Deploy and Host

Canonical code: railway-ghost — deploy URL: https://railway.com/new/template/railway-ghost

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Deploy a self-hosted Ghost CMS blog on Railway in one click. Ghost is a powerful, open-source publishing platform used by creators and startups worldwide.

About Hosting

Ghost runs as a single container with a Railway-managed PostgreSQL database for content storage. Railway provides the compute, TLS at the edge, and a public URL. The service restarts automatically on failures via Railway's built-in health check. Content is stored in PostgreSQL — no persistent volume needed for the core deployment.

Why Deploy

Professional blogging platform — Ghost powers thousands of publications with a clean, fast editor and modern theme system.
Managed PostgreSQL — Railway handles database provisioning, backups, and connection strings automatically.
Built-in membership & subscriptions — Turn readers into paying members with native Stripe integration.
SEO optimized — Clean URLs, automatic sitemaps, structured data, and fast page loads out of the box.
REST API — Full content API for headless CMS use cases and custom frontends.
Zero-config deploy — One click and Ghost is running with sensible production defaults.

Common Use Cases

Personal blog — Start writing immediately with the distraction-free editor.
Membership site — Publish premium content behind a paywall with Stripe subscriptions.
Company blog — Share product updates, changelogs, and engineering posts.
Newsletter — Built-in email newsletter delivery to subscribers.
Headless CMS — Use the Content API to power a custom frontend or mobile app.

Dependencies for Ghost

Deployment Dependencies

Ghost requires a PostgreSQL database. Add a Railway PostgreSQL service to your project — the connection string is auto-injected via DATABASE_URL. For email delivery, configure SMTP via environment variables (Mailgun recommended).

Features

Single container — Ghost 6 Alpine image, no sidecars needed
Managed PostgreSQL — Railway provisions and manages your database
Health check endpoint — /ghost/api/admin/ monitored by Railway
Non-root user — Runs as the node user inside the container
One-click deploy — No local setup required

Architecture

Railway Container
  ├── Ghost 6 (Alpine) → PORT, healthcheck
  └── PostgreSQL (Railway-managed) → content, users, settings

Railway builds the Ghost image and provisions PostgreSQL
Environment variables (url, database config) are injected at runtime
Ghost connects to Postgres and serves on the Railway-assigned PORT
Health check monitors /ghost/api/admin/

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
`url`	Yes	—	Public URL of your Ghost instance
`DATABASE_URL`	Yes	Auto	PostgreSQL connection (Railway auto-injects)
`database__client`	No	`postgres`	Database client type
`mail__transport`	No	`direct`	Email transport: `smtp`, `direct`, `mailgun`
`MAIL_OPTIONS_HOST`	No	—	SMTP host (if `mail__transport=smtp`)
`MAIL_OPTIONS_PORT`	No	`587`	SMTP port
`MAIL_OPTIONS_AUTH_USER`	No	—	SMTP username
`MAIL_OPTIONS_AUTH_PASS`	No	—	SMTP password

Getting Started

Click Deploy on Railway above.
Add a PostgreSQL service from the Railway marketplace.
Set url to match your Railway domain (e.g., https://your-app.up.railway.app).
Deploy — Ghost starts in ~60s on first build.
Visit your URL at /ghost to create your admin account.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
App not starting	Verify `DATABASE_URL` is set and Postgres is running
Health check fails	First deploy may take 2–3 minutes; retry
White screen at `/ghost`	Verify `url` matches your full Railway domain
SMTP not sending	Switch `mail__transport` to `smtp` with proper credentials

License

MIT. Ghost upstream is MIT-licensed. Template by INAPP-Mobile.