Deploy and Host Chatwoot on Railway

Chatwoot is an open-source customer support platform and self-hosted alternative to Intercom and Zendesk. Manage live chat, email, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook conversations from a single dashboard. Free to self-host, with full control over your data and no per-agent pricing.

About Hosting Chatwoot

Hosting Chatwoot requires three components: the Rails web application, a Sidekiq background worker for processing jobs, and supporting services — PostgreSQL for data storage and Redis for queues and real-time features. This Railway template bundles the web app and Sidekiq into a single container for simplicity. On first boot, database migrations run automatically. You set one variables - SECRET_KEY_BASE - and Chatwoot is ready to use. For production teams, adding SMTP credentials enables email notifications, invites, and password resets.

Common Use Cases

• Customer support teams - manage all customer conversations across chat, email, and social in one inbox
• SaaS companies - embed a live chat widget on your app and respond to user questions in real time
• Agencies - run a shared team inbox for multiple clients with agent assignments, labels, and reports
• E-commerce stores - handle order queries via WhatsApp, Instagram DM, and live chat from one place
• Internal helpdesks - use as a lightweight internal ticket and support system for your team

Dependencies for Chatwoot Hosting

• PostgreSQL - primary database for conversations, contacts, and account data (included in this template)
• Redis - powers Sidekiq job queues, caching, and real-time WebSocket features (included in this template)
• SMTP provider (optional) - required for email notifications, agent invites, and password resets (SendGrid, Resend, Postmark)
• S3-compatible storage (optional) - for persistent file and attachment storage in production (AWS S3, Cloudflare R2)

Deployment Dependencies

• Chatwoot Documentation
• Chatwoot Environment Variables Reference
• Chatwoot GitHub Repository
• SendGrid — SMTP for email notifications
• Resend — modern SMTP alternative

Implementation Details

Generate your SECRET_KEY_BASE:

openssl rand -hex 64

SMTP configuration (add to variables after deploy):

[email protected]
SMTP_ADDRESS=smtp.sendgrid.net
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USERNAME=apikey
SMTP_PASSWORD=your-sendgrid-api-key
SMTP_AUTHENTICATION=plain
SMTP_ENABLE_STARTTLS_AUTO=true

S3 file storage (optional, for production):

STORAGE_DRIVER=s3
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-key
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-secret
AWS_REGION=us-east-1
AWS_BUCKET=your-bucket

Pricing comparison:

Self-hosting on Railway gives you the full Chatwoot feature set with no per-agent fees — ideal for growing teams.

How to deploy:

1. Click Deploy on Railway
2. Set SECRET_KEY_BASE (generate with openssl rand -hex 64)
3. Wait ~2 minutes for migrations to complete
4. Open your domain → create your admin account

How to use:

1. Go to Settings → Inboxes → add your first inbox (live chat widget, email, WhatsApp, etc.)
2. Go to Settings → Agents → invite your team members
3. Embed the live chat widget on your website by copying the script from inbox settings
4. Start receiving and replying to conversations from the inbox

Why Deploy Chatwoot on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying Chatwoot on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.