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Beginner-friendly guide

How to deploy your first tool on Railway

From signing up on Railway to your tool live on your own domain — nothing assumed. Every step spells out exactly which button to click and what to type in the console.

  1. 1. Create your Railway account

    ~2 min

    What's different about Railway? It's a PaaS (platform as a service) — you don't need to use a console or connect over SSH, the entire deployment happens through clicks and visual forms on their own website.

    Go to railway.app (or railway.com) in your browser. Click the Login or Start a New Project button in the top right. Select Continue with GitHub (it's the recommended way to avoid permission friction) and accept the terms of use.

  2. 2. Use AltFreeStack's 1-Click Deploy button

    ~2 min

    (The fastest way, if the tool has a direct template): on the tool's page on AltFreeStack, find the deployment section and click the Deploy on Railway button (or 1-Click button). A Railway tab will open automatically showing the tool's template.

    Click the purple Deploy Now button (or Configure). If the template asks for required fields marked with an asterisk (like passwords, URLs or tokens), replace any default value with secure passwords you create, or click the lock/generator button if Railway offers one next to the field. Click Deploy.

  3. 3. Alternative: deploy via a Dockerfile / Image

    ~3 min

    (If the tool has no pre-configured button and you want to launch it from a clean panel): on your Railway dashboard, click + New Project. Select Deploy from Docker Image or Empty Project.

    If you chose Deploy from Docker Image, type the image name shown in AltFreeStack's Compose file (for example: ghost:latest or plausible/analytics:latest) and press Enter. Railway will create a box on a visual canvas and start deploying it.

  4. 4. Generate a public domain to access it

    ~1 min

    Unlike a VPS such as Vultr or DigitalOcean where you connect through a numeric IP, on Railway the platform gives you a free public web address (.up.railway.app) with HTTPS and a secure lock already enabled:

    • On the Railway dashboard, click your recently deployed service's card.
    • Go to the Settings tab in that card's sidebar.
    • Scroll down to the section called Networking or Public Networking.
    • You'll see a button that says Generate Domain. Click it — a web link ending in .up.railway.app will appear (for example: my-app-production.up.railway.app).

    If the AltFreeStack page mentioned a specific port (e.g. 3000 or 8080), make sure the Port field in that same section has that same number set.

  5. 5. Open your tool in the browser

    ~1 min

    Click directly on the blue link Railway just generated for you. The app will open in a new tab, secured with an SSL certificate (HTTPS) and fully ready for you to set up your initial user.

  6. How do you manage it going forward?

    recurring

    Railway doesn't need manual update commands: if you connected a GitHub repo, every push redeploys automatically; if you used a plain Docker image, change the tag on the service and click Redeploy. Railway's managed databases back up automatically — check the retention plan under Settings → Backups on that service.

Ready to pick your tool?

Head back to the catalog, copy the docker-compose.yml for the one you want, and follow this same guide.

View the full catalog General deployment guide