Name: Deploy Limelit Open AI Visibility
Availability: InStock
Author: onepush

Deploy and Host self hosted Limelit Open (AI Visibility) on Railway

Limelit Open is an open-source AI visibility tracker: one Go binary with SQLite, shipped on Railway with a login in front of the dashboard.

About Hosting Limelit Open open-source software on Railway (self hosted Limelit Open template)

Limelit Open is an open-source AI visibility tracker released under Apache-2.0.

Why Deploy Limelit Open, the open-source AI visibility tracker on Railway (Railway Free Trial)

Limelit Cloud is the managed counterpart, but Limelit Open is Apache-2.0 and keeps prompts, competitors and every stored answer in a SQLite file on infrastructure you control, with your own provider keys.

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 Limelit Open 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.

Railway vs Other Hosting Providers and VPS for Limelit Open self hosting

Limelit Open is one Go binary with a SQLite file, so the choice is how much server work you want to own.

Provider	What You Get with Railway	What You Get with the Other Provider
DigitalOcean	A deployed instance with generated login secrets, a persistent volume on /data, a public domain and a health check.	A virtual machine you configure yourself, including the proxy, TLS, firewall and process supervision.
AWS	The same ready-made service with usage-based billing and no networking setup to start.	Wide control over networking, storage and compute, but more configuration first.
Hetzner	A managed deployment with the dashboard login already in place and no server to keep patched.	Low-cost servers where you handle every layer, from the OS up to the authenticated front end.

Self-hosting on any of these providers is also sound if you want full host control.

Common Use Cases for hosted Limelit Open

Measuring brand mentions over time: Run the starter prompt pack daily and track how often ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity name your brand, with each figure showing its answer count.
Comparing citation share against tracked competitors: Add rivals in the setup wizard and see which domains engines cite most, revealing where your site loses sources.
Auditing stored answers behind metrics: Open any answer to read its full text, searches and cited sources before quoting a number.
On-demand or scheduled prompt evaluations: Press Run after changing a prompt, or schedule daily runs within your configured daily ceiling.
Read access for agents over authenticated MCP: Generate a bearer token in Settings so Claude or another MCP client can query your data; no token means no access.

Dependencies for Limelit Open Docker hosted on Railway

This independent packaging template runs the onepush-dev image, which bundles the unchanged Limelit binary with a Caddy front end that adds the login the upstream dashboard lacks.

Deployment Dependencies for Managed Limelit Open Service (one Go application and a Caddy basic-auth front end in the same service, SQLite on /data)

The template creates one service built from ghcr.io/onepush-dev/limelit-open:0.1.0-rc.14.

Variable	Purpose
LIMELIT_PASSWORD	Generated 24 character secret; the basic-auth password for the username admin
LIMELIT_SECRET	Generated secret; encrypts provider keys saved in the dashboard; keep it unchanged

Optional LIMELIT_SCHEDULE and LIMELIT_RUNS_PER_DAY are not template inputs, so add them later in Variables if you want automatic runs.

Implementation Details for Limelit Open (Using onepush-dev 0.1.0-rc.14 with the unchanged upstream binary and added dashboard protection)

The startup script sets /data to the limelit user, hashes LIMELIT_PASSWORD with Caddy, and starts both processes.

How does Limelit Open compare against other tools

Limelit Open vs Limelit Cloud (Limelit Cloud Alternative)

Where it runs: Open runs on your own Railway service with a SQLite file on the volume. Limelit Cloud is the managed counterpart and keeps that data on the vendor side.
Feature set: Open covers visibility, share of voice, citation analysis, the prompt grid and MCP access. Hosted-only features such as sentiment and portfolios are not in this template.
Keys: You bring your own provider keys here. The free Limelit Cloud allowance lets you try the product first.

Limelit Open vs Peec AI (Peec AI Alternative)

Hosting model: Peec AI is hosted. Open is a self-hosted tracker you deploy and maintain on Railway.
Auditability: Mention detection is a text search over stored answers, so you can reproduce any number from its rows.
Honest gap: Peec AI is simpler if you want no setup at all. This template needs a deploy, a setup wizard and a key from you.

