.yml

  postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    container_name: chatwoot-db
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_DB=chatwoot
      - POSTGRES_USER=chatwoot
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your-strong-password

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    container_name: chatwoot-redis
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - redis_data:/data

volumes:
  chatwoot_storage:
  postgres_data:
  redis_data:

Step 4: Initialize and Start

# Start services
docker compose up -d

# Run database migrations
docker exec chatwoot bundle exec rails db:chatwoot_prepare

# Create admin account
docker exec -it chatwoot bundle exec rails console
# In console:
# SuperAdmin.create!(email: 'admin@yourdomain.com', password: 'your-password')
# exit

Step 5: Reverse Proxy (Caddy)

# /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
support.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}

sudo systemctl restart caddy

Step 6: Set Up Channels

Website Live Chat:

Settings → Inboxes → Add Inbox → Website
Set your website domain
Customize widget appearance
Copy the widget script:

<script>
  (function(d,t) {
    var BASE_URL="https://support.yourdomain.com";
    var g=d.createElement(t),s=d.getElementsByTagName(t)[0];
    g.src=BASE_URL+"/packs/js/sdk.js";
    g.defer = true;
    g.async = true;
    s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s);
    g.onload=function(){
      window.chatwootSDK.run({
        websiteToken: 'YOUR_WEBSITE_TOKEN',
        baseUrl: BASE_URL
      })
    }
  })(document,"script");
</script>

Email Channel:

Settings → Inboxes → Add Inbox → Email
Configure IMAP for receiving emails
Configure SMTP for sending replies

WhatsApp (via 360dialog or Twilio):

Settings → Inboxes → Add Inbox → WhatsApp
Enter API key from your WhatsApp Business provider

Additional channels: Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Line, SMS (via Twilio)

Step 7: Configure Team

Settings → Agents → invite team members
Settings → Teams → create teams (Sales, Support, Billing)
Settings → Automation → set up auto-assignment rules

Useful automations:

Trigger	Action
New conversation	Auto-assign to available agent
Message contains "billing"	Assign to Billing team
No response in 1 hour	Send reminder to agent
Conversation resolved	Send satisfaction survey

Step 8: Canned Responses

Set up quick responses for common questions:

Settings → Canned Responses
Create shortcuts like /greeting, /pricing, /hours
Agents type the shortcut to insert the full response

Production Hardening

S3 Storage (for file attachments at scale):

ACTIVE_STORAGE_SERVICE=amazon
S3_BUCKET_NAME=your-bucket
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-key
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-secret
AWS_REGION=us-east-1

Backups:

# Database backup (daily cron)
docker exec chatwoot-db pg_dump -U chatwoot chatwoot > /backups/chatwoot-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

# File storage backup
docker cp chatwoot:/app/storage /backups/chatwoot-storage-$(date +%Y%m%d)

Updates:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d
docker exec chatwoot bundle exec rails db:chatwoot_prepare

Monitoring:

Monitor port 3000 with Uptime Kuma
Monitor Sidekiq queue depth (Redis)
Set up disk space alerts

Resource Usage

Agents	RAM	CPU	Disk
1-5	4 GB	2 cores	20 GB
5-20	8 GB	4 cores	50 GB
20-50	16 GB	8 cores	100 GB

VPS Recommendations

Provider	Spec (10 agents)	Price
Hetzner	4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM	€8/month
DigitalOcean	4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM	$48/month
Linode	4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM	$48/month

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