FreeScout on GKE Autopilot

FreeScout is a free, self-hosted help desk and shared-mailbox platform built on Laravel (PHP) — it turns shared email inboxes into a collaborative ticket queue with conversations, tags, saved replies, a customer profile, a REST API, and a plugin system. This module deploys FreeScout on GKE Autopilot on top of the App_GKE foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud and Kubernetes infrastructure.

This guide focuses on the cloud services FreeScout uses and how to explore and operate them from the Google Cloud Console and the command line. For the mechanics that are common to every GKE application — Workload Identity, ingress, autoscaling, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_GKE foundation guide rather than repeating them here.

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What FreeScout costs on RAD, and how that compares

Running FreeScout in your own Google Cloud project costs about US$110.13/month in Google Cloud charges, on top of a one-time 110-credit RAD module fee (99 credits — 10% lower — in a RAD-managed project). FreeScout is a free, open-source shared-inbox and help desk built on Laravel. If you deploy into a RAD-managed project, you can pause the whole thing for free and pick it back up later — see "Pause it for free" below.

FreeScout is also available on Cloud Run — see the Cloud Run guide for the lower-cost option; this guide covers the GKE variant.

What you pay on RAD

	Own project	RAD-managed project
Module fee	110 credits (one-time)	99 credits (one-time, 10% lower)
Build time	~3–6 credits (one-time, per build)	~3–6 credits (one-time, per build)
Google Cloud running cost	~US$110.13/month, billed to your own Google billing account at list price	~99 credits/day (~US$9.90/day), metered hourly at list price plus RAD's margin

Default running cost in your own project

Resource	US$/month (Google list price, us-central1)
GKE Autopilot pod, 1x vCPU / 2 GiB	US$39.68
Cloud SQL for MySQL, 1 vCPU / 3.75 GB, zonal, 10 GB SSD	US$51.02
NFS/cache file server (small VM)	US$13.43
Cloud NAT and networking	US$5
Cloud Storage (add-ons, backups)	US$1
GKE cluster management fee	shared across every GKE app in the project; $0 if this is your only cluster, else ~73
Total	US$110.13

How it compares

• There is no officially hosted/cloud version of FreeScout to compare against, so the honest comparison is against self-managed infrastructure, not a competing SaaS.
• A bare VPS sized to roughly 1 vCPU / 2 GiB — a Hetzner CPX22 (2 vCPU/4GB, ~US$24/mo), a DigitalOcean 2 vCPU/4GB Droplet (US$24/mo), or GCP's own Compute Engine e2-standard-2 (2 vCPU/8GB, ~US$49/mo) — usually undercuts RAD's sticker price; a VPS a size or two smaller would undercut it further.
• What that lower price does not include is the admin's own time: patching the OS, rotating database backups, renewing TLS certificates and watching for downtime. RAD's managed Cloud SQL, Secret Manager and monitoring do that for you, which is the actual trade being made, not the sticker price.
• RAD is not claiming to be cheaper than a bare VPS in cash terms — it usually is not. The case for RAD is what's managed for you.

Pause it for free: delete a RAD-managed project, restore it when you need it

If FreeScout is running in a RAD-managed project, you can stop paying for it entirely without destroying it. Deleting that project first unlinks its billing, then asks Google to delete the project outright — Google's own 30-day recoverable soft delete. Unlike deleting the FreeScout module on its own, this does not tear down Cloud SQL, any VM or the compute resource one by one: the whole project simply stops, and nothing is charged while it waits, because billing is already unlinked.

Restoring, within 30 days and only by the project's owner, asks Google to undelete the project and reattaches its billing account, then asks you to run Update on each deployment to confirm everything came back. Because nothing was individually destroyed, that Update finds the same resources already there — it is a check, not a rebuild, and an Update never charges the module fee again. This costs only a handful of build-time credits in total — roughly 5–10 credits, under US$1, for a typical 2–3-deployment chain. The 99-credit module fee is not charged again.

What this needs: you must own the project (not one RAD only manages billing for), you must restore it yourself within 30 days — after that Google deletes it for good — and restoring is admitted like creating a new project, so your purchased credit balance must still clear the tier's floor (100 credits for the sandbox tier most study/demo use fits). Google says most services are fully working again within 36 hours of a restore.

One real gap: nightly backups are written to a bucket inside the project, and that bucket has Cloud Storage's soft-delete explicitly turned off, so it is very likely gone as soon as you delete the project — even though the project itself is recoverable for 30 days. If you have customised FreeScout and want to keep that work, copy a backup out (to Google Drive, or a bucket outside the project) before deleting. For a default install with nothing irreplaceable in it, this does not matter.

