Deploy Kimai | Open Source Toggl & Harvest Alternative

Deploy and Host Kimai on Railway

Kimai is the #1 open-source time-tracking application — a self-hostable alternative to Toggl, Harvest, Clockify and Hubstaff that lets freelancers, agencies, and teams record timesheets, generate reports, send invoices, and manage projects from a single web app. Self-host Kimai on Railway in one click and run your billable-hours stack on infrastructure you own, with HTTPS, a managed MySQL database, and a persistent volume for logs and uploads.

This Railway template deploys the official kimai/kimai2:apache image (Kimai 2.56.0, PHP 8.3 on Apache) wired to a Railway-managed MySQL service. It pre-applies the php:*-apache MPM-prefork workaround required to run Apache on Railway, generates a strong APP_SECRET and admin password, and mounts a volume at /opt/kimai/var so plugins, sessions, and the install marker survive redeploys.

Getting Started with Kimai on Railway

After the deployment turns green, open the Railway-generated URL and you will land on Kimai's login page at /en/login. Sign in with the email set in ADMINMAIL and the password Railway generated for ADMINPASS — both are visible in the Kimai service Variables tab. From the dashboard, create your first customer, add a project under it, define a few activities (e.g. Development, Design Review), and start the timer from the top bar. Visit System → Mail and point MAILER_URL at your SMTP provider so password resets and invoice exports work.

About Hosting Kimai

Kimai is a Symfony-based time-tracking platform actively maintained by Kevin Papst since 2014. It is GPL-3.0 licensed, supports unlimited users and customers in the self-hosted edition, and ships a full REST API plus a marketplace of community plugins.

Key features of self-hosted Kimai:

• Multi-user, multi-team, multi-customer time tracking with per-project activities
• Invoice generation with customisable templates (PDF/HTML), tax rates, and recurring invoices
• 30+ built-in reports — by user, customer, project, activity, tag, billable/non-billable
• REST API and webhooks for integrations with Slack, Trello, accounting systems
• Plugin marketplace with paid and free add-ons (LDAP/SSO, additional exports, custom fields)
• Two-factor authentication, role-based permissions, audit log, and per-user rates

Architecture: a single Apache + PHP-FPM container talking to a managed MySQL service over Railway's private network.

Why Deploy Kimai on Railway

• One-click deploy — no Dockerfile required
• HTTPS, custom domain, and managed MySQL provisioned automatically
• Volume keeps logs, sessions, and installed plugins across redeploys
• Predictable monthly cost — only the resources Kimai actually uses
• Update Kimai by bumping kimai/kimai2:apache to a pinned tag in one place
• Your billable-hours data stays on infrastructure you control

Common Use Cases

• Freelancers tracking billable hours across multiple clients and exporting monthly invoices
• Agencies and consultancies running team-wide time tracking with per-project budgets
• Replacing Toggl Track or Harvest with a self-hosted alternative — no per-seat fees
• Internal time-allocation reporting for grant funded projects, R&D tax credits, or client billing audits

Dependencies for Kimai on Railway

This Railway template provisions two services:

• Kimai — kimai/kimai2:apache (Symfony app, PHP 8.3, Apache HTTP server)
• MySQL — Railway-managed MySQL (Bitnami template) with a 5 GB volume at /var/lib/mysql

Environment Variables Reference

Deployment Dependencies for Kimai on Railway

• Runtime: PHP 8.3 + Apache 2.4 (inside Docker image)
• GitHub: https://github.com/kimai/kimai
• Docker Hub: https://hub.docker.com/r/kimai/kimai2
• Docs: https://www.kimai.org/documentation/

Hardware Requirements for Self-Hosting Kimai

Kimai itself is light. Memory pressure scales with the number of concurrent users and the size of generated PDF invoices. MySQL grows with timesheet history — plan ~1 KB per timesheet entry.

Self-Hosting Kimai

The fastest way to self-host Kimai on Railway is the one-click template above. To run it locally for evaluation:

docker run -it --rm \
  -e DATABASE_URL='mysql://kimai:kimai@db:3306/kimai?charset=utf8mb4&serverVersion=8.0' \
  -e APP_SECRET=changeme-32-char-string \
  -e ADMINMAIL=admin@example.com \
  -e ADMINPASS=changeme \
  -e TRUSTED_PROXIES=127.0.0.1 \
  -p 8001:8001 \
  -v kimai-data:/opt/kimai/var \
  kimai/kimai2:apache

To pin to a specific Kimai release on Railway, change the image tag in the Kimai service settings:

kimai/kimai2:apache-2.56.0

Then redeploy the service from the Railway UI.

How Much Does Kimai Cost to Self-Host?

Kimai is GPL-3.0 open source — the software itself is free, with no per-user or per-customer licensing. On Railway you pay only for the compute, network, and volume the Kimai + MySQL services actually use; a small team typically fits within the hobby tier. The optional Kimai Cloud SaaS starts at €5/user/month and exists for users who do not want to operate the stack themselves — self-hosting on Railway sidesteps that fee.

Kimai vs Toggl Track vs Clockify

Kimai is the right choice when data residency, total cost of ownership, or invoicing-out-of-the-box matter more than a polished hosted UX.

FAQ

What is Kimai? Kimai is the #1 open-source self-hosted time-tracking application — used by freelancers, agencies, and companies to log billable hours, generate reports, and produce invoices.

What does this Railway template deploy? Two services: a Kimai app container running kimai/kimai2:apache with a persistent volume at /opt/kimai/var, and a Railway-managed MySQL instance for timesheet storage.

Why does the Kimai service need a startCommand workaround on Railway? The official Kimai Apache image is built on php:8.3-apache-bookworm, which loads both mpm_event and mpm_prefork on Railway and crash-loops with AH00534: More than one MPM loaded. The template's startCommand runs a2dismod mpm_event && a2enmod mpm_prefork before the entrypoint to keep Apache happy.

How do I configure SMTP so Kimai can send password-reset emails? Set MAILER_URL to a Symfony Mailer DSN, e.g. smtp://user:pass@smtp.example.com:587?encryption=tls. SendGrid, Postmark, Mailgun, and Amazon SES are all supported via their native DSN schemes.

Can I migrate from Toggl Track or Clockify to self-hosted Kimai? Yes. Kimai supports CSV imports of timesheets through bin/console kimai:import:timesheet and offers a REST API for bulk loading customers, projects, and users. The repository's var/import/ directory has example mappings.

How do I install Kimai plugins on Railway? Drop the plugin into /opt/kimai/var/plugins/ (the Railway volume), then redeploy. Plugins persist across deploys because the volume is mounted at /opt/kimai/var.

How do I update Kimai to a new version? Change the image tag (e.g. from :apache-2.56.0 to :apache-2.57.0) in the Kimai service settings on Railway and redeploy. The entrypoint runs kimai:install on every startup, which is idempotent and applies any pending Doctrine migrations to the existing MySQL database.