Installation
Not sure where to start? If your host has cPanel or Plesk, use One-Click Install (Softaculous). If Softaculous is not there, use cPanel. Use the server guides only when someone on your team can use a Linux terminal. Use Docker only when you already run containers.
System Requirements
Before installing, confirm your server meets the minimum requirements:
- System Requirements — PHP version, required extensions, database version, and file permissions
Installation Guides
Choose the path that matches your hosting setup:
| Method | Best for |
|---|---|
| One-Click Install (Softaculous) | Shared hosting with cPanel, Plesk, or DirectAdmin — easiest option |
| cPanel Shared Hosting | cPanel hosts without Softaculous — manual file upload |
| Self-Hosted on Your Own Server | Overview for VPS, cloud, or on-premise servers — start here, then pick your OS |
| Self-Hosted on Ubuntu / Debian | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS VPS or dedicated server |
| Self-Hosted on Rocky Linux | Rocky Linux 10, AlmaLinux 10, or RHEL 10 VPS or dedicated server |
| Azure | Microsoft Azure cloud |
| VPS & Cloud Providers | DigitalOcean, Linode, Hetzner, Vultr, AWS Lightsail, GCE and others |
| Docker | Official churchcrm/crm images on Docker Hub — for admins already comfortable with containers |
| Windows and XAMPP | Not supported. You may try it. We do not help when it fails |
After Installation
Once the application is running:
- First Run Configuration — Configure your church details and initial settings
- Upgrade Guide — Keep ChurchCRM up to date
- FAQs — Frequently asked questions
Changing the ChurchCRM code
This is only for people editing ChurchCRM itself, not for installing it at a church.
- Docker Development Environment — the containers used to work on the source code
- DDEV — from a clone of the repository, run
ddev startthenddev setup-churchcrm. The repositoryCONTRIBUTING.mdhas the rest of that walkthrough.
Can't find what you need? Ask in Discord, or open an issue on the ChurchCRM repository.