How to Install Rocket.Chat on Ubuntu 26.04 – Complete Guide

If your server does not have Docker installed, the fastest way to acquire the official repositories is via the convenience script. Run the following command in your terminal:

curl -L https://get.docker.com | sh

Next, add your current user to the Docker group so you can execute commands without elevated privileges:

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Note: You must log out and log back in for the group permissions to take effect.

Create a dedicated folder in the /opt directory to house your configuration files securely, and navigate into it:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/rocketchat
cd /opt/rocketchat

Fetch the officially maintained compose.yml file directly from the Rocket.Chat GitHub repository:

sudo curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RocketChat/Docker.Official.Image/master/compose.yml -O

You can edit the compose.yml file to adjust the ROOT_URL and port mappings using your preferred text editor (such as nano). Once you are satisfied with the configuration, start the background services:

sudo docker compose up -d

The initial startup sequence may take a few minutes as it initializes the MongoDB replica sets and unpacks the server assets. Once complete, you can access the web interface at http://localhost:3000 to begin the administrative setup wizard.

Open your terminal and execute the following command to download and install the bundled server environment:

sudo snap install rocketchat-server

If you have a domain name pointed to your server, you can enable the built-in Caddy integration to fetch a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate automatically:

sudo snap set rocketchat-server caddy=enable
sudo snap set rocketchat-server https=enable
sudo snap set rocketchat-server siteurl=https://yourdomain.com

Restart the snap service to apply the configuration changes:

sudo systemctl restart snap.rocketchat-server

If you prefer the Flatpak ecosystem over Snap, you can install the Rocket.Chat client from Flathub using the following command:

flatpak install flathub chat.rocket.RocketChat

To run the Flatpak client via terminal if it doesn’t appear in your desktop grid right away, use: flatpak run chat.rocket.RocketChat.

If Rocket.Chat fails to start, it is often because another service on your Ubuntu host is already bound to port 3000. You will see a “bind: address already in use” error in the logs.

Solution: Edit the compose.yml file and map the host port to a different number (e.g., 3001) in the ports section:

ports:
  - "3001:3000"

Rocket.Chat relies on MongoDB replica sets. If the initial setup times out, the backend services will constantly restart and the web interface will not load.

Solution: You can check the Docker logs by running sudo docker compose logs -f. If the MongoDB container is failing to elect a primary node, destroy the broken setup with sudo docker compose down -v, ensure your system has sufficient RAM, and try bringing the stack up again.

Navigate to your project folder, halt the active containers, and remove the project directory along with its stored data volumes:

cd /opt/rocketchat
sudo docker compose down -v
sudo rm -rf /opt/rocketchat

Use the following commands to safely remove the snap packages and purge their associated data.

To remove the Server:

sudo snap remove rocketchat-server

To remove the Desktop Client:

sudo snap remove rocketchat-desktop

If you installed the desktop client using Flatpak, remove it and its orphaned configuration data with the following command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data chat.rocket.RocketChat