How do I deploy Stirling-PDF on Railway?

You can deploy Stirling-PDF 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: stirling-pdf-2b31dcf7, or click "Get template help" for this template for more assistance.

Deploy and Host Stirling-PDF on Railway

Stirling-PDF is a powerful open-source PDF manipulation platform with 50+ tools for merging, splitting, converting, OCR, signing, and more. All processing happens on your server—no documents are sent to external services. This template deploys with built-in authentication to protect your instance.

About Hosting Stirling-PDF

This template deploys Stirling-PDF as a single service with:

PDF Processing: 50+ tools for all your PDF manipulation needs
REST API: Full API access with Swagger documentation for automation
Built-in Authentication: Native login system with configurable admin credentials
Persistent Storage: Railway volume for configs, logs, and OCR language data

Railway volumes ensure your configuration, pipelines, logs, and OCR data persist across redeployments.

Getting Started After Deployment

Accessing Stirling-PDF

After deployment, click on the Stirling-PDF service to find your URL:

Deployments Tab: The URL is displayed directly under the service name
Settings > Networking: Go to Settings tab → scroll to Networking → find Public Networking

Finding Your Login Credentials

Default login credentials:

Username: admin (or value of SECURITY_INITIALLOGIN_USERNAME)
Password: Found in the service's Variables tab under SECURITY_INITIALLOGIN_PASSWORD

A secure 32-character password is auto-generated on deploy using Railway's ${{secret(32)}} template function. After first login, you can change your password in the application settings.

Using the REST API

Access the API documentation at https://your-url/swagger-ui/index.html. For programmatic access:

Set SECURITY_CUSTOMGLOBALAPIKEY in service Variables
Include X-API-Key: your-key header in API requests

Common Use Cases

Self-hosted PDF toolkit for teams needing merge, split, compress, and convert capabilities
Automated document processing workflows via REST API
OCR processing for scanned documents while keeping data on-premises
Secure PDF signing and redaction for sensitive documents
Converting Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) to PDF
Batch processing PDFs without uploading to cloud services
Internal company tool with access control

Dependencies for Stirling-PDF Hosting

Docker (Stirling-PDF runs as a container image)

Deployment Dependencies

Service

Service	Source	Description
Stirling-PDF	Custom Dockerfile	Web UI, API, and PDF processing with authentication

The custom Dockerfile wraps the official image to support Railway's single-volume requirement.

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
`SECURITY_INITIALLOGIN_USERNAME`	Admin username (default: `admin`)
`SECURITY_INITIALLOGIN_PASSWORD`	Admin password (`${{secret(32)}}` auto-generates)
`DOCKER_ENABLE_SECURITY`	Enable security features (auto-configured: `true`)
`SECURITY_ENABLELOGIN`	Require login (auto-configured: `true`)
`SYSTEM_DEFAULTLOCALE`	Default language (default: `en-US`)
`UI_APPNAME`	Application name shown in UI
`SYSTEM_MAXFILESIZE`	Max upload size in MB (default: `100`)
`SECURITY_CUSTOMGLOBALAPIKEY`	Optional API key for REST API access

Volume

Mount Path	Purpose
`/data`	All persistent data (configs, pipeline, logs, tessdata)

The custom Dockerfile creates symlinks to map subdirectories to expected paths.

Key Features

50+ PDF Tools

Merge, split, rotate, compress, convert, OCR, watermark, sign, redact, and more—all in one application.

REST API

Full API access for automation. Every UI operation is available via API endpoints with Swagger documentation.

Privacy-First

All document processing happens on your server. No files are sent to external services.

Built-in Authentication

Native user management with admin and standard user roles. No additional auth proxy required.

Multi-Language

Interface available in 40+ languages with configurable default locale.

OCR Support

Built-in Tesseract OCR for extracting text from scanned documents. Download additional language packs via the admin panel.

Why Deploy Stirling-PDF 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 Stirling-PDF on Railway, you get a fully managed PDF processing platform with authentication, persistent storage, and automatic deployments—all configured and ready to use. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.