Deploy and Host Formbricks on Railway

Formbricks is an open source survey and experience management platform for collecting user feedback through embedded surveys. It provides tools for creating in-product micro-surveys that can be targeted to specific users based on behavioral triggers and user attributes.

About Hosting Formbricks

Formbricks runs as a Next.js application with PostgreSQL backend, requiring Node.js runtime and database connection management. The application handles survey data collection, user targeting logic, and real-time response processing. You'll need to manage database migrations, file storage for survey assets, authentication sessions, and integration webhooks. The system generates survey response data that grows over time, requiring backup strategies and performance monitoring for database queries and API endpoints.

Common Use Cases

Product Teams: Collect user feedback directly within applications to understand feature usage and satisfaction
UX Researchers: Gather behavioral insights and user experience data through targeted micro-surveys
Customer Success: Monitor user satisfaction and identify potential churn through in-app feedback collection

Dependencies for Formbricks Hosting

Node.js Environment: Runtime for Next.js application and survey processing logic
PostgreSQL Database: Required for storing survey data, responses, and user targeting information
Authentication System: Session management and user access control for survey administration

Deployment Dependencies

Implementation Details

Important Setup Notes:

PostgreSQL communication occurs exclusively over the private network with no external database exposure by default
External database access can be enabled through TCP proxying on port 5432 if needed
The TCP proxy can be removed at any point to close off external access

Formbricks Interface

Core Features:

📲 Build in-product surveys using a visual editor with support for multiple question types including rating scales, multiple choice, and text input
📚 Access pre-built survey templates designed for common feedback collection scenarios and user research patterns
👩🏻 Configure survey targeting rules based on user behavior, attributes, and session data without modifying application code
🔗 Generate shareable survey links for external distribution and email campaigns
👨‍👩‍👦 Enable team collaboration with role-based access controls and shared survey workspaces
🔌 Connect with external tools through webhooks and integrations including Slack, PostHog, and Zapier
🔒 Self-hostable platform with full source code access and data ownership

Built on Open Source:

💻 Typescript
🚀 Next.js
⚛️ React
🎨 TailwindCSS
📚 Prisma
🔒 Auth.js
🧘‍♂️ Zod

Basic Configuration:

# Environment variables
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/formbricks
NEXTAUTH_SECRET=your-auth-secret
NEXTAUTH_URL=https://your-domain.com
WEBAPP_URL=https://your-domain.com

# Optional integrations
SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL=your-slack-webhook
POSTHOG_API_KEY=your-posthog-key

Survey Implementation:

// Basic survey targeting example
const survey = {
  name: "Feature Feedback",
  type: "web",
  questions: [
    {
      type: "rating",
      headline: "How satisfied are you with this feature?",
      scale: "1-5"
    }
  ],
  triggers: [
    {
      actionClass: "feature-click",
      rules: [
        {
          condition: "submitted",
          operator: "equals",
          value: "false"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
};

Key Capabilities:

Data Collection: Gather user feedback, ratings, and behavioral insights
Real-time Analytics: Monitor survey performance and response rates
User Segmentation: Target specific user groups based on behavior or attributes
Response Management: Handle partial submissions and follow-up logic
Integration Workflows: Send survey data to external tools and systems

Mission Focus:

Formbricks focuses on enabling data-driven product decisions through contextual user feedback collection. The platform captures user insights during actual product usage, which typically yields higher response rates than traditional survey methods. It collects both complete and partial survey responses to maximize data gathering opportunities and supports behavioral triggers to prompt surveys at relevant moments in the user journey.

Why Deploy Formbricks on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying Formbricks on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.