Railway Deployment

Deploy Formbricks on Railway with one click for a managed hosting experience

Deploy Formbricks on Railway for a fully managed, zero-configuration deployment. Railway handles infrastructure, scaling, and SSL certificates automatically.

Why Railway?

Railway provides a streamlined deployment experience:

• One-click deployment from template
• Automatic SSL certificates
• Built-in PostgreSQL and Redis
• Auto-scaling and load balancing
• Pay-as-you-go pricing
• Zero DevOps overhead

Railway is ideal for small to medium deployments. For large-scale production workloads, consider Kubernetes or Docker.

Quick Deploy

1. Deploy from Template

   Click the button below to deploy Formbricks on Railway:

   

   This will:

   • Create a new Railway project
   • Provision PostgreSQL database
   • Provision Redis cache
   • Deploy the Formbricks application
   • Generate a public URL
2. Configure Environment Variables

   Railway will prompt you to configure required environment variables:

   Variable	Description	Required
   WEBAPP_URL	Your Railway URL (auto-generated)	Yes
   NEXTAUTH_SECRET	Secret for NextAuth	Auto-generated
   ENCRYPTION_KEY	Encryption key for 2FA	Auto-generated
   CRON_SECRET	API secret for cron jobs	Auto-generated

   Railway auto-generates secure secrets. You can customize them if needed, but the defaults are cryptographically secure.

3. Wait for Deployment

   Railway will:

   1. Build the Formbricks container
   2. Run database migrations
   3. Start the application
   4. Provision SSL certificate

   This typically takes 3-5 minutes.

4. Access Your Instance

   Once deployed, Railway provides a public URL:

   https://formbricks-production-abc123.up.railway.app
   

   Visit this URL to complete the Formbricks setup wizard.

Custom Domain Setup

You can use your own domain instead of the Railway-provided URL:

1. Add Custom Domain in Railway

   1. Open your Railway project
   2. Click on the Formbricks service
   3. Navigate to Settings → Networking
   4. Click Add Custom Domain
   5. Enter your domain (e.g., formbricks.example.com)
2. Configure DNS

   Add a CNAME record in your DNS provider:

   Type	Name	Value
   CNAME	formbricks	your-app.up.railway.app

   Or for apex domains, use Railway’s provided A records.

3. Update Environment Variables

   Update WEBAPP_URL and NEXTAUTH_URL to use your custom domain:

   WEBAPP_URL=https://formbricks.example.com
   NEXTAUTH_URL=https://formbricks.example.com
   

   Railway will automatically redeploy after variable changes.

4. Verify SSL Certificate

   Railway automatically provisions SSL certificates for custom domains. This may take a few minutes.

   Check certificate status in the Railway dashboard under Settings → Networking.

Configuration

Environment Variables

Customize your deployment by adding environment variables in Railway:

Email Configuration (SMTP)

Enable email verification and password reset:

EMAIL_VERIFICATION_DISABLED=0
PASSWORD_RESET_DISABLED=0
MAIL_FROM=[e-mail]
MAIL_FROM_NAME=Formbricks
SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=[e-mail]
SMTP_PASSWORD=your-app-password
SMTP_SECURE_ENABLED=1

Use Gmail App Passwords or a transactional email service like SendGrid, Mailgun, or AWS SES.

File Storage (S3)

Store file uploads in S3 or compatible storage:

S3_ACCESS_KEY=your-access-key
S3_SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key
S3_REGION=us-east-1
S3_BUCKET_NAME=formbricks-uploads
# For S3-compatible storage (Backblaze, DigitalOcean Spaces, etc.)
S3_ENDPOINT_URL=https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

Railway’s file system is ephemeral. Always use S3 for file uploads in production.

OAuth Providers

Enable social login:

# GitHub
GITHUB_ID=your-github-client-id
GITHUB_SECRET=your-github-client-secret

# Google
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your-google-client-id
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=your-google-client-secret

# Azure AD
AZUREAD_CLIENT_ID=your-azure-client-id
AZUREAD_CLIENT_SECRET=your-azure-client-secret
AZUREAD_TENANT_ID=your-tenant-id

Enterprise License

Activate Enterprise features:

ENTERPRISE_LICENSE_KEY=your-license-key

Database Configuration

Railway automatically provisions a PostgreSQL database with pgvector support. The connection string is injected as DATABASE_URL.

Access PostgreSQL

Connect to your database using Railway’s CLI:

# Install Railway CLI
npm install -g @railway/cli

# Login
railway login

# Connect to database
railway connect postgres

Or use the connection details from Railway dashboard:

Host: containers-us-west-xxx.railway.app
Port: 5432
Database: railway
Username: postgres
Password: [shown in dashboard]

Redis Configuration

Railway provisions a Redis instance for caching and rate limiting. The connection string is injected as REDIS_URL.

