Deploy and Host Managed Gitness Service with one click on Railway

Gitness is an open-source, self-hosted development platform that simplifies source code management, continuous integration (CI), and collaborative development workflows. It’s built by Harness, designed to empower developers to code, build, and deploy seamlessly. Gitness integrates version control, CI/CD pipelines, and code reviews - all in one unified interface.

About Hosting Gitness on Railway (Self Hosting Gitness on Railway)

Self-hosting Gitness on Railway lets you gain full control over your software development workflow without relying on any third-party service.

Why Gitness?

Gitness is designed for teams that value speed, transparency, and flexibility. It removes vendor lock-in, offers complete source code visibility, and gives developers the power to define their workflows.

Why use Railway for Gitness?

Because Railway offers the easiest and fastest way to deploy open-source tools. With one click, you can launch your managed Gitness environment, fully configured and ready to use.

Why Deploy Managed Gitness Service on Railway

Deploying a managed Gitness service on Railway gives you the best of both worlds - open-source flexibility and managed infrastructure convenience.

It means:

No server setup headaches. Railway automates deployment, scaling, and updates.
Always-on CI/CD. Run automated pipelines and track builds seamlessly.
Full Git control. Manage your codebase privately with secure access.
Scalable hosting. Railway automatically adjusts resources based on demand.

Railway vs DigitalOcean:

On DigitalOcean, you’ll need to set up your VPS, configure Docker or Kubernetes, and manually manage your database and CI runners.

With Railway, you can deploy Gitness in seconds using pre-configured templates - no manual setup required. You also get automatic backups and scalability built-in.

Railway vs Linode:

Linode requires manual server maintenance, software patching, and network setup for CI/CD pipelines.

Railway, on the other hand, offers a fully managed container system with zero downtime updates, making Gitness deployment smooth and effortless.

Railway vs Vultr:

Hosting Gitness on Vultr means managing infrastructure details like Nginx setup, SSL certificates, and environment configurations.

With Railway, all of that is automated. You can simply define environment variables, and Railway handles SSL, scaling, and performance optimizations for your Gitness instance.

Railway vs AWS Lightsail:

AWS Lightsail provides virtual servers but still requires manual pipeline configuration and storage management.

In contrast, Railway abstracts away the infrastructure complexity - letting you launch a production-ready Gitness deployment instantly, with automatic environment management.

Railway vs Hetzner:

While Hetzner offers affordable bare-metal performance, it expects manual configuration of every service.

Railway offers managed infrastructure, so you can host Gitness without worrying about maintenance, updates, or uptime - all in a few clicks.

Common Use Cases for Gitness

Here are five common scenarios where Gitness shines:

Code Hosting & Version Control: Manage private or public Git repositories directly from your self-hosted instance.
Continuous Integration (CI): Run automated pipelines that build, test, and deploy code whenever changes are pushed.
Code Reviews & Collaboration: Simplify collaboration with pull requests, inline comments, and approvals.
Open Source Projects: Manage community contributions and CI workflows on your infrastructure.
Enterprise DevOps: Integrate CI/CD with enterprise workflows for complete automation and compliance.

Dependencies for Hosting Gitness on Railway

To host Gitness successfully, you’ll need the following:

PostgreSQL database – Stores metadata and configuration details.
Docker runtime – Gitness runs as a containerized service.
Railway environment variables – For secure configuration.

Deployment Dependencies for Managed Gitness Service

When deploying Gitness on Railway, these components are provisioned automatically:

PostgreSQL database (via Railway’s managed databases)
Pre-configured container runtime
Secure networking and HTTPS
CI runner support for pipelines

Implementation Details

To deploy Gitness, set up the following environment variables:

GITNESS_DATABASE_HOST
GITNESS_DATABASE_USERNAME
GITNESS_DATABASE_PASSWORD
GITNESS_DATABASE_NAME

These connect your Railway PostgreSQL instance with your Gitness service securely.

