Deploy and Host PocketBase on Railway

About Hosting

Railway provides a modern, streamlined platform for deploying web applications and databases. This template bundles PocketBase — the open source backend in a single binary (SQLite database, REST API, auth, file storage and admin UI) — configured to run out of the box with a persistent volume.

Why Deploy

Deploying this template gives you a complete backend in ~2 minutes:

Single-binary backend — SQLite embedded, zero database configuration
REST API + realtime — auto-generated for every collection you create
Auth built-in — email/password, OAuth2, and session management out of the box
Admin UI — manage collections and records at /_/
Official binary pinned — v0.39.10 downloaded from the official GitHub release (not a stale community image)
Production-ready defaults — healthcheck endpoint for Railway monitoring and persistent storage via volume

Common Use Cases

MVPs and side projects — ship a backend without managing a separate database server
Mobile/web app backends — auth, storage and REST API for your frontend
Internal tools — quick admin dashboards with the built-in UI
Learning projects — a full backend stack in one binary

Dependencies for

This template requires:

Deployment Dependencies

Volume — mount a volume at /pb_data (SQLite database + uploaded files live there; without it all data is lost on redeploy)
PORT — fixed to 8090 (Railway routes traffic/healthchecks by this variable)
PB_ADMIN_EMAIL / PB_ADMIN_PASSWORD — optional; when set, the superuser is created automatically on first boot (or create one via the admin UI at /_/)

Getting Started

Click Deploy on Railway
In the deploy wizard, set PORT=8090 and optionally PB_ADMIN_EMAIL/PB_ADMIN_PASSWORD
Add a volume mounted at /pb_data
Open the generated domain — admin UI is at /_/

Next Steps

Create collections — via the admin UI or the REST API
Connect your frontend — use the API base URL of your Railway domain
Add file storage — uploads are stored in the /pb_data volume automatically
Custom domain — add one to your Railway service

License

MIT (PocketBase)