Monitoring and Logs

View Application Logs

Access real-time logs in the Railway dashboard:

1. Open your project
2. Click on the Formbricks service
3. Navigate to Logs

Or use the CLI:

railway logs

Metrics

Railway provides built-in metrics:

• CPU usage
• Memory usage
• Network traffic
• Request count

View metrics in Metrics tab of your service.

Scaling

Vertical Scaling

Increase resources for your Formbricks instance:

1. Navigate to Settings → Resources
2. Adjust memory and CPU allocation
3. Railway will restart the service with new limits

Railway automatically scales resources based on usage. You can set limits to control costs.

Horizontal Scaling

Railway supports horizontal scaling with multiple replicas:

1. Navigate to Settings → Replicas
2. Increase replica count
3. Railway handles load balancing automatically

Ensure your database and Redis instances can handle increased connection load when scaling horizontally.

Backup and Restore

Database Backups

Railway automatically backs up PostgreSQL databases:

• Automatic backups: Daily snapshots (retained for 7 days)
• Manual backups: Create on-demand snapshots

Create Manual Backup

1. Navigate to PostgreSQL service
2. Click Backups
3. Click Create Backup

Restore from Backup

1. Navigate to Backups
2. Select backup snapshot
3. Click Restore

Restoring will overwrite current data. Create a manual backup before restoring.

Export Database

Export your database for external backups:

# Connect to Railway
railway login
railway link

# Export database
railway run pg_dump -U postgres railway > formbricks-backup.sql

Updating Formbricks

Railway automatically deploys from the Formbricks GitHub repository:

Automatic Updates

1. Enable Auto-Deploy in Railway settings
2. Railway will automatically deploy new releases
3. Database migrations run automatically

Manual Updates

1. Navigate to Deployments
2. Click Deploy
3. Select the latest commit or tag
4. Railway will build and deploy

Troubleshooting

Deployment Failed

Check build logs:

railway logs --build

Common issues:

• Missing environment variables
• Build timeout (increase build resources)
• Database connection errors

Application Won't Start

View runtime logs:

railway logs

Check for:

• Database migration failures
• Invalid environment variables
• Port binding issues (Railway uses PORT variable)

Database Connection Errors

Verify database status:

1. Navigate to PostgreSQL service
2. Check service status (should be “Running”)
3. Verify DATABASE_URL is injected correctly

Test connection:

railway connect postgres

High Memory Usage

Railway may kill containers exceeding memory limits.

Solutions:

• Increase memory allocation in Settings → Resources
• Optimize database queries
• Enable Redis caching
• Reduce concurrent requests

Custom Domain Not Working

Verify:

• DNS CNAME record is correct
• DNS has propagated (use dig or nslookup)
• SSL certificate provisioned (check Networking tab)
• WEBAPP_URL updated to custom domain

Force SSL renewal:

1. Remove custom domain
2. Wait 1 minute
3. Re-add custom domain

Cost Optimization

Pricing Considerations

Railway charges based on:

• Execution time: vCPU-hour usage
• Memory: GB-hour usage
• Network: Outbound bandwidth
• Database storage: GB-month

Optimization Tips

1. Right-size resources: Don’t over-allocate CPU/memory
2. Enable Redis caching: Reduces database queries
3. Use CDN for assets: Offload static file serving
4. Optimize images: Compress uploaded files
5. Set up auto-scaling: Scale down during low traffic

Railway offers a free tier with $5/month credit. Perfect for testing and small deployments.

Migrating from Railway

If you need to migrate to another platform:

1. Export Database

   railway run pg_dump -U postgres railway > formbricks-export.sql
   
2. Download Uploads (if not using S3)

   If you stored files locally, export them before migrating.

3. Deploy to New Platform

   Follow the Docker or Kubernetes guides.

4. Import Database

   psql -h new-host -U formbricks formbricks < formbricks-export.sql
   
5. Update DNS

   Point your domain to the new deployment.

Railway vs Other Platforms

Feature	Railway	Docker	Kubernetes
Setup Time	5 minutes	30 minutes	1-2 hours
Management Overhead	Low	Medium	High
Scaling	Automatic	Manual	Automatic
Cost	Pay-as-you-go	Infrastructure cost	Infrastructure cost
SSL	Automatic	Manual config	Ingress config
Best For	Small-medium	Single server	Enterprise

Next Steps

Configure Integrations

Connect Formbricks with your tools

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