---
title: "Deploy Grafana | Open-Source Observability Platform"
description: "Self Host Grafana: Metrics, logs, traces from 100+ data sources"
category: "Observability"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/grafana-monitoring-dashboard
---

# Deploy Grafana | Open-Source Observability Platform

Self Host Grafana: Metrics, logs, traces from 100+ data sources

**[Deploy Grafana | Open-Source Observability Platform on Railway](https://railway.com/template/grafana-monitoring-dashboard)**

- **Creator:** Heimdall
- **Category:** Observability
- **Total deploys:** 9

## Template content

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

- **Image:** grafana/grafana:latest
- **Public domain:** Yes

## Documentation

![Grafana logo](https://miro.medium.com/1*3adAfc9Q24YhBeXkWylYaA.png)

# Deploy and Host Grafana on Railway

Deploy Grafana on Railway to get a self-hosted observability and data visualization platform running in minutes. 

Grafana connects to over 100 data sources — Prometheus, PostgreSQL, InfluxDB, Elasticsearch, CloudWatch, and more — turning raw metrics, logs, and traces into interactive dashboards and alerts. 

Self-host Grafana on Railway with persistent storage and automatic HTTPS, no infrastructure management required. This Railway template deploys Grafana OSS (v13.0.0) with a pre-configured volume for SQLite persistence, admin credentials, and a public domain with TLS termination.

## Getting Started with Grafana on Railway

After deployment completes, visit your Grafana URL and log in with the admin credentials configured in your Railway environment variables (`admin` / the `GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_PASSWORD` value from the Railway dashboard). On first login, Grafana prompts you to change the default password — do so immediately.

Your first action should be adding a data source. Navigate to **Connections > Data Sources > Add data source** and select your backend (Prometheus, PostgreSQL, InfluxDB, etc.). If the data source is running on Railway's private network, use the internal domain (e.g., `http://prometheus.railway.internal:9090`). Once connected, import a community dashboard from [grafana.com/dashboards](https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards/) or build your own.

![Grafana dashboard screenshot](https://res.cloudinary.com/asset-cloudinary/image/upload/v1776352027/grafana_dashboard_cs7bti.png)

## About Hosting Grafana

Grafana is the open-source standard for observability visualization. Created by Grafana Labs and backed by 65,000+ GitHub stars, it provides a unified interface for querying and visualizing data from any source.

- **Multi-source dashboards** — query Prometheus, Loki, Tempo, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Elasticsearch, InfluxDB, CloudWatch, and 100+ plugins from a single pane
- **Alerting engine** — define alert rules with multi-condition evaluation, route notifications to Slack, PagerDuty, email, webhooks, and more
- **Explore mode** — ad-hoc query interface for logs, metrics, and traces without building dashboards first
- **Provisioning** — define dashboards, data sources, and alert rules as code via YAML files or the HTTP API
- **RBAC and teams** — role-based access control with organization, team, and folder-level permissions
- **Plugin ecosystem** — 200+ community and enterprise plugins for panels, data sources, and apps

## Why Deploy Grafana on Railway

Railway eliminates the operational overhead of running Grafana in production:

- One-click deploy with persistent SQLite storage — no external database needed
- Automatic HTTPS and public domain with Railway's TLS-terminating proxy
- Volume-backed data persistence across redeploys and restarts
- Scale vertically by adjusting Railway resource limits — no Kubernetes required
- Private networking for connecting to other Railway services (Prometheus, PostgreSQL, InfluxDB)

## Common Use Cases for Self-Hosted Grafana

- **Infrastructure monitoring** — CPU, memory, disk, and network dashboards for servers and containers using Prometheus or node_exporter
- **Kubernetes observability** — cluster health, pod resource usage, and deployment rollout tracking
- **Application performance monitoring** — request latency, error rates, and throughput from application metrics
- **Business analytics** — real-time revenue, user signups, and conversion funnels from PostgreSQL or MySQL queries

## Dependencies for Grafana on Railway

- **Grafana** — `grafana/grafana:latest` (v13.0.0) — the core visualization platform

No external database or cache is required. Grafana uses an embedded SQLite database stored in the `/var/lib/grafana` volume. For high-availability setups, you can optionally add Railway-managed PostgreSQL by setting `GF_DATABASE_TYPE=postgres`.

### Environment Variables Reference for Grafana on Railway

| Variable | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_USER` | `admin` | Admin username |
| `GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_PASSWORD` | Static generated | Admin login password |
| `GF_SERVER_ROOT_URL` | `https://${{RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}` | Public URL for links and redirects |
| `GF_SERVER_PROTOCOL` | `http` | Railway terminates TLS at edge |
| `GF_USERS_ALLOW_SIGN_UP` | `false` | Disable public registration |
| `PORT` | `3000` | Railway port routing |
| `RAILWAY_RUN_UID` | `0` | Volume write permissions |

### Deployment Dependencies

- **Runtime:** Docker (Alpine Linux base image)
- **Docker Hub:** [grafana/grafana](https://hub.docker.com/r/grafana/grafana)
- **GitHub:** [grafana/grafana](https://github.com/grafana/grafana) (65k+ stars)
- **Docs:** [grafana.com/docs](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/)

## Hardware Requirements for Self-Hosting Grafana

| Resource | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 1 vCPU | 2 vCPU |
| RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB – 1 GB |
| Storage | 1 GB | 5 GB+ (depends on dashboard count and plugin installs) |
| Runtime | Docker 20+ or bare metal | Docker with persistent volume |

Grafana is lightweight — the v13.0.0 container idles at ~100 MB RAM with SQLite. Memory usage scales with concurrent users, dashboard complexity, and number of active data source queries.

