---
title: "Deploy Chatwoot | Open-Source Customer Support Platform"
description: "Deploy Chatwoot (Intercom alternative). Live chat, email, WhatsApp, etc."
category: "Automation"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/self-host-chatwoot
---

# Deploy Chatwoot | Open-Source Customer Support Platform

Deploy Chatwoot (Intercom alternative). Live chat, email, WhatsApp, etc.

**[Deploy Chatwoot | Open-Source Customer Support Platform on Railway](https://railway.com/template/self-host-chatwoot)**

- **Creator:** Heimdall
- **Category:** Automation
- **Total deploys:** 116

## Template content

### PgVector https://devicons.railway.app/postgres

- **Image:** pgvector/pgvector:pg18
- **Start command:** `/bin/sh -c "unset PGPORT; docker-entrypoint.sh postgres --port=5432"`

### Chatwoot https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/homarr-labs/dashboard-icons/svg/chatwoot.svg

- **Image:** chatwoot/chatwoot:latest
- **Start command:** `bundle exec rails s -p 3000 -b 0.0.0.0`
- **Public domain:** Yes

### SideKiq https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/homarr-labs/dashboard-icons/svg/chatwoot.svg

- **Image:** chatwoot/chatwoot:latest
- **Start command:** `bundle exec sidekiq -C config/sidekiq.yml`

### Redis https://cdn.sanity.io/images/sy1jschh/production/0ce0bfdcfbdbf69662b1116671f97c2dd788b655-157x157.svg

- **Image:** redis:8.2.1
- **Start command:** `/bin/sh -c "rm -rf $RAILWAY_VOLUME_MOUNT_PATH/lost+found/ && exec docker-entrypoint.sh redis-server --requirepass $REDIS_PASSWORD --save 60 1 --dir $RAILWAY_VOLUME_MOUNT_PATH"`

## Documentation

# Deploy and Host Chatwoot on Railway

Self-host Chatwoot — the open-source, AI-powered customer support platform — on Railway with a production-ready four-service stack. This template deploys the full Chatwoot Community Edition (`chatwoot/chatwoot:latest`) with a dedicated Rails web server, a Sidekiq background worker, a pgvector-enabled PostgreSQL database, and Redis — everything wired together automatically via Railway's private networking. 

Chatwoot gives your team a unified inbox for live chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, and more — all from a single dashboard. It's the self-hosted alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, and Freshdesk that lets you own your customer data completely. The source code is available at [github.com/chatwoot/chatwoot](https://github.com/chatwoot/chatwoot).

![Chatwoot dashboard screenshot](https://res.cloudinary.com/asset-cloudinary/image/upload/v1773254105/Chatwoot_Railway_Architecture_nabdo7.png)

## Getting Started with Chatwoot on Railway

Once Railway finishes deploying all four services, navigate to the public URL assigned to your **chatwoot (web)** service. You'll be greeted by the onboarding wizard — create your admin account, name your workspace, and set up your first inbox (live chat widget, email, or social channel). Invite agents via **Settings → Agents → Invite Agent**; they'll receive a confirmation email to activate their account.

To embed the live chat widget on your site, go to **Settings → Inboxes**, select your website inbox, and copy the JavaScript snippet into your page's ``. For WhatsApp or social channels, connect them under **Settings → Inboxes → Add Inbox** and follow the provider-specific OAuth flow.

> **Email setup required:** Chatwoot sends transactional emails for agent invites, password resets, and conversation notifications. The template does not include an SMTP server — you must connect one. For getting started, a managed provider is strongly recommended: [Brevo](https://www.brevo.com) (300 emails/day free) and [Resend](https://resend.com) (3,000/month free) both take under 10 minutes to configure. Add `SMTP_ADDRESS`, `SMTP_PORT`, `SMTP_USERNAME`, `SMTP_PASSWORD`, and `MAILER_SENDER_EMAIL` to both the web and Sidekiq services once you have credentials.

![Chatwoot dashboard screenshot](https://res.cloudinary.com/asset-cloudinary/image/upload/v1773254106/chatwoot_dashboard_tyzipp.png)

## About Hosting Chatwoot

Chatwoot is an open-source customer support platform built with Ruby on Rails and Vue.js. It centralises customer conversations from every channel your team uses into a shared inbox, replacing the fragmented tab-switching between email, social DMs, and chat tools.

Key features:
- **Omnichannel inbox** — live chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, Line, SMS
- **AI-powered agent (Captain)** — reply suggestions, conversation summaries, and knowledge base answers powered by OpenAI (Enterprise/Premium)
- **Team collaboration** — shared inboxes, private notes, @mentions, canned responses, labels, and auto-assignment
- **Automation & workflows** — rule-based triggers to auto-assign, label, or respond to conversations
- **Help center portal** — built-in knowledge base for self-service support
- **Extensive API & webhooks** — build custom integrations or connect to Slack, Shopify, Dialogflow, and more
- **CSAT & reporting** — conversation, agent, inbox, and team performance reports

**Architecture:** The web service runs Puma (Rails) on port 3000 and handles all HTTP traffic and WebSocket connections. Sidekiq runs as a separate service on the same Docker image, processing background jobs — email delivery, avatar fetching, scheduled tasks, event dispatch — via a shared Redis queue. Both services connect independently to the pgvector PostgreSQL database. Encryption keys and `SECRET_KEY_BASE` must be identical across both services.

