---
title: "Deploy Cloudreve"
description: "Self-hosted cloud drive for storing, previewing and sharing files"
category: "Storage"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/cloudreve-drive
---

# Deploy Cloudreve

Self-hosted cloud drive for storing, previewing and sharing files

**[Deploy Cloudreve on Railway](https://railway.com/template/cloudreve-drive)**

Machine-readable deploy manifest (JSON, validated by TemplateCI): https://railway.com/deploy/cloudreve-drive/manifest.json

- **Creator:** A3A
- **Category:** Storage

## Template content

### Redis https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/homarr-labs/dashboard-icons/svg/redis.svg

- **Image:** redis:8.2
- **Start command:** `/bin/sh -c "rm -rf $RAILWAY_VOLUME_MOUNT_PATH/lost+found/ && exec docker-entrypoint.sh redis-server --requirepass $REDIS_PASSWORD --save 60 1 --dir $RAILWAY_VOLUME_MOUNT_PATH"`

### Postgres https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/homarr-labs/dashboard-icons/svg/postgresql.svg

- **Image:** ghcr.io/railwayapp-templates/postgres-ssl:18

### cloudreve https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/homarr-labs/dashboard-icons/svg/cloudreve.svg

- **Source:** https://github.com/gridalpha/cloudreve-railway
- **Health check:** /api/v4/site/ping
- **Public domain:** Yes

## Documentation

# Deploy and Host Cloudreve on Railway

Cloudreve is an open-source, self-hosted cloud storage and file sharing system written in Go with a React front end. It gives a team what a commercial drive gives them — a folder tree, drag-and-drop uploads, in-browser previews, expiring share links, WebDAV mounts, per-user groups and quotas — while the files stay on infrastructure you control. Storage is pluggable: one interface over local disk, any S3-compatible bucket, OneDrive, Aliyun OSS, Tencent COS, Qiniu Kodo or Huawei OBS.

Deploy Cloudreve on Railway and three services come up wired together. `cloudreve` is the application, built from `gridalpha/cloudreve-railway` on top of the official `cloudreve/cloudreve` release, and the only service with a public URL. `Postgres` holds the metadata — users, groups, folders, share links, storage policies and settings. `Redis` backs the key-value cache. A 5 GB volume at `/cloudreve/data` is where the default storage policy writes uploads, thumbnails and the generated `conf.ini`. Traffic reaches the container on port 5212; the databases stay private.

![Cloudreve, Postgres and Redis services on Railway](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/v1788517159/cloudreve-architecture.png)

## Getting Started with Cloudreve on Railway

Open the public URL and you land on the sign-in page. There are no shipped default credentials: the administrator is created on first boot from `CR_ADMIN_EMAIL` and `CR_ADMIN_PASSWORD`, before the app accepts a public request. Sign in with those. Registration is off by default, which matters more than it sounds — Cloudreve promotes the first account that registers to the administrator group.

Once you are in, click **New → Create folder** and drag a few files onto the list. Thumbnails come from libvips for images, ffmpeg for video, LibreOffice for documents and LibRaw for camera files, so a photo or spreadsheet previews within seconds. Select a file, use the share icon, and open the `/s/...` link in a private window. That round trip — upload, thumbnail, share, anonymous download — exercises the database, the volume and the public domain together.

Then open **Dashboard**. Under **Groups** the default quota is 1 TB, far larger than the 5 GB volume — lower it, or grow the volume, so uploads fail with a quota message rather than a full disk.

![Cloudreve file browser showing a folder of uploaded files](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/v1788517161/cloudreve-file-browser.png)
![Cloudreve share link created for a markdown file](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/v1788517162/cloudreve-share-link-created.png)
![Public Cloudreve share page offering the file for download](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/v1788517165/cloudreve-shared-file-page.png)

## About Hosting Cloudreve

Cloudreve suits a team that wants Dropbox-shaped behaviour without a per-seat bill or an outside processor holding the data. It is one Go binary serving a compiled React app, so the operational surface is a single process plus a database. Teams self-host it when file custody matters — legal, medical, engineering archives — or when they already own object storage and want a usable interface over it.

Key features:

- Pluggable storage: local disk, any S3-compatible API, OneDrive, OSS, COS, Kodo, OBS, KS3, Upyun
- Direct client-to-storage transfers, so large uploads bypass the app server
- Resumable, chunked, parallel uploads of files or folders
- Share links with expiry dates, view limits and optional passwords
- WebDAV across every backend, mounting natively on macOS, Windows and Linux
- In-browser preview and editing for text, Markdown, images and Office files
- Archive extraction, batch download, metadata search, groups, quotas and permissions

Each concern sits in its own Railway service. `cloudreve` owns the HTTP surface and the volume. `Postgres` is the system of record — losing it loses the folder tree even if the bytes survive. `Redis` caches rather than stores.

## Why Deploy Cloudreve on Railway

Railway removes the setup between a Docker image and a working drive:

- Postgres, Redis and a persistent volume provisioned and wired in one click
- HTTPS on a public domain, certificates handled for you
- The administrator account seeded on first boot
- Private networking between the app and its databases, no ports exposed
- Logs, metrics and one-click redeploys in one dashboard

## Common Use Cases

- A shared team drive on infrastructure the company controls, WebDAV-mounted on every laptop
- A client delivery portal: upload a batch, generate a password-protected link that expires after N downloads
- A browser front end for object storage a team already pays for, instead of an S3 console
- A personal media and document archive with previews, tag search and offline PWA access

## Dependencies for Cloudreve

- **cloudreve** — `gridalpha/cloudreve-railway`, layered on the official `cloudreve/cloudreve` image. Serves the API and React front end on port 5212 and owns the `/cloudreve/data` volume.
- **Postgres** — `ghcr.io/railwayapp-templates/postgres-ssl:18`. Users, groups, files, shares, policies and settings.
- **Redis** — `redis:8.2`. Key-value cache.