Pay only while you use it, the other way: delete and redeploy

If FreeScout is in your own project (or more than 30 days have passed on a RAD-managed one), the way to stop paying is to delete the deployment and redeploy later when you need it again.

A redeploy costs the module fee again, plus the builds: roughly 110 + ~3–6 credits (~US$11.45) in your own project, or 99 + ~3–6 credits on a RAD-managed one.

Deleting only saves money once FreeScout would otherwise sit unused long enough to clear that redeploy cost against its own running cost: roughly about 4 days or more idle in your own project (against its ~US$110.13/month Google Cloud bill), or about 2 days or more idle in a RAD-managed project (against its ~99 credits/day).

Most of FreeScout's running cost is the database and the shared file/cache VM. They stop only when nothing else in the project uses them, so deleting this app while something else shares the project saves only this app's own compute share of the total above.

Keep data first: nightly backups go to a bucket inside the deployment and are deleted with it, so copy the latest backup out before deleting if you want to keep it.

Lab sessions and Managed Environments

• Lab sessions, for training: a trainer runs a session for a class. Each participant gets the app in their own Google Cloud project for 15 minutes to 24 hours, within an allowance the trainer sets. Either the trainer funds every place, or each participant pays for their own. Everything is deleted when the session ends and unused credits go back to the trainer.
• Managed Environments, for consultancies: a partner runs the app for a client from a ring-fenced wallet it funds, and settles with the client directly. If the wallet runs low, billing pauses and the data is kept, so nobody receives an unexpected charge. At the end the partner hands the project over and the deployments become the client's own.
• Credits can be bought in more than 20 currencies, including XAF, XOF, NGN, GHS, KES and ZAR, by card, bank transfer or mobile money.

Sources (8 October 2026): Google Cloud Billing Catalog API list prices; radmodules.dev/pricing for RAD's own fees and daily-credit estimates; Google's project delete/restore docs for the pause/restore mechanics.

1. Overview

FreeScout runs as a single PHP (nginx + php-fpm) web workload, built as a thin custom image FROM tiredofit/freescout. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	GKE Autopilot	PHP pods on port 80, 1 vCPU / 2 GiB by default, horizontally autoscaled
Database	Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0	Required — FreeScout does not support PostgreSQL or other engines
Persistent files	Cloud Filestore (NFS)	Enabled by default; mounted at /var/lib/freescout for attachments and runtime data
Object storage	Cloud Storage	An uploads bucket (freescout-uploads) provisioned automatically
Cache (optional)	Redis	Optional object cache; disabled by default
Secrets	Secret Manager	Auto-generated Laravel APP_KEY and first-run ADMIN_PASS; database password
Ingress	Cloud Load Balancing	External LoadBalancer Service, optional custom domain + managed certificate

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• MySQL 8.0 is mandatory. The database engine is fixed by the shared application layer (MYSQL_8_0); selecting any other engine breaks startup.
• The Laravel APP_KEY is generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager. It encrypts session data and any encrypted database columns (stored mailbox credentials, OAuth tokens). Never rotate it after first boot — doing so permanently invalidates all previously encrypted data.
• A first-run admin is seeded automatically. ADMIN_EMAIL (default admin@techequity.cloud) with the generated ADMIN_PASS secret creates the first administrator on first boot. Change the password in the UI after first login.
• Cloud SQL is reached over the Auth Proxy sidecar. enable_cloudsql_volume defaults to true; the GKE variant sets DB_HOST = "127.0.0.1" so FreeScout dials the loopback proxy on port 3306.
• NFS is enabled by default so attachments and runtime files are shared across pods and survive rescheduling, mounted at /var/lib/freescout.
• Session affinity is ClientIP by default, keeping a client's requests on the same pod — important for the PHP session/UI experience.
• Minimum 1 replica is maintained (min_instance_count = 1, max_instance_count = 1) to keep the help-desk endpoint always reachable.
• Probes are TCP, not HTTP. FreeScout rejects any request whose Host header does not match APP_URL with a 403, and the kubelet probes with the pod IP as Host — so no HTTP probe path can pass. Both the startup and liveness probes are TCP, and the Gateway health check follows the liveness probe.

