Ubuntu Support: Canonical Contacts, Ubuntu Pro & Options

Ubuntu support comes in three forms — free community channels, paid Canonical contracts, and third-party managed Linux server support — and the differences between them are concrete: who answers, how fast, and what is covered. This page lays out each path, Canonical's published response targets, and how to reach Canonical directly.

Free community support

Community support carries no SLA and no guarantee of an answer, but it is the default path for the majority of Ubuntu installations. The main channels:

• Ask Ubuntu — the Stack Exchange Q&A site for Ubuntu. Searchable archive of resolved questions; new questions answered by volunteers.
• Ubuntu Discourse — Canonical-hosted discussion forum covering desktop, server, and development topics, and the successor to the older Ubuntu Forums for most active discussion.
• Launchpad — bug reports against Ubuntu packages are filed on launchpad.net. A bug report is not a support ticket; there is no response commitment.

None of these channels commit to a response time, and none provide private handling of configuration details or logs.

Ubuntu Pro free tier

Ubuntu Pro is Canonical's subscription layer on top of Ubuntu. Per ubuntu.com/pro, it is free for personal use on up to 5 physical machines (50 for official Ubuntu Community members). The free tier is a security entitlement, not a support contract: it adds Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM), Livepatch, and related tooling, but includes no human support beyond access to Canonical's Knowledge Base. A broken server on a free Pro token still gets fixed by you or by the community.

Ubuntu Pro + Support: weekday vs 24/7

Paid support is sold as an add-on to Ubuntu Pro, in two coverage windows described on ubuntu.com/support: Weekday (business hours, Monday–Friday) and 24/7. Both include phone and ticket support with break-fix and bug-fix handling. Canonical's published initial response targets:

These are initial-response targets, not resolution guarantees. Current pricing is published at ubuntu.com/pricing/pro; check it directly, as figures change.

How to contact Canonical

• Support portal. Paying customers open and track cases at support-portal.canonical.com. This is the primary case channel.
• Phone. Canonical lists phone support as a channel for paid Weekday and 24/7 tiers, reached through the support portal and contract onboarding. There is no public general-purpose Canonical support phone line for non-customers.
• Sales. Pre-sales and contract questions go through the contact form at canonical.com/contact-us.

What Canonical support covers and excludes

Coverage scope is defined in Canonical's Ubuntu Pro service description on canonical.com/legal. In practice:

• Covered: break-fix and bug-fix support for Ubuntu itself and packages in the Ubuntu archive, with coverage depth depending on whether the subscription covers the main repository only or the full universe repository as well. Add-on coverage exists for specific stacks such as OpenStack, Kubernetes, and Ceph under their own terms.
• Excluded: custom or in-house application code, software installed from outside the Ubuntu archives (third-party repositories, snaps from third parties, manually compiled software), and general system administration of your environment. Canonical supports the operating system; it does not operate your servers.

LTS vs interim releases

Support windows differ by release type, per Ubuntu's release cycle: LTS releases receive 5 years of standard security maintenance, extendable to 10 years with Ubuntu Pro (ESM) and to 15 with the Legacy add-on. Interim releases receive 9 months only, and Canonical support contracts center on LTS releases. Release dates and end-of-life schedules are listed in the Ubuntu LTS guide.

ESM for out-of-support releases

When an LTS release passes its 5-year standard window, ESM under Ubuntu Pro continues delivering fixes for critical, high, and selected medium CVEs. This is the only sanctioned way to keep an end-of-standard-support Ubuntu release patched; details on entitlements and enablement are covered in the Ubuntu Pro guide. ESM is a patch stream, not help-desk support — human support still requires the paid support add-on.

Third-party and managed support

Independent providers support Ubuntu alongside other distributions. The structural differences from Canonical: a third party cannot ship fixes into the Ubuntu archive or escalate into Canonical engineering, but a managed provider operates the servers rather than only answering questions about the OS. Medha Cloud's Linux server support covers Ubuntu together with Debian, RHEL/AlmaLinux/Rocky, and control-panel stacks (cPanel, Plesk, CyberPanel), with 24/7 live chat, monitoring, patching, and incident response included. This model fits teams that need the administration done, not just a bug channel for the OS.

Decision table

FAQ

Does Canonical have a support phone number?

Phone support exists for paid Weekday and 24/7 support customers and is provisioned through the support contract and portal. Canonical does not publish a general public support phone line; non-customers use the sales contact form or community channels.

Is Ubuntu Pro really free?

Yes, for personal use on up to 5 machines. The free tier includes ESM security patching and Livepatch but no human support.

How fast does Canonical respond to a critical ticket?

Published initial-response targets are 1 hour on the 24/7 tier and 4 business hours on the Weekday tier for Severity 1 cases.

Can I get Ubuntu support without a Canonical contract?

Yes. Community channels are free with no SLA, and third-party providers support Ubuntu under their own contracts, including managed operation of the servers.