Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the questions people ask before self-hosting The Desk. Most link to the fuller docs.
Is it really free?
Section titled “Is it really free?”Yes. The Desk is MIT-licensed and free forever. There’s no per-seat pricing, no paywalled features, and no “open core” edition held back — because there’s no company to pay. Members, message history, and file storage are bounded only by your own disk.
What do I need to run it?
Section titled “What do I need to run it?”- A Linux host with Docker Engine 24+ and the Compose plugin.
- A domain name and a TLS-terminating reverse proxy (nginx, Caddy, Traefik…) in front of the stack — HTTPS is your responsibility; the containers speak plain HTTP.
- Working SMTP credentials for invitations (and optional email verification).
See Requirements for the full list.
How much server does it need?
Section titled “How much server does it need?”The Desk is modest. A small 2 vCPU / 2 GB RAM VPS comfortably hosts a team; scale up as message volume and the search index grow. See the Architecture reference for what each service does.
How do I back it up?
Section titled “How do I back it up?”Run ./docker/backup.sh. It dumps the PostgreSQL database and archives the
uploads volume, which together are everything durable: the Meilisearch index
is rebuilt from Postgres on boot and Redis holds only cache, sessions, and queued
jobs, so neither needs backing up. ./docker/restore.sh puts both back.
Add --keep=N to prune old backups and drive it from host cron for a schedule.
See Backups for the details, and
the Architecture reference for exactly what runs
and where state lives.
Can people sign up themselves, or is it invite-only?
Section titled “Can people sign up themselves, or is it invite-only?”Both — you choose. Open registration is controlled by the
REGISTRATION_ENABLED
toggle. Turn it off and the workspace is invitation-only. You can also require
email verification.
Is there a mobile app?
Section titled “Is there a mobile app?”Not yet. The web app is fully responsive and works well in a mobile browser, but there’s no dedicated iOS/Android app or mobile push notifications today.
Does it support file attachments, voice, or video?
Section titled “Does it support file attachments, voice, or video?”File & image attachments are supported. Voice and video calls are not on the near-term roadmap; if you need those now, see the comparison page.
Does it support SSO, OIDC, or LDAP?
Section titled “Does it support SSO, OIDC, or LDAP?”Yes. The Desk supports OIDC single sign-on with just-in-time provisioning, LDAP / Active Directory bind authentication with directory sync, and SCIM 2.0 provisioning for Okta, Entra ID, and OneLogin. You can also enforce SSO-only sign-in to turn password logins off entirely.
How do upgrades work?
Section titled “How do upgrades work?”Upgrades are tag-based — you move to a new release tag and pull. Database migrations and version-scoped search reindexing run automatically. See Upgrading for the exact steps.
Is my data private?
Section titled “Is my data private?”Yes — that’s the point. The Desk is self-hosted, so your messages never leave your server. There’s no SaaS middleman, no analytics phoning home, and every user can export their own data at any time. It’s your database either way.
What’s the tech stack?
Section titled “What’s the tech stack?”Laravel 13, Inertia + Vue 3, Laravel Reverb (WebSockets), PostgreSQL, Meilisearch, and Redis — all in one compose file behind a FrankenPHP app image. The full picture is in the Architecture reference.