Deploy and Host Instatic CMS with Postgres on Railway

Instatic is a self-hosted CMS with a built-in visual editor, clean static publishing, media management, and a plugin system. This template deploys Instatic on Railway with a managed Postgres database and persistent storage for uploads, fonts, plugins, and published pages.

About Hosting Instatic CMS with Postgres

This template provisions an Instatic web service, a Railway Postgres database, and a persistent app volume. Postgres stores CMS content, users, sessions, settings, and structured data, while the attached volume stores uploaded media, fonts, plugin packages, and published static artefacts. The app runs from the official Docker image, applies database migrations automatically on boot, and uses Railway-managed environment variables for the database connection, public networking, storage paths, and secret generation.

Why Deploy

Use this template when you want a production-ready Instatic install with a managed database from day one. The Postgres version is a strong fit for sites with multiple admins, larger content collections, better database backup options, or a future path toward more advanced hosting setups. You still get the simplicity of a one-click Railway deployment while keeping your CMS fully self-hosted.

Dependencies for Instatic CMS with Postgres

Deployment Dependencies

• Instatic web service from the published Docker image
• Railway Postgres database
• Persistent app volume mounted at /app/storage
• Generated INSTATIC_SECRET_KEY for encrypted API keys and MFA secrets
• Trusted Railway proxy headers for secure admin setup and login

Common Use Cases

• Self-hosted CMS sites with managed Postgres
• Teams with several admin users
• Content-heavy websites that need reliable database backups
• Visual page editing with clean, framework-free published HTML
• Railway-hosted sites with persistent media, plugins, and published pages

After Deploy

Open the generated Railway domain and complete the Instatic setup flow to create your first admin user. Keep the attached volume, Postgres database, and generated secret key intact across redeploys. If the secret key is rotated or lost, stored AI provider credentials and TOTP MFA enrollments must be recreated.