CRM & Supportdocker-ready
FreeScout: the best Open Source alternative to Help Scout in 2026
FreeScout is a lightweight, free customer support inbox inspired by Help Scout, with multiple shared inboxes, private notes and automations.
Technical profile
- License
- AGPL-3.0
- Category
- CRM & Support
- Replaces
- Help Scout
- Tech stack
- PHPLaravelMySQL
Key features
- Multiple shared inboxes
- Private notes between agents
- Free and paid community modules
FreeScout vs. Help Scout
Pros
- Much lighter than Zendesk or Help Scout
Things to consider
- Some useful modules are paid (though inexpensive)
Quick Docker installation guide
Copy this docker-compose.yml, adjust the example passwords and run docker compose up -d on your server. See the full step-by-step guide →
docker-compose.yml
version: "3.9"
services:
freescout:
image: tiredofit/freescout:latest
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "8080:80"
environment:
- DB_HOST=freescout-db
- DB_NAME=freescout
- DB_USER=freescout
- DB_PASS=freescout
depends_on:
- freescout-db
freescout-db:
image: mariadb:11
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
- MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=root
- MYSQL_DATABASE=freescout
- MYSQL_USER=freescout
- MYSQL_PASSWORD=freescout
volumes:
- freescout_db_data:/var/lib/mysql
volumes:
freescout_db_data: