---
title: "Deploy Open Source Point of Sale"
description: "Point of sale and inventory system for small retail shops"
category: "Other"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/opensourcepos
---

# Deploy Open Source Point of Sale

Point of sale and inventory system for small retail shops

**[Deploy Open Source Point of Sale on Railway](https://railway.com/template/opensourcepos)**

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

- **Creator:** A3A
- **Category:** Other
- **Total deploys:** 1

## Template content

### MySQL https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/homarr-labs/dashboard-icons/svg/mysql.svg

- **Image:** mysql:9.4
- **Start command:** `docker-entrypoint.sh mysqld --innodb-use-native-aio=0 --disable-log-bin --performance_schema=0 --innodb-buffer-pool-size=1G`

### opensourcepos https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/opensourcepos/opensourcepos@master/branding/emblem-white.svg

- **Source:** https://github.com/gridalpha/opensourcepos-railway
- **Health check:** /healthz
- **Public domain:** Yes

## Documentation

# Deploy and Host Open Source Point of Sale on Railway

Open Source Point of Sale (OSPOS) is a browser-based till and inventory system for small retail — a shop counter, a market stall, a café, a club bar. It runs the register, keeps the stock ledger, holds customers and suppliers, issues quotes and invoices, and reports on all of it. It is MIT-licensed PHP on CodeIgniter 4 with MySQL behind it, maintained in the open since 2013. Self-host Open Source Point of Sale when you want a till that belongs to you: no per-terminal subscription, no percentage of takings, and a sales history you can query.

Deploy Open Source Point of Sale on Railway and you get two services. `opensourcepos` is the application — Apache and mod_php serving the register over your generated public URL, with a volume at `/app/public/uploads` for product photos. `MySQL` is Railway's managed MySQL 9.4, private to the project, holding every table the app owns: items, sales, people, sessions and settings. On first boot the container waits for MySQL, runs the migrations, and sets the admin password you supplied before Apache accepts a single request.

![Diagram of the OpenSourcePOS and MySQL services on Railway](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1789592017/opensourcepos-architecture.webp)

## Getting Started with Open Source Point of Sale on Railway

Set `OSPOS_ADMIN_PASSWORD` when you deploy — the container refuses to start without it rather than falling back to the credentials published in upstream's schema. `ENCRYPTION_KEY` is generated for you and must not change later; the app encrypts stored data with it.

The first deployment takes a few minutes, because the container runs roughly ninety migrations before serving anything. When the URL comes up, sign in as `admin` with your password.

Start in **Items** and create a product — barcode, name, category, cost, retail price, the first tax row, an opening quantity and a photo, which is written to the volume and survives redeploys. Add a customer under **Customers**. Then open **Sales**, scan the barcode into *Find or Scan Item*, attach the customer, tender the amount and complete the sale. Check **Reports → Detailed → Transactions**: the sale appears and the item's stock has fallen by what you sold.

Before taking real money through it, visit **Office → Configuration** and set your shop name, address, currency, tax rates and receipt layout — the defaults are placeholders. Add an employee account per person who uses the till.

![OpenSourcePOS sales register with a three-item cart and cash payment](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1789592020/opensourcepos-sales-register.webp)

![Item catalogue listing stock levels, prices and product photos](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1789592024/opensourcepos-item-catalogue.webp)

![Detailed transactions report showing a completed sixty-seven dollar sale](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1789592028/opensourcepos-transactions-report.webp)

## About Hosting Open Source Point of Sale

Commercial point-of-sale software is usually rented: a monthly fee per register, sometimes a slice of card volume, and an export button that hands you a CSV rather than your data. OSPOS is the opposite trade — you own the database in exchange for doing the hosting.

What it gives you:

- A touch-friendly register with barcode scanning, line discounts, split payments and suspended sales
- Stock management for items and kits, with attributes, reorder levels, receivings and suppliers
- Quotes, invoices and receipts, printable or emailed
- Customer records with per-customer discounts, taxable status and spending history
- Gift cards, reward points, expenses and end-of-shift cash-ups
- Multi-user accounts with per-module permissions, and per-location stock
- Reporting across sales, items, customers, employees, payments, taxes and inventory

The architecture is deliberately small: `opensourcepos` is the whole application, with no worker, queue or cache tier to keep in sync. `MySQL` stores everything including sessions, which is why a redeploy does not sign anyone out. The volume holds only product images.

## Why Deploy Open Source Point of Sale on Railway

Railway removes the server administration this app would otherwise need:

- MySQL 9.4 is provisioned, backed up and private to the project
- The public URL and its TLS certificate are issued automatically
- The volume for product images persists across every deploy
- Migrations and admin setup run on boot — no install wizard to babysit
- Scaling and metrics are a dashboard setting, not a server rebuild

## Common Use Cases

- A single-location shop, café or bar that wants a till without a per-terminal subscription
- A market stall or pop-up needing a register on a tablet, with stock shared across days
- A club, school or charity shop where several volunteers each need their own account
- A small wholesaler using receivings and quotes alongside counter sales

## Dependencies for Open Source Point of Sale

- **opensourcepos** — built from [gridalpha/opensourcepos-railway](https://github.com/gridalpha/opensourcepos-railway), a thin image over [`jekkos/opensourcepos:master`](https://hub.docker.com/r/jekkos/opensourcepos): Apache with mod_php 8.2.
- **MySQL** — Railway's managed `mysql:9.4`, reached over the private network on port 3306.

