Installation
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 Ubuntu / Debian | Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 LTS VPS or dedicated server |
| Self-Hosted on Rocky Linux | RHEL, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux VPS or dedicated server |
| Azure | Microsoft Azure cloud |
| VPS & Cloud Providers | DigitalOcean, Linode, Hetzner, Vultr, AWS Lightsail, GCE and others |
| Docker | Experimental — see VPS & Cloud Providers for status |
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
Contributing / Local development
- DDEV — ChurchCRM ships with a ready-to-go DDEV configuration. From a clone of the repo, run
ddev startthenddev setup-churchcrm. SeeCONTRIBUTING.mdin the repo for the full walkthrough.