Deploy and Host Ghost CMS 6 on Railway

Ghost CMS 6 is a modern open source publishing platform for blogs, newsletters, memberships, and paid subscriptions. It gives you a clean writing experience, full content ownership, built-in SEO foundations, and tools to grow an audience without relying on a closed publishing platform.

Full setup guide and walkthrough

About Hosting Ghost CMS 6

This template lets you deploy the full open source version of Ghost CMS 6 on Railway in just a few minutes. It includes Ghost, MySQL, and a Railway-ready setup so you can launch a working blog without manually setting up servers, databases, Docker, or Linux hosting.

The template is designed to be ready to use after deployment. Open your Railway URL, add /ghost, create the first admin user, and start publishing.

It also uses unpacked source code from GitHub instead of a sealed Docker image, making it easier to inspect, fork, customize, and extend if you ever need to.

Common Use Cases

• Launch a personal blog or project blog with the full Ghost Admin dashboard
• Build a niche publication with posts, newsletters, members, and paid subscriptions
• Host a small business blog with full control over content, data, and source code
• Create a low-cost open source alternative to managed publishing platforms
• Start simple now, then add Mailgun, Stripe, Cloudinary, or custom code later

Dependencies for Ghost CMS 6 Hosting

• Ghost CMS 6
• MySQL database
• Railway account

Optional services:

• Mailgun, for newsletter delivery and bulk email sending
• Stripe, for paid memberships and recurring subscriptions
• Cloudinary, for external image storage and image optimization
• GitHub, if you want to fork and customize the source code

Deployment Dependencies

Useful links:

• Full instructions: https://funkyton.com/ghost-on-railway-deploy-your-blog-with-1-click/
• Source repository: https://github.com/rpuls/ghost-boilerplate
• Ghost CMS: https://ghost.org/
• Railway: https://railway.com/
• Mailgun: https://www.mailgun.com/
• Stripe: https://stripe.com/
• Cloudinary: https://cloudinary.com/

Implementation Details

After deployment, visit your generated Railway URL and add /ghost to create the first Ghost admin user.

Example:

https://your-ghost-site.up.railway.app/ghost

Optional environment variables can be added later in Railway.

For Cloudinary image storage:

CLOUDINARY_URL=cloudinary://:@

Mailgun is configured inside Ghost Admin:

Settings → Email newsletter → Mailgun settings

Stripe is configured inside Ghost Admin through the membership settings.

This template is intended to be simple at first launch, but customization friendly later. You can run it as-is, or fork the repository and modify the source code if your project grows beyond the default setup.

Why Deploy Ghost CMS 6 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 Ghost CMS 6 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.

Why use this template?

This template is built for people who want the benefits of self-hosting without manually managing a server.

You get the full open source Ghost CMS, full admin access, a MySQL database, one-click deployment, optional newsletter and media integrations, and source code you can modify when needed.

The goal is simple:

• More control
• Lower hosting cost
• No server management
• Full Ghost CMS 6
• Ready to publish in minutes

For the full article, screenshots, optional setup notes, and 2-year verdict, read the guide here:

https://funkyton.com/ghost-on-railway-deploy-your-blog-with-1-click/