How do I deploy Metube on Railway?

You can deploy Metube 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: metube-344b3e82, or click "Get template help" for this template for more assistance.

Deploy and Host MeTube on Railway

MeTube is an open-source, self-hosted web GUI for the powerful yt-dlp command-line tool. It allows users to download videos and audio from YouTube and thousands of other sites through a clean, responsive web interface. It simplifies media management by supporting playlist downloads, quality selection, and background processing.

About Hosting MeTube

Hosting MeTube involves deploying a containerized application (Docker) that manages a local file system for storage. When hosting on a platform like Railway, you typically connect your GitHub repository or use a pre-configured Docker image. The deployment requires a persistent storage volume if you want to keep your downloads after a restart, as cloud platforms often use ephemeral file systems. Once deployed, MeTube runs as a web server that communicates with YouTube's servers to fetch metadata and stream file data directly to your designated storage path, accessible via a unique URL.

Common Use Cases

Personal Media Library: Automatically downloading high-quality videos or music to a central server for offline viewing on Plex, Jellyfin, or Kodi.
Educational Archiving: Saving entire playlists of tutorials or lectures to ensure access even if the original content is deleted or set to private.
Data Saving: Downloading heavy 4K content during off-peak hours or on high-speed connections to be watched later on devices with limited data.

Dependencies for MeTube Hosting

Docker & Container Runtime: MeTube is primarily distributed as a Docker image to handle the complex underlying Python dependencies of yt-dlp.
Persistent Volume (PVC): Essential for saving downloaded files; without a mapped volume, downloads will vanish when the Railway service redeploys.

Deployment Dependencies

MeTube GitHub Repository: The source code and official Docker documentation.
Railway.app: The infrastructure platform used for hosting the container.
yt-dlp Documentation: For understanding supported sites and advanced extraction arguments.

Implementation Details

Visit Environment Variable

Why Deploy Metube 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 Metube 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.