How do I deploy Kafka + Kafka UI (KRaft) on Railway?

You can deploy Kafka + Kafka UI (KRaft) on Railway by clicking the "Deploy Now" button on this page. Railway will automatically set up all the necessary services and configurations for you.

What are the system requirements?

Railway handles all the infrastructure requirements. You only need a web browser to deploy and manage your application.

Is this template free to use?

Yes, this template is free to use within your existing Railway account.

Can I customize this template?

Yes, you can fully customize this template. After deployment, you will have full control of what you've deployed in your Railway project.

How do I get support for this template?

You can get support through our community forum: kafka-kafka-ui-k-raft-7e6c4e38, or click "Get template help" for this template for more assistance.

Deploy and Host Kafka + Kafka UI (KRaft) on Railway

Kafka + Kafka UI (KRaft) is a simple Railway template that deploys Apache Kafka in modern ZooKeeper-free KRaft mode together with Kafka UI for browser-based management. It is ideal for development, testing, prototypes, and small internal workloads that need a lightweight event streaming setup with persistent storage and an easy admin interface.

About Hosting Kafka + Kafka UI (KRaft)

This template deploys a single-node Kafka broker running in KRaft mode, plus Kafka UI for managing brokers, topics, and consumers from a web interface. It is designed for teams that want to start quickly on Railway without setting up ZooKeeper or a multi-node Kafka cluster. Persistent storage is included for Kafka data, and the configuration is optimized for internal development and small workloads. This setup is best suited for dev environments, prototypes, small internal queues, async processing pipelines, and event-driven services. It is not intended for high-availability production workloads that require multiple brokers and replication across nodes.

Common Use Cases

Event-driven development and internal microservice communication
Queueing background jobs and async workflows
Learning, testing, and prototyping with Kafka on Railway

Dependencies for Kafka + Kafka UI (KRaft) Hosting

Apache Kafka running in single-node KRaft mode
Kafka UI for browser-based cluster management

Deployment Dependencies

Apache Kafka: https://kafka.apache.org/
Kafka UI: https://github.com/provectus/kafka-ui
Railway Templates: https://docs.railway.com/templates

Implementation Details

This template uses a single Kafka node in combined broker/controller KRaft mode.

Example Kafka configuration used in this template:

KAFKA_NODE_ID="1"
KAFKA_PROCESS_ROLES="broker,controller"
KAFKA_CONTROLLER_LISTENER_NAMES="CONTROLLER"
KAFKA_LISTENER_SECURITY_PROTOCOL_MAP="PLAINTEXT:PLAINTEXT,CONTROLLER:PLAINTEXT"
KAFKA_LISTENERS="PLAINTEXT://0.0.0.0:9092,CONTROLLER://0.0.0.0:9093"
KAFKA_ADVERTISED_LISTENERS="PLAINTEXT://${{cp-kafka.RAILWAY_PRIVATE_DOMAIN}}:9092"
KAFKA_INTER_BROKER_LISTENER_NAME="PLAINTEXT"
KAFKA_CONTROLLER_QUORUM_VOTERS="1@${{cp-kafka.RAILWAY_PRIVATE_DOMAIN}}:9093"
KAFKA_OFFSETS_TOPIC_REPLICATION_FACTOR="1"
KAFKA_LOG_DIRS="/var/lib/kafka/data/kraft-combined-logs"
CLUSTER_ID="MkU3OEVBNTcwNTJENDM2Qk"
RAILWAY_RUN_UID="0"

Kafka UI connects internally using the Kafka private Railway domain and exposes a simple web interface for cluster inspection and topic management.

Why Deploy Kafka + Kafka UI (KRaft) 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 Kafka + Kafka UI (KRaft) 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.