---
title: "Deploy Discourse"
description: "Have meaningful conversations and collaborate anytime, anywhere"
category: "Other"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/discourse
---

# Deploy Discourse

Have meaningful conversations and collaborate anytime, anywhere

**[Deploy Discourse on Railway](https://railway.com/template/discourse)**

- **Creator:** Six
- **Category:** Other
- **Total deploys:** 146

## Template content

### Discourse https://discourse.org/favicon.ico

- **Image:** discourse/discourse:2026.7.1
- **Start command:** `/bin/sh -c "rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default && /sbin/boot"`
- **Health check:** /srv/status
- **Public domain:** Yes

### Mock Email https://devicons.railway.app/maildev

- **Image:** maildev/maildev:3.0.0-rc.1
- **Health check:** /api/healthz
- **Public domain:** Yes

### Redis https://cdn.sanity.io/images/sy1jschh/production/0ce0bfdcfbdbf69662b1116671f97c2dd788b655-157x157.svg

- **Image:** redis:8.2.1
- **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://devicons.railway.app/i/postgresql.svg

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

## Documentation

# Deploy and Host Discourse on Railway

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform designed for modern web communities. It provides a rich set of features including real-time discussions, user notifications, and a powerful API, making it an ideal choice for building engaging online forums and communities.

## About Hosting Discourse

Hosting Discourse involves setting up a server environment utilizing a bash script to create the relevant Docker configurations. Discourse typically requires a complex setup and configuration to get up and running. You'll need to setup web certificates to serve your requests over HTTPS, and secure your server properly.

## Common Use Cases

- Community forums
- Customer support
- Knowledge bases

## Dependencies for Discourse Hosting

- PostgreSQL
- Redis

### Deployment Dependencies

- Discourse

### Implementation Details

Register your admin accounts on the Discourse service domain based on the values of `DISCOURSE_DEVELOPER_EMAILS` that you configured. A mock SMTP server is provided for testing purposes; this must be replaced when releasing the forum to the public. The login details for the mock SMTP server are under the `MAILDEV_WEB_USER` and `MAILDEV_WEB_PASS` variables.

## Why Deploy Discourse 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 Discourse 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.


## Similar templates

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- [Foundry Virtual Tabletop](https://railway.com/deploy/X5tR6G) — A Self-Hosted & Modern Roleplaying Platform
- [Letta Code Remote](https://railway.com/deploy/letta-code-remote) — Run a Letta Code agent 24/7. No inbound ports, just deploy.

Open this page in a browser: https://railway.com/deploy/discourse
