Deploy and Host ParishCRM with Railway

ParishCRM is a free, open-source (AGPL-3.0), self-hosted church management system: families and members, accounting, event ticketing, petty cash, membership and receipts in one app your church runs itself. Member contact details are encrypted at rest.

About Hosting ParishCRM

This template deploys three services: the ParishCRM app (a released Docker image), a PostgreSQL database, and a small cron service. Every 30 minutes, the cron service sends event reminders, cleans up abandoned checkouts and sends celebration emails. Database migrations run automatically when the app starts. Secrets (AUTH_SECRET, ENCRYPTION_KEY, CRON_SECRET, SETUP_TOKEN) are generated for you. You only enter your church name and a Resend API key and sender address, because Railway blocks outbound SMTP on Free, Trial and Hobby plans.

After deploy, open /setup on your app URL and paste SETUP_TOKEN from the app's Variables tab to create your admin account. Back up ENCRYPTION_KEY: if it is lost, encrypted member data cannot be recovered.

Common Use Cases

Keep a parish's family and member records, with pastoral notes visible only to clergy
Run church accounting: transactions, funds, petty cash, reports and donation receipts
Sell event tickets and manage registrations and check-in

Dependencies for ParishCRM Hosting

PostgreSQL (included)
A Resend account with a verified sending domain, for login codes and notifications

Deployment Dependencies

Source and docs: https://github.com/ginutgeorge-Aus/parishcrm
Railway guide: https://github.com/ginutgeorge-Aus/parishcrm/blob/main/docs/deploy/railway.md

Why Deploy ParishCRM 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 ParishCRM 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.