--- title: "Deploy ONLYOFFICE Docs" description: "MS Office Alternative. Edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in the browser" category: "Other" url: https://railway.com/deploy/onlyoffice-docs --- # Deploy ONLYOFFICE Docs MS Office Alternative. Edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in the browser **[Deploy ONLYOFFICE Docs on Railway](https://railway.com/template/onlyoffice-docs)** - **Creator:** A3A - **Category:** Other ## Template content ### onlyoffice-docs https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/homarr-labs/dashboard-icons/svg/onlyoffice.svg - **Source:** https://github.com/gridalpha/onlyoffice-docs-railway - **Health check:** /healthcheck - **Public domain:** Yes ## Documentation # Deploy and Host ONLYOFFICE Docs on Railway ONLYOFFICE Docs is an open-source online office suite that opens Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in the browser, with real-time co-editing, comments, track changes and near-perfect Office Open XML fidelity. It is a document editing *server*, not an app with its own login: a host application — Nextcloud, Seafile, ownCloud, or your own product on the Document Server API — stores the files and hands them to ONLYOFFICE Docs to edit. Deploy ONLYOFFICE Docs on Railway and the Community Edition comes up as a single service with everything wired: an HTTPS domain, the document cache and signing keys on a persistent volume, JWT request signing on with a generated secret, and a health check on `/healthcheck`. To self-host ONLYOFFICE Docs otherwise you would run `onlyoffice/documentserver` and manage its two state directories, nginx worker sizing and proxy headers yourself. The source repository, [gridalpha/onlyoffice-docs-railway](https://github.com/gridalpha/onlyoffice-docs-railway), does those on every boot. ![Diagram of the ONLYOFFICE Docs service and its volume on Railway](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/v1788354324/onlyoffice-docs-architecture.png) ## Getting Started with ONLYOFFICE Docs on Railway Click Deploy and wait for the build to go green. There are no credentials to set and no first-run wizard, because the server has no user accounts. The public URL shows the ONLYOFFICE Docs welcome page, and `/healthcheck` returns `true` once the document service and converter are up. The value that matters is `JWT_SECRET`, generated for you. Copy it into your host application's ONLYOFFICE connector along with the public URL — every request between the two is signed with it, and unsigned requests are rejected. In Nextcloud that is *ONLYOFFICE → Server settings → Secret key*. Once connected, open any DOCX in the host app and it renders in the editor. To check the editors before integrating anything, set `EXAMPLE_ENABLED=true` and redeploy. That switches on the bundled test manager at `/example/`, where you can create a document, spreadsheet or presentation with sample content and edit it in place. It accepts uploads without authentication, so set it back afterwards. ![ONLYOFFICE document editor showing a formatted deployment write-up](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/v1788354485/onlyoffice-docs-document-editor.png) ![ONLYOFFICE spreadsheet with a styled header row and a SUM total](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/v1788354487/onlyoffice-docs-spreadsheet-editor.png) ![ONLYOFFICE presentation editor with a seven-slide deck open](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/v1788354488/onlyoffice-docs-presentation-editor.png) ## About Hosting ONLYOFFICE Docs ONLYOFFICE Docs solves a specific problem: users want to edit Office documents without downloading them, and you do not want those files on someone else's servers. It renders DOCX, XLSX and PPTX in a canvas editor that keeps formatting intact. - Document, spreadsheet, presentation and PDF form editors, Office Open XML native - Real-time co-editing in fast (live keystrokes) or strict (paragraph lock) mode - Comments, mentions, track changes and review modes - A conversion service: DOCX to PDF, ODT to DOCX, XLSX to CSV and more - Plugins and macros, including translation and mail merge The Railway architecture is deliberately small. **onlyoffice-docs** is the only service, and the only one needed: the Community build compiles in-memory connectors, so there is no PostgreSQL, RabbitMQ or Redis alongside it. Inside the container nginx fronts the document service, the converter and the editor bundle, and the volume at `/mnt/onlyoffice` holds the cache plus the signing keystore. ## Why Deploy ONLYOFFICE Docs on Railway Railway removes the parts of self-hosting that are not about documents: - An HTTPS domain issued automatically — the editor needs a real certificate - A persistent volume pointed at both state directories - Generated JWT and download-signing secrets, stable across redeploys - A health check on the server's own endpoint, so a bad boot fails the deploy - One service, no database or broker to operate ## Common Use Cases - **Office editing inside Nextcloud, Seafile or ownCloud** — users open a DOCX from their file list and edit it in the browser. - **Document editing in your own SaaS** — integrate through the Document Server API so customers edit contracts in your product. - **A conversion endpoint** — turn uploaded DOCX into PDF, or spreadsheets into CSV. - **An internal wiki or DMS** — policies get edited in place, not downloaded and re-uploaded. ## Dependencies for ONLYOFFICE Docs - `onlyoffice/documentserver:latest` — Community