### Environment Variables Reference

| Variable | Purpose |
|---|---|
| `OSPOS_ADMIN_PASSWORD` | Password for the `admin` account, applied before the app serves traffic |
| `ENCRYPTION_KEY` | At-rest encryption key; must stay the same for the life of the installation |
| `MYSQL_HOST_NAME`, `MYSQL_USERNAME`, `MYSQL_PASSWORD`, `MYSQL_DB_NAME` | Database connection, wired to the MySQL service |
| `ALLOWED_HOSTNAMES_EXTRA` | Extra hostnames to accept, for a custom domain |
| `PHP_TIMEZONE` | Timezone for receipts, reports and cash-ups |

### Deployment Dependencies

- Source: [opensourcepos/opensourcepos](https://github.com/opensourcepos/opensourcepos) · image [`jekkos/opensourcepos`](https://hub.docker.com/r/jekkos/opensourcepos)
- Docs: [the project wiki](https://github.com/opensourcepos/opensourcepos/wiki) and `INSTALL.md` in the repository
- Runtime: PHP 8.2 with `mysqli`, `gd`, `intl` and `bcmath`; MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.x

## Hardware Requirements for Self-Hosting Open Source Point of Sale

| Resource | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 1 vCPU | 2 vCPU |
| RAM | 512 MB app + 512 MB MySQL | 1 GB app + 1 GB MySQL |
| Storage | 1 GB volume + 1 GB database | 5 GB volume + 5 GB database |
| Runtime | PHP 8.2–8.4, MySQL 5.7+ / MariaDB 10.x | PHP 8.2, MySQL 9.4 |

## Self-Hosting Open Source Point of Sale

Outside Railway the quickest path is the project's own Compose file, which starts the app and a MySQL container together:

```
git clone https://github.com/opensourcepos/opensourcepos.git
cd opensourcepos
docker compose up -d
```

That is upstream's development configuration and ships default passwords, so change them before exposing it. To run the published image against an existing database:

```
docker run -d -p 8080:80 \
  -e CI_ENVIRONMENT=production \
  -e ALLOWED_HOSTNAMES=pos.example.com \
  -e MYSQL_HOST_NAME=db.example.com \
  -e MYSQL_USERNAME=ospos \
  -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=change-me \
  -e MYSQL_DB_NAME=ospos \
  jekkos/opensourcepos:master
```

A manual install works too: unpack a release build into a PHP 8.2 web root and point `.env` at an empty MySQL database — the schema is created the first time you open the site. Building from a clone needs the asset build first; see `BUILD.md`.

## Is Open Source Point of Sale Free?

Yes. OSPOS is MIT-licensed and free to use commercially, with no per-terminal fee, no transaction cut and no paid edition held back. There is no vendor to buy support from either — the wiki, the issue tracker and the Gitter room are the support channel. On Railway you pay only for the compute, database and storage it uses.

## FAQ

**What is Open Source Point of Sale?**
A web-based point of sale and inventory system written in PHP on CodeIgniter 4, storing its data in MySQL. It covers the register, stock, customers, suppliers, invoicing, expenses, cash-ups and reporting.

**What does this Railway template deploy?**
Two services: the `opensourcepos` application with a volume for product images, and a private managed `MySQL` database. Migrations run on first boot and the admin password comes from the variable you supply, so there is no installer to click through.

**Why does the template include a MySQL database?**
OSPOS keeps everything in MySQL — items, sales, people, permissions, settings and login sessions. Because sessions live there rather than on disk, a redeploy does not sign anyone out.

**How do I log in to self-hosted Open Source Point of Sale for the first time?**
Sign in as `admin` with the password you set in `OSPOS_ADMIN_PASSWORD`. The credentials published in the project's schema are replaced before the app accepts its first request, so the documented default will not work — that is deliberate.

**Can I use my own domain with Open Source Point of Sale on Railway?**
Yes. Attach the domain in Railway, then add it to `ALLOWED_HOSTNAMES_EXTRA` — the app validates the `Host` header against that list when building its own URLs.

**How do I back up an Open Source Point of Sale deployment?**
Dump the MySQL database and copy the volume at `/app/public/uploads`. Together they are the whole installation; the container holds no state.

**Does self-hosted Open Source Point of Sale work on a tablet at the counter?**
Yes. The register is usable on a touchscreen, and a USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner acts as a keyboard, so scanning needs no driver.


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