Deploy and Host Express.js API on Railway

Express is a fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework for Node.js. TypeScript is a statically typed superset of JavaScript that adds optional type annotations, enabling safer and more maintainable code.

About Hosting Express.js API

Hosting an Express.js API means running a Node.js application that handles HTTP requests through middleware and routing systems. The application processes incoming requests, executes business logic, and returns responses to clients. Production deployment requires managing environment variables, logging, error handling, and TypeScript compilation from source code to executable JavaScript. These concerns become complex when coordinating build processes, environment configuration, and process management across development and production environments.

This template solves these challenges by providing pre-configured routing patterns, environment variable management through dotenv, and a versioned API structure. Railway automates the deployment complexity by detecting Node.js applications, handling TypeScript compilation, managing the PORT environment variable, and providing built-in monitoring and secure environment variable handling.

Common Use Cases

API Development: Build RESTful APIs and web services for applications and mobile backends
Early Development: Quick starter template for prototyping and initial API development phases
TypeScript Projects: Create type-safe Node.js applications with Express framework integration

Dependencies for Express.js API Hosting

The Railway template includes the required Node.js runtime, Express framework, and TypeScript configuration.

Deployment Dependencies

Implementation Details

Template Features:

Express: Fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework for Node.js
TypeScript: Statically typed superset of JavaScript with optional type annotations
Versioned API route on /api/v1/hello: Pre-configured API versioning structure
Environment variable setup using dotenv: Configuration management for different environments

Why Deploy Express.js API 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 Express.js API 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.