Edition, from [ONLYOFFICE/DocumentServer](https://github.com/ONLYOFFICE/DocumentServer), wrapped by [gridalpha/onlyoffice-docs-railway](https://github.com/gridalpha/onlyoffice-docs-railway) - A persistent volume at `/mnt/onlyoffice` — required, not optional The volume is what makes redeploys safe. ONLYOFFICE Docs keeps two directories of mutable state, and both go on that one volume: the cache holding every file open in an editor, and the data directory holding the signing keystore. Lose either and in-flight edits are dropped. ### Environment Variables Reference | Variable | Default | What it does | |---|---|---| | `JWT_SECRET` | generated | Signs requests between server and host app. Must match on both sides. | | `SECURE_LINK_SECRET` | generated | Signs the download URLs the editor uses for cached files. | | `JWT_ENABLED` | `true` | Enforces signed requests. Off, anyone with the URL can use the server. | | `JWT_IN_BODY` | `false` | For connectors that send the token in the body. | | `EXAMPLE_ENABLED` | `false` | Test manager at `/example/`. Unauthenticated — leave off. | | `ALLOW_PRIVATE_IP_ADDRESS` | `true` | Fetch documents from a host app on the private network. | | `WOPI_ENABLED` | `false` | WOPI discovery, for hosts that integrate that way. | | `GENERATE_FONTS` | `true` | Rebuilds the font list at boot, picking up fonts you add. | ### Deployment Dependencies - Docker image: [onlyoffice/documentserver](https://hub.docker.com/r/onlyoffice/documentserver) - API reference: [api.onlyoffice.com](https://api.onlyoffice.com/docs/docs-api/get-started/how-it-works/) - Connectors: [onlyoffice.com/all-connectors.aspx](https://www.onlyoffice.com/all-connectors.aspx) ## Hardware Requirements for Self-Hosting ONLYOFFICE Docs ONLYOFFICE publishes its Docker requirements as a floor. Real usage depends on how many people have a document open at once, and how large those files are. | Resource | Minimum | Recommended | |---|---|---| | CPU | 1 core, 2 GHz | 2+ cores | | RAM | 4 GB | 8 GB for regular co-editing | | Storage | 5 GB volume | 10 GB+ if many documents stay open | | Runtime | Docker | Docker | Community Edition is recommended for around 20 concurrent connections — one connection is one document open in an editor, not one user logged into the host app. ## Self-Hosting ONLYOFFICE Docs The quickest way to run ONLYOFFICE Docs locally is the official image. A minimal Docker command: ``` docker run -d --name onlyoffice-docs -p 8080:80 \ -e JWT_ENABLED=true \ -e JWT_SECRET=replace-with-a-long-random-string \ -v onlyoffice-data:/var/www/onlyoffice/Data \ -v onlyoffice-cache:/var/lib/onlyoffice \ onlyoffice/documentserver:latest ``` Both volumes matter: one keeps the signing keys, the other the cache of open documents. Then confirm unsigned requests are actually rejected, which proves JWT is enforced rather than merely configured: ``` curl http://localhost:8080/healthcheck # true curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/ConvertService.ashx \ -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \ -d '{"filetype":"docx","key":"probe","outputtype":"pdf","title":"a.docx","url":"https://example.com/a.docx"}' # {"error":-8} invalid token — JWT is enforced ``` On Railway both land on one volume automatically, since a service takes exactly one. ## Is ONLYOFFICE Docs Free to Self-Host? ONLYOFFICE Docs Community Edition is free and open source under AGPL v3, with no licence fee and no key to buy. You pay only for the infrastructure — on Railway, the compute and the volume. The paid Enterprise and Developer editions start around $1,500 and add clustering, mobile web editors, an admin panel and vendor support; the editing engine is the same. ## FAQ **What is ONLYOFFICE Docs?** An open-source online office suite that renders and edits Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in the browser with real-time collaboration. It runs behind a host application rather than as a standalone app. **What does this Railway template deploy?** One service running Community Edition, with a persistent volume for the document cache and signing keys, an HTTPS domain, JWT signing with a generated secret, and a health check. **Why does the template include a volume instead of a database?** Community Edition compiles in-memory connectors, so it needs no PostgreSQL or message broker. What it needs is disk: the cache of open documents and the signing keystore both live on the volume. **How do I connect self-hosted ONLYOFFICE Docs to Nextcloud?** Install the ONLYOFFICE connector app in Nextcloud, set the Document Server address to your Railway public URL, and paste the same `JWT_SECRET` into its secret key field. Mismatched secrets are the usual cause of a blank editor frame. Seafile and ownCloud use the same pair of fields. **How many people can edit at once on self-hosted ONLYOFFICE Docs?** Community Edition is recommended for around 20 concurrent connections. Give the service more CPU and RAM before raising that, and keep it at one instance: co-editing state is held in the process. ## Similar templates - [Rocky Linux](https://railway.com/deploy/rocky-linux) — Hosted Rocky Linux 9 workspace with SSH and persistent storage. 🚀 - [Foundry Virtual Tabletop](https://railway.com/deploy/X5tR6G) — A Self-Hosted & Modern Roleplaying Platform - [Letta Code Remote](https://railway.com/deploy/letta-code-remote) — Run a Letta Code agent 24/7. No inbound ports, just deploy. Open this page in a browser: https://railway.com/deploy/onlyoffice-docs