Gitness vs Other Development Platforms

Let’s see how Gitness compares with popular alternatives:

Gitness vs GitHub

Gitness is fully open-source and self-hosted, giving you full control of your data.
GitHub is cloud-based and proprietary, with limited customization for private infrastructure.
Ideal for privacy-focused developers, Gitness provides CI/CD built-in, while GitHub requires separate Actions setup.

Gitness vs GitLab

GitLab offers powerful features but can be heavy and resource-intensive.
Gitness provides a lightweight alternative with faster setup and less resource usage.
Both are open-source, but Gitness emphasizes simplicity and CI/CD performance.

Gitness vs Bitbucket

Bitbucket is Atlassian’s proprietary platform, tied closely to Jira and Confluence.
Gitness offers open-source freedom and direct CI/CD integration without licensing fees.

Gitness vs SourceHut

SourceHut is minimal and text-based.
Gitness brings a modern UI, visual pipelines, and integrated repository management.

Gitness vs Gitea

Both are open-source.
Gitea focuses on Git hosting; Gitness integrates CI/CD pipelines natively for a complete DevOps workflow.

How to Use Gitness

Using Gitness is simple:

Deploy Gitness on Railway using the one-click deploy button.
Login to your new instance through the provided Railway URL.
Create a repository for your project.
Push your code using standard Git commands.
Set up pipelines using the .gitness.yaml configuration file to automate builds and tests.
Collaborate through pull requests, code reviews, and merge approvals.

How to Self Host Gitness on Other VPS

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/harness/gitness.git

2. Install Dependencies

Ensure Docker and PostgreSQL are installed on your VPS.

3. Configure Environment Variables

Set GITNESS_DATABASE_* credentials to connect with your database.

4. Start Gitness

docker-compose up -d

5. Access the Dashboard

Open your server IP or domain in a browser, and you’ll see the Gitness UI.

But if you prefer zero manual setup, you can do it all in one click on Railway - the easiest way to host Gitness.

Deploy Now!

Features of Gitness

Open Source Freedom – 100% open and community-driven.
Built-in CI/CD – Automate builds, tests, and deployments.
Code Reviews – Collaborate efficiently with built-in review tools.
Pipeline as Code – Define pipelines in YAML format.
Lightweight & Fast – Optimized for speed and minimal resource use.
API First Design – Integrate easily with other tools.
Secure & Scalable – Container-based, isolated execution environments.

Official Pricing of Gitness

Gitness is completely free and open-source for all users. There are no license fees or paid tiers.

However, hosting Gitness on platforms like Railway involves basic infrastructure costs for the container runtime and database.

Estimated Monthly Cost for Hosting on Railway

Base app instance: $5–$10/month
Managed PostgreSQL: $3–$5/month
Optional storage: $1–$3/month (depending on usage)

This is far more affordable compared to paid CI/CD and version control tools.

FAQs

What is Gitness?

Gitness is an open-source development platform that combines Git-based source control, CI/CD pipelines, and code collaboration into one unified solution.

How do I self-host Gitness?

You can self-host Gitness using Docker or deploy it instantly using Railway’s one-click deployment system.

What are Gitness’s key features?

It offers repository management, built-in CI/CD, YAML-based pipelines, detailed code reviews without any compromise over the speed.

How do I deploy Gitness on Railway?

Just click the Deploy Now button, configure your PostgreSQL database, and Railway will handle the rest automatically.

What are the dependencies for Gitness hosting?

You’ll need PostgreSQL for database storage and Docker for containerized execution.

How much does it cost to self host Gitness on Railway?

Hosting costs are typically between $5–$10/month, depending on resources and storage.

Can I use Gitness for enterprise CI/CD?

Yes! Gitness supports scalable, containerized CI/CD pipelines suitable for both startups and enterprises.

How does Gitness compare to GitHub?

Unlike GitHub, Gitness is fully open-source and self-hosted, offering complete control over repositories and build pipelines.

Where can I find Gitness’s source code?

You can find it on the official Gitness GitHub repository.

Is Gitness free to use?

Yes, it’s 100% open-source and free for everyone - no licenses, no usage limits.