---
title: "Deploy Medusa"
description: "MedusaJS 2 commerce with admin and Next.js storefront, Postgres and Redis"
category: "Other"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/medusa-1
---

# Deploy Medusa

MedusaJS 2 commerce with admin and Next.js storefront, Postgres and Redis

**[Deploy Medusa on Railway](https://railway.com/template/medusa-1)**

Machine-readable deploy manifest (JSON, validated by TemplateCI): https://railway.com/deploy/medusa-1/manifest.json

- **Creator:** Dektion
- **Category:** Other
- **Total deploys:** 1

## Template content

### Redis https://devicons.railway.com/i/redis.svg

- **Image:** redis:7.4
- **Start command:** `/bin/sh -c 'exec redis-server --requirepass "$REDIS_PASSWORD" --save "" --appendonly no'`

### Medusa https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dektionstudio/railway-template-images/82d937f29aeefc2ef2e1a64a833971b9aa39b1a8/medusa/icon.jpg

- **Source:** dektionstudio/railway-template-images
- **Health check:** /health
- **Public domain:** Yes

### Postgres https://devicons.railway.com/i/postgresql.svg

- **Image:** ghcr.io/railwayapp-templates/postgres-ssl:17

### Storefront https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dektionstudio/railway-template-images/82d937f29aeefc2ef2e1a64a833971b9aa39b1a8/medusa/icon.jpg

- **Source:** dektionstudio/railway-template-images
- **Health check:** /dk
- **Public domain:** Yes

## Documentation

# Deploy and Host Medusa on Railway

[Medusa](https://github.com/medusajs/medusa) is an open-source commerce platform, often used as a Shopify alternative: products, inventory, carts, orders, customers, regions and taxes behind an API, with an admin dashboard. This template runs Medusa 2.21.2 with its admin and Medusa's official Next.js storefront, on Postgres and Redis.

## About Hosting Medusa

The template builds Medusa's official starter, [dtc-starter](https://github.com/medusajs/dtc-starter), at a pinned commit (it has no releases). Medusa's older Next.js starter is archived; dtc-starter is the one Medusa points to now.

What happens on deploy:

- The backend runs its migrations on every start. On an empty database they also seed a starter store: a Europe region (GB, DE, DK, SE, FR, ES, IT) in EUR and USD, shipping options, a stock location and four demo products you can delete in the admin.
- The admin account is created from `MEDUSA_ADMIN_EMAIL` and a generated `MEDUSA_ADMIN_PASSWORD`. Medusa has no public admin sign-up, so nobody else can claim the store.
- The storefront needs a publishable API key when it's built, which usually means copying it from the admin and rebuilding. Here the key is generated at deploy (`MEDUSA_PUBLISHABLE_KEY`), the storefront is built with it, and the backend sets its store key to that value on every start.
- The storefront's product, collection and category pages render on request instead of at build time, so it builds before the backend has ever run and new products show up without a rebuild.
- Redis handles caching, events, workflows and locking. Uploaded images go to a volume and are served by the backend at `/static`. The backend's heap is capped at 512 MB so it fits a 1 GB service.

Before publishing I tested it on Railway. The backend answered `/health` and served the admin at `/app`, and the admin signed in with the generated password. The store API, called with the generated publishable key, listed the four seeded products, and the storefront rendered the Medusa Sweatshirt's product page. An image uploaded through the admin API was served from `/static`. After restarting all four services the same checks passed and the image was still there.

Memory at idle: backend 0.34 GB, storefront 0.10 GB, Postgres 0.07 GB, Redis 0.01 GB. That's about $5 a month on Railway's usage pricing.

## Common Use Cases

- An online store you own end to end, without per-sale platform fees
- A headless commerce backend for your own frontend or mobile app, using the storefront as a reference
- Multi-region selling with separate currencies, tax rates and shipping options

## Dependencies for Medusa Hosting

Nothing beyond the template for a test store. To take real payments, add a payment provider such as Stripe: that's a change to the backend's `medusa-config.ts`, so copy the two folders below into your own repository and point the services at it.

### Deployment Dependencies

- Medusa: https://github.com/medusajs/medusa
- dtc-starter (backend and storefront): https://github.com/medusajs/dtc-starter
- Docs: https://docs.medusajs.com
- What this template adds: https://github.com/dektionstudio/railway-template-images (folders `medusa` and `medusa-storefront`)

### Implementation Details

```
STOREFRONT_URL         # your shop
MEDUSA_ADMIN_URL       # the admin; sign in with MEDUSA_ADMIN_EMAIL / MEDUSA_ADMIN_PASSWORD
MEDUSA_BACKEND_URL     # store API: send x-publishable-api-key: $MEDUSA_PUBLISHABLE_KEY
```

The storefront has the backend URL and the publishable key built in. After adding a custom domain, update `STORE_CORS` and `AUTH_CORS` on the backend and redeploy the storefront.

## Why Deploy Medusa on Railway?

The backend, storefront, database and Redis come up together and talk over Railway's private network, with the store already set up and an admin login waiting. You pay for what the store uses, not a share of each sale.


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