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2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them

All commands assume you have run gcloud container clusters get-credentials <cluster> --region <region> --project <project> and that PROJECT, REGION, and NAMESPACE are set. The namespace and other identifiers are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. GKE Autopilot — the FreeScout workload

FreeScout pods are scheduled on Autopilot, which bills for the CPU/memory the pods actually request. Because the app is NFS-backed, the foundation deploys it with a Recreate update strategy (not RollingUpdate) so two pods never contend on the same NFS volume and shared database during an update.

• Console: Kubernetes Engine → Workloads → select the FreeScout workload to see pods, revisions, and events. Kubernetes Engine → Services & Ingress shows the external IP.
• CLI:

  kubectl get pods,svc,hpa -n "$NAMESPACE"
  kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> --tail=100
  kubectl describe hpa -n "$NAMESPACE"          # current vs target utilisation

See App_GKE for how Autopilot, scaling, and the workload type (Deployment vs StatefulSet) are managed.

B. Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0

FreeScout stores all application data (conversations, mailboxes, users, customers, settings) in a managed Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0 instance. Pods reach it privately through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar bound to 127.0.0.1:3306; no public IP is exposed. On first deploy the db-init Job creates the application database, user, and grants; the app then runs its own schema migrations on start.

• Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, and metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~freescout"
  gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --database=<db-name> --project "$PROJECT"

The instance name, database name, user, and the Secret Manager secret holding the password are all surfaced in the Outputs. For the connection model, automated backups, and password rotation, see App_GKE.

C. Cloud Filestore (NFS)

FreeScout attachments and runtime files are persisted on an NFS volume mounted at /var/lib/freescout (enabled by default), shared across pods so uploads survive rescheduling.

• Console: Filestore → Instances (a Services_GCP-managed or inline instance).
• CLI:

  gcloud filestore instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  kubectl get pvc,pv -n "$NAMESPACE"

See App_GKE for the shared-NFS discovery model and the Recreate strategy used for NFS-backed apps.

D. Cloud Storage

A dedicated Cloud Storage uploads bucket (freescout-uploads) is provisioned automatically; the workload service account is granted access. Additional buckets can be declared via storage_buckets.

• Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets.
• CLI:

  gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~freescout"
  gcloud storage ls gs://<bucket-name>/          # bucket name is in the Outputs

See App_GKE for CMEK options and GCS Fuse mounts.

E. Redis (optional object cache)

Redis is disabled by default. When enable_redis = true, REDIS_HOST/REDIS_PORT are injected into the pod as an object-cache backend. When redis_host is left empty and enable_nfs is true, the NFS server VM's IP is used as the Redis endpoint.

• Console: Memorystore → Redis (if using a managed instance).
• CLI:

  redis-cli -h <redis-host> ping
  kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- env | grep REDIS

F. Secret Manager

Two secrets are generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager: the Laravel APP_KEY (encrypts session data and encrypted DB columns) and ADMIN_PASS (the seeded first-run admin password). They are delivered into pods via the Secret Store CSI driver. The database password is managed separately by the foundation.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

  gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~freescout"
  gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<secret-name> --project "$PROJECT"

The database password secret name is in the Outputs. See App_GKE for the Secret Store CSI integration and rotation.

G. Networking & ingress

By default the workload is exposed through an external Cloud Load Balancing IP (service_type = LoadBalancer). A custom domain with a Google-managed certificate can be enabled, and a static IP can be reserved so the address survives redeploys.

• Console: Network services → Load balancing; VPC network → IP addresses.
• CLI:

  kubectl get ingress,svc -n "$NAMESPACE"
  gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_GKE for custom domains, Cloud CDN, and static IP details.

H. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Pod stdout/stderr flow to Cloud Logging; GKE and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring. Optional uptime checks and alert policies are available.

• Console: Logging → Logs Explorer; Monitoring → Dashboards / Alerting.
• CLI:

  gcloud logging read 'resource.type="k8s_container" AND resource.labels.namespace_name="'"$NAMESPACE"'"' \
    --project "$PROJECT" --limit 50