### Environment Variables Reference

| Variable | Purpose |
|---|---|
| `CR_ADMIN_EMAIL` | Login for the administrator seeded on first boot |
| `CR_ADMIN_PASSWORD` | Password for that account; change it in the app |
| `CR_CONF_Database.DatabaseURL` | Postgres connection string |
| `CR_CONF_Redis.Server` | Redis host and port |
| `CR_SETTING_DEFAULT_siteURL` | Public base URL, seeded on first boot |
| `PORT` | Port the app listens on |
| `CR_SKIP_BOOTSTRAP` | `1` skips first-run setup |

### Deployment Dependencies

- Source: https://github.com/cloudreve/cloudreve
- Image: https://hub.docker.com/r/cloudreve/cloudreve
- Docs: https://docs.cloudreve.org
- Runtime: Go on Alpine, with libvips, ffmpeg, LibreOffice and LibRaw for previews

## Hardware Requirements for Self-Hosting Cloudreve

| Resource | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 1 vCPU | 2 vCPU |
| RAM | 512 MB | 2 GB |
| Storage | 5 GB volume | 20 GB+, or an S3 bucket |
| Runtime | Docker | Docker, Postgres, Redis |

Memory climbs during thumbnail generation, since LibreOffice and ffmpeg are heavy; 2 GB is comfortable for a small team. Storage is what grows, and the usual answer is a bucket-backed storage policy rather than an ever-larger volume.

## Self-Hosting Cloudreve

Upstream publishes a multi-architecture image, so the fastest path off Railway is one container on SQLite:

```
docker run -d --name cloudreve \
  -p 5212:5212 \
  -v cloudreve_data:/cloudreve/data \
  cloudreve/cloudreve:latest
```

For production, point it at Postgres and Redis. Cloudreve reads any config-file key from `CR_CONF_<section>.` and any first-boot setting from `CR_SETTING_DEFAULT_`. A Docker Compose fragment:

```
services:
  cloudreve:
    image: cloudreve/cloudreve:latest
    ports: ["5212:5212"]
    environment:
      - CR_CONF_Database.Type=postgres
      - CR_CONF_Database.DatabaseURL=postgres://user:pass@postgresql:5432/cloudreve
      - CR_CONF_Redis.Server=redis:6379
      - CR_SETTING_DEFAULT_siteURL=https://drive.example.com
    volumes:
      - backend_data:/cloudreve/data
```

The config file is generated at `data/conf.ini` on first run and holds a random session secret, so keep that path on a persistent volume or every restart signs users out.

## Is Cloudreve Free?

Cloudreve is free and open source under GPL-3.0, with no seat limits and no account required. A Pro edition adds payment handling, event auditing and abuse reporting; this deploys the community build. On Railway you pay only for the compute, volume and database usage it consumes.

## FAQ

**What is Cloudreve?**
An open-source, self-hosted file management and sharing system: a web drive with uploads, previews, share links, WebDAV and multi-user groups, storing files on local disk or a dozen cloud providers.

**What does this Railway template deploy?**
Three services: Cloudreve on a public HTTPS domain with a 5 GB volume, Postgres for metadata, and Redis for caching. The administrator account is created on first boot from the variables you supply.

**Why does the template include Postgres and Redis instead of SQLite?**
Cloudreve runs on SQLite, but a single file is a poor fit for concurrent writes and awkward to back up. Postgres holds the metadata and backs up independently of the files; Redis carries the key-value cache so it survives restarts.

**How do I use an S3 bucket instead of the Railway volume?**
Storage backends live in the app, not in environment variables. Open **Dashboard → Storage Policy**, add an S3 policy with your endpoint, bucket, region and keys, enable path-style addressing if your provider needs it, then assign it to a user group. Existing files stay on the old policy; new uploads go to the new one.

**How do I mount self-hosted Cloudreve as a network drive?**
Cloudreve speaks WebDAV across every backend. Open **Connect &amp; Mount**, create a WebDAV account, then add the URL in Finder (**Go → Connect to Server**), Windows Explorer (**Map network drive**) or any WebDAV client, whichever storage policy the files sit behind.

**Can other people sign up on my instance?**
Not by default. Registration closes once the administrator exists, and the sign-up endpoint rejects requests rather than only hiding the form. Re-open it under **Dashboard → Settings** when you are ready.

**Why is my storage quota showing 1 TB?**
Cloudreve's default group quota is independent of the volume you have. Set it at or below the real disk size under **Dashboard → Groups**, so users hit a quota error rather than a full disk.
</section>

## Similar templates

- [Garage S3 Storage](https://railway.com/deploy/garage-s3-storage) — Ultra-light S3 server: fast, open-source, plug-and-play.
- [Redis](https://railway.com/deploy/redis-1) — Self Host Latest Redis with Railway
- [EasyImg](https://railway.com/deploy/easyimg) — Simple self-hostable Nuxt.js personal image hosting system.

Open this page in a browser: https://railway.com/deploy/cloudreve-drive