Deploy and Host Focalboard on Railway

Deploy Focalboard on Railway to get a self-hosted, open-source project management tool with Kanban boards, table views, gallery layouts, and calendar views. Self-host Focalboard as an alternative to Trello, Notion, and Asana — with full control over your data and zero subscription fees.

This Railway template deploys Focalboard with a PostgreSQL database for production-grade persistence. The template pre-configures the database connection, persistent storage for file uploads, and a public domain with HTTPS — ready to use in under two minutes.

Getting Started with Focalboard on Railway

After deployment completes, open your Focalboard URL (e.g. https://focalboard-production-xxxx.up.railway.app). You'll see the Focalboard login page. Click Sign up to create your first account — the first registered user becomes the admin. Once logged in, create a new board by clicking the + button in the sidebar. Choose from built-in templates like Project Tasks, Meeting Notes, Personal Goals, or Content Calendar — or start with an empty board. Add cards, assign properties, switch between Kanban, Table, Gallery, and Calendar views to organize your work.

About Hosting Focalboard

Focalboard is an open-source, multilingual project management tool built by Mattermost. It provides a clean, focused interface for organizing work across individuals and teams — without the feature bloat of enterprise platforms.

Key features of self-hosted Focalboard:

• Multiple views — Kanban boards, tables, galleries, and calendars from the same data
• Custom properties — add dates, dropdowns, checkboxes, URLs, and more to any card
• Filters and sorting — slice boards by any property combination
• Board templates — built-in templates for common workflows (project tasks, roadmaps, sprint planning)
• Multi-user collaboration — share boards with team members, set permissions per board
• File attachments — attach files directly to cards, stored on your own infrastructure
• Multilingual — supports 20+ languages out of the box

Focalboard uses a Go backend with a React/TypeScript frontend. This template connects it to PostgreSQL for reliable, production-grade data storage instead of the default SQLite.

Why Deploy Focalboard on Railway

• One-click deploy with PostgreSQL pre-configured
• Persistent volume for file uploads and attachments
• HTTPS enabled by default with Railway's edge proxy
• No vendor lock-in — export boards as CSV or archive
• Zero licensing cost — 100% open source under MIT/AGPL

Common Use Cases for Self-Hosted Focalboard

• Sprint planning and task tracking — replace Trello or Jira for small-to-medium engineering teams
• Personal productivity — manage goals, habits, and to-do lists with Kanban and calendar views
• Content calendars — track blog posts, social media, and marketing campaigns across team members
• Project roadmaps — visualize milestones and deliverables in table or gallery view

Dependencies for Focalboard on Railway

This template deploys two services:

• Focalboard — mattermost/focalboard — the project management application (Go + React)
• Postgres — ghcr.io/railwayapp-templates/postgres-ssl:18 — Railway-managed PostgreSQL database

Environment Variables Reference for Focalboard

Deployment Dependencies

• Runtime: Go 1.18+ / Node.js 16+ (pre-built in Docker image)
• Docker Hub: mattermost/focalboard
• GitHub: mattermost-community/focalboard
• Docs: focalboard.com

Hardware Requirements for Self-Hosting Focalboard

Focalboard is lightweight — the Go binary and React frontend use minimal resources. Storage grows primarily with file attachments.

Self-Hosting Focalboard with Docker

Run Focalboard locally with Docker and PostgreSQL:

docker network create focalboard-net

docker run -d --name focalboard-db \
  --network focalboard-net \
  -e POSTGRES_DB=focalboard \
  -e POSTGRES_USER=focalboard \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=secretpassword \
  -v pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data \
  postgres:16

docker run -d --name focalboard \
  --network focalboard-net \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -v fbdata:/opt/focalboard/data \
  mattermost/focalboard

For production, use a docker-compose.yml with PostgreSQL configuration:

version: "3.8"
services:
  focalboard:
    image: mattermost/focalboard
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    volumes:
      - fbdata:/opt/focalboard/data
      - ./config.json:/opt/focalboard/config.json
    depends_on:
      - db
  db:
    image: postgres:16
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: focalboard
      POSTGRES_USER: focalboard
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: secretpassword
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
volumes:
  fbdata:
  pgdata:

Is Focalboard Free to Self-Host?

Focalboard is 100% free and open source, licensed under MIT (Personal Edition) and AGPL (Team/Enterprise features integrated into Mattermost). There are no subscription fees, per-user charges, or premium tiers. The only cost when deploying on Railway is the infrastructure usage — typically under $5/month for small teams. The project was originally built by Mattermost and is now maintained by the open-source community.

Focalboard vs Trello for Self-Hosted Project Management

Focalboard wins on data ownership, custom properties, and multiple views out of the box. Trello wins on mobile support, integrations ecosystem, and automation.

FAQ

What is Focalboard and why should you self-host it? Focalboard is an open-source project management tool by Mattermost that provides Kanban, table, gallery, and calendar views. Self-hosting gives you full data ownership, no per-user fees, and the ability to run it on your own infrastructure without vendor lock-in.

What does this Railway template deploy for Focalboard? This template deploys two services: the Focalboard application server (mattermost/focalboard) and a PostgreSQL database. It pre-configures the database connection, persistent storage volume, and a public HTTPS domain.

Why does the Focalboard Railway template include PostgreSQL? Focalboard defaults to SQLite for single-user setups, but SQLite doesn't handle concurrent writes well. PostgreSQL provides reliable multi-user access, proper ACID transactions, and better performance for teams — essential for a production deployment.

How do I enable or disable public board sharing in self-hosted Focalboard? Board sharing is controlled by the enablePublicSharedBoards setting in config.json. This Railway template sets it to false by default for security. To enable it, update the startCommand to set enablePublicSharedBoards to true and redeploy.

Is Focalboard still maintained and safe to deploy? Mattermost stopped actively maintaining Focalboard in September 2023, but the Docker image (mattermost/focalboard) still works and the codebase is stable. The community continues to maintain forks. For production use, pin to a specific image tag (e.g. mattermost/focalboard:7.10.0) rather than latest.

Can I migrate my Trello boards to self-hosted Focalboard? Yes — Focalboard supports importing from Trello, Asana, and Notion. Use the import feature in the sidebar menu to upload a Trello JSON export and convert your boards.