## Why Deploy Chatwoot on Railway

Railway handles the infrastructure complexity that makes self-hosting Chatwoot challenging elsewhere:

- No manual Docker Compose or nginx reverse proxy setup
- Private networking between Web, Sidekiq, Postgres, and Redis out of the box
- Auto-generated secrets for encryption keys and database passwords
- Managed TLS and public domain assigned instantly
- Zero-downtime redeploys with pre-deploy database migration hooks
- Scale Web and Sidekiq services independently as volume grows

## Common Use Cases

- **Startups replacing Intercom** — get the same omnichannel inbox without per-seat pricing that compounds as the team grows
- **GDPR/HIPAA-sensitive businesses** — self-hosting keeps all conversation data in your own infrastructure, within your chosen region
- **Developer teams building support into their product** — embed the JS widget, use the REST API to create conversations programmatically, and extend via webhooks
- **Agencies managing multiple clients** — Chatwoot supports multiple accounts and inboxes from a single installation

## Chatwoot vs Intercom vs Zendesk

| | Chatwoot CE | Intercom | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open source | ✅ MIT | ❌ | ❌ |
| Self-hostable | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Starting price | Free (infra only) | ~$39/seat/mo | $19/seat/mo |
| Omnichannel | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Built-in AI agent | Enterprise only | ✅ | Add-on |
| Data ownership | Full | Vendor-hosted | Vendor-hosted |
| WhatsApp | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |

Chatwoot's core advantage is cost predictability and data ownership. Intercom and Zendesk pricing scales aggressively with seat count and conversation volume; Chatwoot's infrastructure cost on Railway stays flat unless you explicitly scale.

## Dependencies for Chatwoot

- **chatwoot/chatwoot:latest** — official Docker image, used for both the web and Sidekiq services
- **pgvector** — Railway's pgvector-enabled PostgreSQL template (standard Postgres lacks the `vector` extension Chatwoot requires)
- **Redis** — Railway managed Redis 7.x, used as the Sidekiq job queue and ActionCable pub/sub backend


### Deployment Dependencies

- **Database:** PostgreSQL 14+ with the `pgvector` extension
- **Queue:** Redis 7.0+
- **Pre-deploy command (web only):** `bundle exec rails db:chatwoot_prepare`
- Docker Hub: [hub.docker.com/r/chatwoot/chatwoot](https://hub.docker.com/r/chatwoot/chatwoot)
- Official docs: [chatwoot.com/docs/self-hosted](https://www.chatwoot.com/docs/self-hosted)

## Minimum Hardware Requirements for Chatwoot

| | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 2 cores | 4+ cores |
| RAM | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| Storage | 20 GB SSD | 60 GB SSD |
| PostgreSQL | 14+ | Latest stable |
| Redis | 7.0+ | 7.x latest |


## Self-Hosting Chatwoot Outside Railway

To run Chatwoot on your own VPS with Docker Compose:

```
# Clone the official Docker setup
git clone https://github.com/chatwoot/chatwoot.git
cd chatwoot
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your POSTGRES, REDIS, SECRET_KEY_BASE, FRONTEND_URL, and SMTP values

# Run database setup
docker compose run --rm rails bundle exec rails db:chatwoot_prepare

# Start all services
docker compose up -d
```

A minimal companion `docker-compose.yml` for PostgreSQL + Redis:

```
services:
  postgres:
    image: pgvector/pgvector:pg16
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: chatwoot
      POSTGRES_USER: postgres
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: yourpassword
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    command: redis-server --requirepass yourredispassword

volumes:
  pgdata:
```

## Is Chatwoot Free?

The Community Edition is completely free under the MIT License — you pay only for infrastructure (Railway usage, SMTP provider, and optionally S3 for file storage). On Railway, a typical small-team instance runs on the Hobby plan.

For teams needing Captain AI, SLAs, or priority support, Chatwoot offers **Premium Self-Hosted** plans. The cloud-hosted version starts at $19/agent/month (Startups plan) up to $99/agent/month (Enterprise), billed through chatwoot.com. There is no annual billing discount publicly available.

## FAQ

**What is Chatwoot?**
Chatwoot is an open-source, self-hosted customer support platform that unifies conversations from live chat, email, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and more into a single inbox. It's a free alternative to Intercom and Zendesk with full data ownership.


**Why does this template use pgvector instead of standard Postgres?**
Chatwoot requires the `vector` PostgreSQL extension for its AI and search features. Railway's standard Postgres template doesn't include it. The pgvector template ships with the extension pre-installed — using standard Postgres will cause the database setup to fail with a `PG::FeatureNotSupported` error.

**Why are SECRET_KEY_BASE and encryption keys shared between Web and Sidekiq?**
Sidekiq processes jobs that were enqueued by the web server — including decrypting ActiveRecord-encrypted fields. If the keys differ, Sidekiq will throw decryption errors when processing jobs. Always copy the generated values from the web service directly into Sidekiq; don't regenerate them.

**Do I need to set up email to use Chatwoot?**
Email isn't required to run Chatwoot, but without it agent invitations, password resets, and email-channel conversations won't work. For getting started, connect a managed SMTP provider like Brevo (free tier: 300 emails/day) or Resend (free tier: 3,000/month) by adding the `SMTP_*` and `MAILER_SENDER_EMAIL` variables to both the web and Sidekiq services.

**Can I use Chatwoot in production?**
Yes. Chatwoot has over 50,000 self-hosted production installations. For production on Railway, enable a persistent volume for file storage or switch `ACTIVE_STORAGE_SERVICE` to `amazon` with S3-compatible credentials so attachments survive redeploys.

**Does Chatwoot support WhatsApp?**
Yes. Connect WhatsApp Business via the Cloud API (Meta developer account required) or Twilio under **Settings → Inboxes → Add Inbox → WhatsApp**. Standard WhatsApp message fees from Meta or Twilio apply separately.

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