Self-Hosted Helpdesk: FreeScout in 15 Minutes

FreeScout is the open-source alternative to Help Scout and Zendesk. It turns shared email inboxes into a proper ticketing system with collision detection, internal notes, saved replies, and customer satisfaction ratings. It is a pure PHP/MySQL application with no minimum system requirements and runs on shared hosting or a VPS. Here is how to deploy it with Docker.

Step 1: Deploy with the Official Install Script

FreeScout provides an interactive installation script for Ubuntu. Connect to your server:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/freescout-help-desk/freescout/dist/tools/install.sh
chmod +x install.sh
sudo ./install.sh

The script installs Nginx, PHP, MySQL, and FreeScout automatically. It asks for your domain name and admin credentials. The entire process takes about 10 minutes.

Step 2: Run the Web Installer

Open https://help.yourdomain.com. The FreeScout web installer checks PHP extensions, database connectivity, and guides you through creating the admin account and configuring your first mailbox.

Step 3: Connect Your Email

FreeScout works by monitoring shared mailboxes. Go to Manage, Mailboxes. Add your support email address. Configure IMAP for incoming mail and SMTP for outgoing. FreeScout scans the inbox every few minutes and converts new emails into tickets.

Create additional mailboxes for different departments: support@, sales@, and billing@. Each mailbox becomes a separate queue with its own agents and workflows. The dashboard shows ticket volume, response times, and agent workload across all mailboxes.

Step 4: Set Up Multi-Channel Support

Beyond email, FreeScout supports WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Slack, and live chat through modules. Install the channel modules from the admin panel, connect your accounts, and customer messages from any platform appear as tickets in the same unified inbox.

Step 5: Install Mobile Apps

FreeScout has official Android and iOS apps. Your support agents install the app, enter your FreeScout URL and their credentials, and handle tickets from their phones. The mobile apps support all the same features as the web interface, including internal notes, saved replies, and push notifications.

Key Features

• Collision detection: warns agents when two people open the same ticket
• Saved replies: one-click responses to common questions
• Internal notes: team discussion visible only to agents, not customers
• Auto replies: automatic acknowledgment when a customer submits a ticket
• 24 languages: interface available in English, Chinese, Malay, and more
• No per-agent fees: unlimited agents, unlimited mailboxes, unlimited tickets

VPS1 deploys FreeScout with email integration and multi-channel setup. Your support queue becomes a system instead of a shared inbox.