How do I deploy Simple HTTP Cron on Railway?

You can deploy Simple HTTP Cron on Railway by clicking the "Deploy Now" button on this page. Railway will automatically set up all the necessary services and configurations for you.

What are the system requirements?

Railway handles all the infrastructure requirements. You only need a web browser to deploy and manage your application.

Is this template free to use?

Yes, this template is free to use within your existing Railway account.

Can I customize this template?

Yes, you can fully customize this template. After deployment, you will have full control of what you've deployed in your Railway project.

How do I get support for this template?

You can get support through our community forum: simple-http-cron-c1a8452f, or click "Get template help" for this template for more assistance.

Deploy and Host Simple HTTP Cron on Railway

Simple HTTP Cron is a lightweight web app for scheduling HTTP requests using cron expressions. Define jobs with any HTTP method, custom headers, and a request body — then set a cron schedule and let the server fire them automatically.

About Hosting Simple HTTP Cron

Hosting Simple HTTP Cron on Railway involves deploying a single Node.js (Express) service built from the included Dockerfile. The app runs on port 8000 and persists scheduled jobs to a JSON file. This template handles all the setup automatically: it generates random credentials via ${{ secret() }}, mounts a persistent volume at /app/data for db.json, and exposes the service publicly. All routes — including the UI — are protected by HTTP Basic Auth, keeping your scheduler secure from the moment it's deployed.

Common Use Cases

Webhook automation – fire a POST to a webhook URL (Slack, Discord, n8n, Zapier) on a schedule without a separate cron server
API polling – periodically call an external REST API to trigger data ingestion or cache invalidation
Health pings – send a GET request to an uptime-monitoring service (e.g. Better Uptime, UptimeRobot heartbeat) at a fixed interval

Dependencies for Simple HTTP Cron Hosting

Node.js 18+ – the runtime (provided by the node:18-alpine Docker image)
Persistent volume – a Railway volume mounted at /app/data to survive redeploys

Deployment Dependencies

Node.js 18 Alpine Docker image
node-cron – in-process cron scheduler
express-basic-auth – single-user HTTP Basic Auth middleware
axios – HTTP client used to execute scheduled requests

Implementation Details

This template pre-configures everything out of the box:

ADMIN_USERNAME and ADMIN_PASSWORD are set to random values using ${{ secret() }} — no manual credential setup needed.
A persistent volume is already mounted at /app/data so db.json survives redeploys.

After deploying, retrieve your generated credentials from the service's Variables tab to log in to the UI.

Why Deploy Simple HTTP Cron 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 Simple HTTP Cron 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.