## Self-Hosting Grafana with Docker

Run Grafana locally with Docker in one command:

```
docker run -d \
  --name grafana \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -v grafana-data:/var/lib/grafana \
  -e GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_PASSWORD=changeme \
  grafana/grafana:latest
```

For a production setup with PostgreSQL backend and docker-compose:

```
version: "3.8"
services:
  grafana:
    image: grafana/grafana:latest
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - grafana-data:/var/lib/grafana
    environment:
      GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_PASSWORD: "${ADMIN_PASSWORD}"
      GF_DATABASE_TYPE: postgres
      GF_DATABASE_HOST: postgres:5432
      GF_DATABASE_NAME: grafana
      GF_DATABASE_USER: grafana
      GF_DATABASE_PASSWORD: "${DB_PASSWORD}"
      GF_USERS_ALLOW_SIGN_UP: "false"
    depends_on:
      - postgres

  postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    volumes:
      - pg-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: grafana
      POSTGRES_USER: grafana
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: "${DB_PASSWORD}"

volumes:
  grafana-data:
  pg-data:
```

## How Much Does Grafana Cost to Self-Host?

Grafana OSS is completely free and open-source under the AGPL-3.0 license. There are no license fees, user limits, or feature gates on the self-hosted version. Grafana Cloud offers a free tier (10k metrics, 50 GB logs, 3 users) and paid plans starting at $19/month for teams needing managed hosting. On Railway, your only cost is infrastructure — typically $5–10/month for a single Grafana instance with moderate usage.

## Grafana vs Datadog vs Kibana

| Feature | Grafana | Datadog | Kibana |
|---|---|---|---|
| License | AGPL-3.0 (free) | Proprietary SaaS | Elastic License 2.0 |
| Data sources | 100+ (any backend) | Datadog Agent only | Elasticsearch only |
| Self-host | Yes (Docker, K8s, bare metal) | No (SaaS only) | Yes (with Elastic Stack) |
| Cost | Free + infra | $15/host/mo + usage | Free + Elastic infra |
| Alerting | Built-in, multi-channel | Built-in, enterprise | Watcher (paid feature) |
| Best for | Multi-source visualization | Full-stack SaaS monitoring | Log analysis & search |

Grafana's key advantage is data source flexibility — it can visualize data from any backend without vendor lock-in. Datadog excels in turnkey enterprise monitoring but costs scale aggressively. Kibana is unmatched for Elasticsearch log analysis but limited to the Elastic ecosystem.

## FAQ

**What is Grafana and why self-host it?**
Grafana is an open-source observability platform for creating dashboards, alerts, and data visualizations from any data source. Self-hosting gives you full control over your data, no per-user pricing, unlimited dashboards, and the ability to connect to data sources on your private network.

**What does this Railway template deploy for Grafana?**
This template deploys a single Grafana OSS v13.0.0 container with a persistent volume for SQLite storage, admin authentication configured, public sign-up disabled, and automatic HTTPS via Railway's domain system.

**Why does Grafana on Railway use SQLite instead of PostgreSQL?**
SQLite is Grafana's default database and is perfectly suitable for single-instance deployments. It stores all dashboard definitions, user accounts, alert rules, and settings in a single file at `/var/lib/grafana/grafana.db`, persisted across redeploys via the Railway volume. PostgreSQL is optional and only needed for high-availability multi-instance setups.

**How do I connect Prometheus to self-hosted Grafana on Railway?**
Deploy Prometheus as a separate Railway service, then in Grafana go to **Connections > Data Sources > Add Prometheus**. Use the Railway private domain (e.g., `http://prometheus.railway.internal:9090`) as the URL. No authentication is needed for internal Railway networking.

**Can I install Grafana plugins on Railway?**
Yes. Set the `GF_PLUGINS_PREINSTALL` environment variable with a comma-separated list of plugin IDs (e.g., `GF_PLUGINS_PREINSTALL=grafana-clock-panel,grafana-piechart-panel`). Plugins are installed on container startup and persisted in the `/var/lib/grafana/plugins` directory within the volume.

**How do I enable anonymous access for public dashboards in Grafana?**
Set `GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ENABLED=true` and `GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ORG_ROLE=Viewer` in your Railway environment variables. This allows unauthenticated users to view dashboards without logging in. For more granular control, use Grafana's public dashboard sharing feature instead.


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