Deploy and Host GTM Server Tagging on Railway

Google Tag Manager Server‑Side Tagging runs your tags on a lightweight backend container instead of the browser. This speeds up pages, reduces data leakage, and turns every hit into a first‑party request from your own tracking sub‑domain.

About Hosting GTM Server Tagging

A server container is built from Google’s official GTM image and listens on port 8080. Railway builds the image, assigns resources, and issues an SSL certificate for any custom domain you attach. Create a dedicated tracking sub‑domain such as t.yourdomain.com, point the DNS record to the host Railway provides, wait for the certificate, then paste the full address into Admin → Container Settings → Tagging Server URL inside GTM. Because requests now originate from the same site, ad‑blockers overlook them and browsers treat the cookies more leniently.

Common Use Cases

• Proxy GA4, Google Ads, or Meta hits through your tracking sub‑domain to bypass most ad‑blockers.
• Extend cookie life on privacy‑focused browsers that restrict client‑side scripts.
• Transform or hash personal data in the server before forwarding to vendors for stricter compliance.

Dependencies for GTM Server Tagging Hosting

• Railway project that supports custom domains and HTTPS.
• Dockerfile that pulls the official GTM server image and exposes the $PORT environment variable.
• DNS record pointing t.yourdomain.com to the Railway host.
• GTM server container created in Tag Manager with its container ID.

Deployment Dependencies

Consult Google’s manual setup guide, Railway’s custom‑domain documentation, and community tutorials for deeper dives.

Implementation Details

# Minimal Railway‑ready image
FROM gcr.io/cloud-tagging-10302018/gtm-cloud-image:stable
ENV PORT=${PORT:-8080}
EXPOSE $PORT
HEALTHCHECK CMD curl -f http://localhost:$PORT/healthz || exit 1

Why Deploy GTM Server Tagging 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 GTM Server Tagging 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.