Deploy Kanboard

Deploy and Host Kanboard on Railway

Kanboard is a lightweight, self-hosted Kanban project management platform designed for teams that want a simple and focused way to manage tasks, projects, workflows, and work-in-progress limits.

This Railway template deploys Kanboard using the official Docker image and connects it to Railway PostgreSQL over the private network.

Why Deploy

Deploy Kanboard on Railway to get a self-hosted project management platform without manually configuring servers, reverse proxies, TLS certificates, or database networking.

This template provides:

• One-click deployment on Railway
• Public HTTPS access through a Railway domain
• Managed PostgreSQL for application data
• Private networking between Kanboard and PostgreSQL
• Persistent storage for uploaded files and application data
• Automatic container health monitoring
• A lightweight alternative to larger project management platforms

Kanboard is a good fit for personal task management, software development teams, internal workflows, project planning, and organizations that prefer to keep their project data under their own control.

Dependencies for

This template requires the following Railway services and resources:

• Kanboard application service
• Railway PostgreSQL service
• Railway persistent volume mounted at /var/www/app/data
• Railway private networking between Kanboard and PostgreSQL
• Railway public networking for the Kanboard web interface

No additional Redis service, worker process, object storage provider, or external reverse proxy is required.

About Hosting Kanboard

This template runs Kanboard as a public web application on Railway.

Kanboard serves its web interface through port 80, while Railway handles the public HTTPS endpoint and TLS termination.

Application data is stored in PostgreSQL, while uploaded files and persistent application data are stored on a Railway volume mounted at:

/var/www/app/data

The PostgreSQL service remains private and communicates with Kanboard through Railway's internal network.

Template Architecture

Internet
   │
   ▼
Railway Public Domain
   │
   ▼
Kanboard
Port 80
   │
   ├── Railway Volume
   │   └── /var/www/app/data
   │
   └── Railway Private Network
           │
           ▼
       PostgreSQL

Services

Kanboard

The main Kanboard application uses the official:

kanboard/kanboard:latest

Configuration:

• Public networking: enabled
• HTTP target port: 80
• TCP proxy: not required
• Custom start command: not required
• Persistent volume: /var/www/app/data
• Healthcheck endpoint: /healthcheck.php

Kanboard uses Railway PostgreSQL through a private database connection.

PostgreSQL

This template uses Railway's managed PostgreSQL service.

PostgreSQL stores:

• Projects
• Tasks
• Users
• Comments
• Project configuration
• Application metadata

The PostgreSQL service does not need public networking.

Persistent Storage

Kanboard stores uploaded files and persistent application data outside the PostgreSQL database.

A Railway volume is therefore mounted at:

/var/www/app/data

This keeps files and application data available across redeployments and container restarts.

Important Configuration

The template automatically configures Kanboard to connect to Railway PostgreSQL using Railway reference variables.

The public Railway domain is also configured as the canonical Kanboard application URL.

The container runs with:

RAILWAY_RUN_UID=0

This maintains compatibility with the official Kanboard image, its nginx runtime, port 80, and filesystem requirements.

Plugins

Kanboard supports plugins, but this template keeps the built-in web plugin installer disabled by default.

Railway currently supports one persistent volume per service, and this template prioritizes:

/var/www/app/data

over the separate Kanboard plugins directory.

For production deployments that require persistent third-party plugins, a custom Kanboard image with plugins included during the image build is recommended.

Accessing Kanboard

After deployment finishes:

1. Open the generated Railway public domain.
2. Wait for Kanboard to complete its initial database setup.
3. Sign in to the Kanboard web interface.
4. Change the default administrator credentials immediately.

The default Kanboard credentials are typically:

Username: admin
Password: admin

Do not keep the default credentials on any publicly accessible deployment.

Common Use Cases

• Personal task management
• Software development boards
• Internal team workflows
• Project planning
• Work-in-progress tracking
• Lightweight issue management
• Self-hosted Trello-style boards

Kanboard vs Alternatives

Kanboard is particularly suitable when you want a lightweight Kanban-first system without the operational complexity of a larger project management platform.

Railway Template

Deploying this template creates:

• Kanboard
• PostgreSQL
• Persistent Railway volume
• Private database networking
• Public HTTPS access through Railway

No Redis, worker service, object storage, or additional infrastructure is required.