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3. FreeScout Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. An initialization Job runs db-init.sh using mysql:8.0-debian. It connects through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy, idempotently creates the application database and user, grants privileges, and verifies the app user can connect. The job is safe to re-run.
• Migrations run on container start. There is no separate migration job — the tiredofit image runs php artisan migrate --force on every container start, so upgrading application_version applies schema changes on the next boot.
• First-run admin is seeded. On first boot the image creates the admin defined by ADMIN_EMAIL / ADMIN_FIRST_NAME / ADMIN_LAST_NAME with the ADMIN_PASS secret. Log in and change the password immediately.
• APP_KEY is immutable after first boot. The Laravel key is generated once and written to Secret Manager. Changing it permanently invalidates all previously encrypted data. Only rotate in a planned maintenance window with a full re-configuration.
• APP_URL must match the browser host. FreeScout builds absolute links and its / routing from APP_URL; the entrypoint sets it from the injected GKE_SERVICE_URL. After the LoadBalancer IP or custom domain is known, set APP_URL/SITE_URL to that external host so links and redirects resolve correctly:

  kubectl patch deploy <service-name> -n "$NAMESPACE" \
    -p '{"spec":{"template":{"spec":{"containers":[{"name":"freescout","env":[
      {"name":"APP_URL","value":"https://freescout.example.com"},
      {"name":"SITE_URL","value":"https://freescout.example.com"}
    ]}]}}}}'

  Or set environment_variables in the module configuration before deploying.
• NFS-backed rollouts use Recreate. Because FreeScout is NFS-backed, updates fully stop the old pod before starting the new one, avoiding two pods contending on the same NFS volume and shared database.
• Health path. The startup probe is TCP on the container port (30 s delay, 20 failures) and the liveness probe is TCP too (300 s initial delay) — an HTTP probe would be rejected by FreeScout's Host check. Allow several minutes on first boot while migrations run before the pod reports healthy.

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4. Configuration Variables

Variables are grouped exactly as they appear on the deployment platform. Only settings specific to or notable for FreeScout are listed; every other input is inherited from App_GKE with its standard behaviour and defaults.

Group 3 — Application Identity

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	freescout	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
application_version	latest	Base-image tag for the thin build (latest pins to php8.3-1.17.159); set an explicit tag such as 1.8.170 in production.
php_memory_limit	512M	PHP memory limit; raise for heavy attachment processing.
upload_max_filesize / post_max_size	64M	Maximum attachment upload / POST size.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only.
min_instance_count	1	Minimum replicas; keep at 1 so the endpoint is always reachable.
max_instance_count	1	Keep at 1 unless multi-pod behaviour is confirmed safe (NFS-backed, shared DB).
container_port	80	FreeScout (nginx/php-fpm) listens on port 80.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Auth Proxy sidecar for MySQL over loopback (DB_HOST = 127.0.0.1); keep true.
enable_image_mirroring	true	Mirror the base image into Artifact Registry before the thin build.

Group 5 — Environment Variables & Secrets

Variable	Default	Description
environment_variables	{}	Extra non-secret settings (e.g. MAIL_*, or a custom APP_URL). Core DB and admin values are set automatically.
secret_environment_variables	{}	Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name. APP_KEY and ADMIN_PASS are wired automatically — do not set them here.
secret_propagation_delay	30	Seconds to wait after secret creation.

Group 6 — GKE Backend & Cluster

Variable	Default	Description
service_type	LoadBalancer	How the Kubernetes Service is exposed.
workload_type	null (effective: Deployment)	Deployment (default) or StatefulSet. FreeScout is NFS-backed, so a Deployment with a Recreate strategy is used.
session_affinity	ClientIP	Sticky routing keeps a client on one pod for the PHP session/UI.
network_tags	["nfsserver"]	nfsserver required when enable_nfs = true.

Group 10 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe	TCP / 30 s delay, 20 failures	Generous window for first-boot migrations.
liveness_probe	TCP, 300 s delay	Keep TCP: FreeScout answers an HTTP probe (Host = pod IP) with 403. Also drives the Gateway health check.
uptime_check_config	disabled	Optional Cloud Monitoring uptime check.
alert_policies	[]	Optional metric alert policies.

Group 13 — Filesystem (NFS)

Variable	Default	Description
enable_nfs	true	NFS is on by default — persists attachments/runtime files across pods.
nfs_mount_path	/var/lib/freescout	Mount path inside the container.

Group 15 — Redis Cache

Variable	Default	Description
enable_redis	false	Enable a Redis object cache.
redis_host	""	Redis endpoint. Leave empty to use the NFS server IP (requires enable_nfs = true).
redis_port	6379	Redis port.

Group 16 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	MYSQL_8_0 (from Common)	Fixed MySQL 8.0; do not change engine.
application_database_name	freescout	MySQL database name (injected as DB_DATABASE). Immutable after first deploy.
application_database_user	freescout	Application DB user (injected as DB_USERNAME). Immutable after first deploy.
database_password_length	32	Generated password length (16–64).

All other inputs follow standard App_GKE behaviour.

