Deploy and Host WhatsApp Business Platform on Railway

Self-hosted AI WhatsApp platform for cab rental, fleet owners, and small businesses. Send campaigns, manage a two-way inbox, run RAG smart replies from your PDF rate card, and automate fare quotes with Google Maps — all from a React dashboard. No manual URL wiring: Postgres, Redis, backend API URL, and dashboard are connected automatically.

Demo: YouTube — Auto Quote Bot in 35 seconds

About Hosting WhatsApp Business Platform

This template deploys four services: Postgres, Redis, backend (Node.js API + Twilio webhooks), and dashboard (React UI). Secrets (JWT_SECRET, ADMIN_PASSWORD) are auto-generated. You only need to set your admin email at deploy time — everything else can be configured in-app.

Twilio credentials, Grok/OpenAI keys, and Google Maps are optional at deploy and can be added later in Settings without redeploying.

Estimated Railway cost: ~$12–20/month for a 24/7 production stack (Postgres + Redis + 2 app services).

5-Minute Setup (Day 1 Success)

Click Deploy → enter your ADMIN_EMAIL → wait for all 4 services to go green
Open the dashboard public URL (not backend)
Log in with ADMIN_EMAIL + auto-generated password (check backend Variables tab for ADMIN_PASSWORD, or reset in Settings)
Go to Settings → Twilio Setup Wizard → connect sandbox (free $15 credit)
Copy webhook URL → paste in Twilio Console → send a test WhatsApp message

You do NOT need to manually set VITE_API_URL — it is wired to your backend automatically.

Cab / rental quote bot (optional)

Knowledge Base → upload your rate-card PDF
Settings → enable Auto Quote Bot → category Cab Rental
Add GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY in Settings
Customer messages on WhatsApp → guided quote → instant fare → BOOK

Common Use Cases

Cab & bus rental quotes — automated fare quotes from PDF rate cards + Google Maps
Bulk WhatsApp campaigns — broadcast to contact lists with delivery tracking
AI customer support — RAG replies from uploaded FAQs and product catalogs
Two-way inbox — read and reply to every WhatsApp message from a web dashboard
Multi-language replies — Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Telugu, and more

Dependencies for WhatsApp Business Platform Hosting

Postgres — contacts, messages, campaigns, knowledge base (included)
Redis — campaign scheduler queue (included)
Twilio — WhatsApp API (free trial)
Optional: xAI Grok, OpenAI, Resend, Google Maps API

Deployment Dependencies

Implementation Details

Services (exactly 4 — no duplicates):

Service	Role	Public?
Postgres	Database	No (private network)
Redis	Job queue	No (private network)
backend	API + `/webhook/twilio`	Yes
dashboard	Admin UI	Yes

Auto-configured variables:

DATABASE_URL=${{Postgres.DATABASE_URL}}
REDIS_URL=${{Redis.REDIS_URL}}
JWT_SECRET=${{secret(...)}}          # auto-generated
ADMIN_PASSWORD=${{secret(...)}}      # auto-generated
PUBLIC_URL=https://${{RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}
VITE_API_URL=https://${{backend.RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}/api/v1

Webhook URL for Twilio:

https://YOUR-BACKEND-DOMAIN/webhook/twilio

Recommended volumes (attach in template):

Postgres → /var/lib/postgresql/data
Redis → /data
backend → /app/uploads (knowledge base files)

Why Deploy WhatsApp Business Platform on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your full infrastructure stack. This template gives you a production WhatsApp automation backend in one click — database, queue, API, and dashboard pre-wired — so you can focus on your business, not DevOps.

Need help? Open a GitHub issue or ask on Railway Station.