Limelit Open vs Ahrefs Brand Radar (Ahrefs Brand Radar Alternative)

Ownership: Brand Radar is a hosted product bundled with Ahrefs. Open keeps your data in a SQLite file you control.
Provider coverage: Open implements six of eleven providers and tracks all seven engines, using scrapers where an engine has no API. Check the provider list for the engines you need.
Honest gap: Brand Radar sits inside a broader SEO suite. Open does not do link or keyword research.

Limelit Open with Docker vs Limelit Open on Railway (Docker Alternative)

Setup: With Docker you manage the host, volume and proxy yourself; the Railway template provisions the service, volume, domain and secrets.
Login: Upstream's dashboard has no login, so this template adds Caddy basic auth in front of it. Caddy protects the dashboard, /mcp uses its own bearer auth, and /healthz is intentionally public. A plain Docker run on a public host needs that protection added by you.
Upgrades: Redeploying alone does not change a pinned image. Review the release notes, change the service image tag deliberately, back up the database, then redeploy. Keep LIMELIT_SECRET unchanged so saved keys still decrypt. This upgrade path was not tested.

How to use Limelit Open on Railway?

Open your Railway domain for the Limelit Open service. Your browser will ask for a username and password.
Sign in with the username admin and the password shown as LIMELIT_PASSWORD in the service Variables tab.
Follow the setup wizard: enter your domain, your competitors, and accept the starter prompt pack.
Add a Limelit free-allowance key from the wizard, or paste your own supported provider key. Each tracked prompt uses API calls on that account.
Press Run on the Overview page to collect your first answers.
Optionally set LIMELIT_SCHEDULE to daily in Variables so runs happen automatically.
In Settings, create an MCP bearer token for connecting remote clients to the /mcp endpoint.

Check that the service is healthy with this command, which tests health only and does not check your data:

curl https://your-domain/healthz

How to self host Limelit Open on other VPS Services (Limelit Open self hosting guide)

Clone the Repository

Clone the upstream project onto your server. It is Apache-2.0 licensed.

git clone https://github.com/limelit-co/open.git limelit-open
cd limelit-open

Install Dependencies

The simplest route is the upstream Docker image, so install Docker first.

docker pull ghcr.io/limelit-co/open

Configure Environment Variables

Settings come from the environment, and the database lives in the /data volume.

export LIMELIT_SECRET="$(openssl rand -hex 32)"

Start the Limelit Open Application

Run the container with the /data volume mounted, bound to localhost.

docker run -d -p 127.0.0.1:1515:1515 -v limelit:/data \
  -e LIMELIT_SECRET \
  ghcr.io/limelit-co/open

Railway handles the reverse proxy, TLS and the volume, and this template adds the login protection in its own image. On other VPS hosts, put your own authenticated TLS reverse proxy in front, because the upstream dashboard has no login.

Official Pricing of Limelit Open (Limelit Open pricing)

Limelit Open is Apache-2.0 open-source software and free to self-host, with no license fee and no per-seat charge.

Limelit Open hosted vs self hosted comparison (Pricing, features, costs, and more)

Limelit Cloud is the managed version, suited to teams who want the vendor to run infrastructure.

Monthly cost of self hosting Limelit Open on Railway

Railway bills on usage, so cost depends on RAM and CPU use, the SQLite volume size, and any other attached services.

System Requirements for Hosting Limelit Open on a VPS

A small VPS suffices for one property, with room for the Go binary and a growing SQLite file on persistent storage.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Where is the login password?

Are model calls free?

Not entirely. Provider keys you bring are billed by that provider, and a free Limelit Cloud account gives a limited monthly allowance.

Why do API answers differ from consumer ChatGPT?

An API call with web search enabled is a different surface from the consumer product, so wording and cited sources can vary.

Why keep LIMELIT_SECRET?

LIMELIT_SECRET encrypts the provider credentials you paste into the dashboard.

Why does MCP refuse requests until a token exists?

An open MCP endpoint would let anyone who can reach the port read every stored answer.

Is this a stable release?

No. Expect changes before a stable release and test it before relying on it for important measurements.