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5. Outputs

These values are returned on a successful deployment and are the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

Output	Description
service_name	Kubernetes Service name.
namespace	Namespace the workload runs in.
service_cluster_ip	In-cluster ClusterIP.
stage_service_cluster_ips	Map of ClusterIPs for stage-specific services.
service_external_ip	External LoadBalancer IP (when a static IP is reserved).
service_url	URL to reach FreeScout.
database_instance_name	Cloud SQL instance name.
database_name	Application database name.
database_user	Application database user.
database_password_secret	Secret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_port	DB endpoint (127.0.0.1 via the Auth Proxy) / port.
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets.
network_name / network_exists / regions	VPC network, presence, available regions.
container_image / container_registry	Deployed image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels	Monitoring status and channels.
initialization_jobs / db_import_job	Names of the setup (db-init) and (optional) import jobs.
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix	Naming identifiers.
project_id / project_number	Project identifiers.
cicd_enabled / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and details (repo, trigger, registry).
github_repository_url / github_repository_owner / github_repository_name	CI/CD GitHub details.
artifact_registry_repository / cloudbuild_trigger_name / cloudbuild_trigger_id	Registry and build trigger.
kubernetes_ready	Whether the cluster/workload is ready.
vpc_sc_enabled / vpc_sc_perimeter_name / vpc_sc_dry_run_mode	VPC-SC status.
audit_logging_enabled / artifact_registry_cmek_enabled	Audit logging and CMEK status.

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6. Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults

Risk: Critical (data loss / outage / security) — High (service degraded) — Medium (cost or partial degradation) — Low (minor).

Inherited plan-time validation. This module passes its configuration through the App_GKE foundation engine, which validates values and combinations at plan time — a gen1 runtime with NFS/GCS mounts, a database_type that does not match the app, quota_memory_* given as bare integers, stateful_pvc_enabled with workload_type = "Deployment", IAP with no authorized identities. Invalid configuration fails the plan with a clear, named error before any resource is created, so most mistakes below are caught up front rather than at apply or runtime.

Setting	Sensible value	Risk	Consequence if wrong
APP_KEY (auto-generated)	Never rotate after first boot	Critical	Rotating it permanently invalidates all previously encrypted data — encrypted mailbox credentials and OAuth tokens can no longer be decrypted.
database_type	MYSQL_8_0	Critical	FreeScout is MySQL-only; a Postgres/other engine breaks startup.
application_database_name / application_database_user	Set once	Critical	Immutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and destroys all data.
enable_backup_import	false unless restoring	Critical	Enabling without a valid backup_uri fails the import job.
APP_URL / SITE_URL	External LoadBalancer / domain URL	High	A wrong host breaks absolute links, the / routing, and password-reset / email links.
enable_nfs	true	High	Disabling loses shared attachments/runtime files and breaks multi-pod file consistency.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true (GKE)	High	The Auth Proxy sidecar provides the 127.0.0.1:3306 MySQL endpoint; disabling it is blocked by a plan-time validation guard.
session_affinity	ClientIP	High	Without stickiness the PHP session/UI can land on a different pod between requests.
min_instance_count	1	High	GKE requires min ≥ 1; the validation guard rejects invalid values.
memory_limit	2Gi	High	Too low OOM-kills the PHP worker under attachment load.
max_instance_count	1	High	Scaling beyond 1 without confirmed shared-storage/session handling can cause inconsistent state across pods.
enable_iap	only for private deployments	High	IAP blocks all unauthenticated requests, including inbound integration callbacks.
quota_memory_requests / _limits	binary units (4Gi, 8192Mi)	Critical	Bare integers are bytes and block all pod scheduling in the namespace.
ADMIN_PASS (auto-generated)	Change in UI after first login	Medium	The generated password is in Secret Manager; rotate it in-app for a human-owned credential.
application_version	Pin in production	Medium	latest can move the base image under you between deploys.
backup_retention_days	7 (raise for prod)	Medium	Too short for compliance retention.

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For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — IAM and Workload Identity, autoscaling, ingress and certificates, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_GKE. FreeScout-specific application configuration shared with the Cloud Run variant is described in FreeScout_Common.

Related guides

• Hands-on lab: FreeScout on GKE Autopilot — deploy it step by step, with the console screens and commands at each stage.
• FreeScout on Google Cloud Run — the same application on Cloud Run, for when you need the other deployment target.
• FreeScout Common — Shared Application Configuration — the configuration shared by both deployment targets.