Install FreeScout on Vultr — Complete Guide (2025)

Vultr is the best global cloud provider for FreeScout. They offer datacenters in 30+ countries, affordable pricing ($3.50/month), and excellent performance. This guide shows you how to deploy FreeScout on Vultr in under 2 hours.

Why Vultr?

| Provider | 2GB / 2 vCPU | Global Reach | DDoS Protection | Value | |---|---|---|---|---| | Vultr | $3.50/mo | 30+ regions | Free basic | Best | | Hetzner | €2.99/mo | EU + Asia | Optional | Cheapest in EU | | DigitalOcean | $6/mo | 12 regions | Optional | Most popular | | Linode | $12/mo | 12 regions | Free | Best support |

Vultr is the sweet spot: Cheap ($3.50/mo), global (30+ regions), excellent uptime (99.99% SLA).

Step 1: Create Vultr Account

1. Go to https://www.vultr.com
2. Click "Sign Up"
3. Create account (email + password)
4. Add payment method (credit card)
5. Verify email

Step 2: Deploy a Cloud Compute Instance

1. Go to Products → Cloud Compute → Deploy New Instance
2. Choose Server Location: Pick closest to your users
   • North America: New Jersey, Miami, Dallas, Seattle, Los Angeles
   • Europe: London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt
   • Asia: Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, Delhi
   • Choose London or Frankfurt for EU customers, Singapore for Asia
3. Server Type: "Cloud Compute"
4. Server Location (again): Choose your region
5. Operating System: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
6. Server Size: Choose 2GB Regular Performance ($3.50/month)
   • 2GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 55GB SSD
7. SSH Key: Create new SSH key
   • Name: freescout-key
   • Download and save locally: ~/.ssh/freescout-key.pem
8. Hostname: freescout
9. Click "Deploy Now"

Instance boots in 30 seconds.

Step 3: Set Reverse DNS (Email Deliverability)

This is critical for email not going to spam.

1. Go to Products → Cloud Compute → Your Instance
2. Click "Settings"
3. Scroll to "Reverse DNS"
4. Set to: mail.your-domain.com
5. Save

Step 4: Point Domain to Vultr

1. Go to your domain registrar
2. Update the A record to your Vultr instance IP
3. Wait 15–30 minutes for DNS propagation

Step 5: Enable DDoS Protection (Free)

Vultr includes free basic DDoS protection.

1. Go to Products → Cloud Compute → Your Instance
2. Click "DDoS Protection"
3. Enable "DDoS Protection" toggle
4. It's free and already enabled by default

Step 6: SSH into Instance

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/freescout-key.pem
ssh -i ~/.ssh/freescout-key.pem root@your-vultr-ip

Step 7: Initial Setup

apt update && apt upgrade -y
apt install -y curl wget git unzip supervisor

Create non-root user:

adduser freescout
usermod -aG sudo freescout
su - freescout

Step 8: Install PHP 8.2 & Dependencies

sudo apt install -y software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php -y
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y php8.2 php8.2-fpm php8.2-mysql php8.2-mbstring \
  php8.2-xml php8.2-curl php8.2-imap php8.2-zip php8.2-gd \
  php8.2-bcmath php8.2-intl nginx mysql-server

Step 9: MySQL Setup

sudo mysql_secure_installation
sudo mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE freescout CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'freescout'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'strong_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON freescout.* TO 'freescout'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 10: Download FreeScout

cd /var/www
sudo git clone https://github.com/freescout-helpdesk/freescout.git
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/freescout
cd /var/www/freescout

Install Composer:

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
sudo -u www-data composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

Step 11: Configure Environment

sudo cp .env.example .env
sudo nano .env

Update:

APP_URL=https://your-domain.com
APP_KEY=   # Leave blank, auto-generated
DB_DATABASE=freescout
DB_USERNAME=freescout
DB_PASSWORD=strong_password
MAIL_DRIVER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.sendgrid.net
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=apikey
MAIL_PASSWORD=your-sendgrid-api-key

Step 12: Laravel Setup

sudo -u www-data php8.2 artisan key:generate
sudo -u www-data php8.2 artisan migrate --force
sudo -u www-data php8.2 artisan freescout:after-app-update
sudo -u www-data php8.2 artisan storage:link

Step 13: Configure NGINX

Create /etc/nginx/sites-available/freescout:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your-domain.com www.your-domain.com;
    root /var/www/freescout/public;
    index index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

Enable:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/freescout /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Step 14: Install SSL

sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com -d www.your-domain.com

Step 15: Queue Workers

Create /etc/supervisor/conf.d/freescout.conf:

[program:freescout-worker]
process_name=%(program_name)s_%(process_num)02d
command=php8.2 /var/www/freescout/artisan queue:work database --sleep=3 --tries=3 --timeout=60
autostart=true
autorestart=true
user=www-data
numprocs=1
stdout_logfile=/var/www/freescout/storage/logs/worker.log

sudo supervisorctl reread
sudo supervisorctl update
sudo supervisorctl start freescout-worker:*

Step 16: Cron Job

sudo crontab -u www-data -e

Add:

* * * * * /usr/bin/php8.2 /var/www/freescout/artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

Vultr Features

Snapshots (Backups)

Vultr snapshots let you backup your entire instance:

1. Go to Products → Cloud Compute → Your Instance
2. Click "Snapshots"
3. Click "Create Snapshot"
4. Name: freescout-backup-2025-05-08
5. Creates a full backup (takes 5 minutes)
6. Can be restored with one click

Auto-Scale (Advanced)

Vultr supports auto-scaling groups (like AWS):

1. Create an instance template
2. Set auto-scale rules (CPU > 80% → add instance)
3. Traffic automatically distributes across instances

Vultr vs DigitalOcean vs Hetzner

| | Vultr | DigitalOcean | Hetzner | |---|---|---|---| | Cost (2GB) | $3.50 | $6 | €2.99 | | Regions | 30+ | 12 | EU + Asia | | DDoS protection | Free | Optional | Optional | | Snapshots | Included | Included | Optional | | SLA | 99.99% | 99.99% | Best effort | | Best for | Global reach, cheap | US market, simplicity | EU budget |

Choose Vultr if: You need global datacenters and want the cheapest option with good performance.

Troubleshooting

| Issue | Cause | Fix | |---|---|---| | Can't SSH | SSH key wrong | Check key permissions: chmod 600 ~/.ssh/freescout-key.pem | | Email going to spam | Reverse DNS not set | Set PTR record in Vultr Settings → Reverse DNS | | Instance slow | CPU/RAM maxed | Check Monitoring, upgrade instance size | | HTTPS fails | DNS not propagated | Wait 24 hours, then certbot again |

Summary

Vultr offers the best combination of price, performance, and global reach. $3.50/month for a 2GB instance is unbeatable, and having 30+ datacenters means you can serve customers anywhere in the world.

FreeScout on Vultr is production-ready in under 2 hours.

Resources

• Vultr Documentation — official Vultr guide
• FreeScout GitHub — source code and releases
• Vultr Marketplace — one-click applications
• Certbot on Ubuntu — SSL setup