Deploy and Host Swetrix Analytics with Railway

Privacy-first web analytics with funnels, sessions, custom events, and performance tracking — full Swetrix CE on Railway.

Live demo: gateway-production-0764.up.railway.app/login

What you get

Swetrix CE dashboard — funnels, custom events, sessions, performance
Five-service stack wired on private networking
ClickHouse on a volume — events survive redeploys
One public URL via nginx gateway (this repo)
First-user signup — no shared default admin password

About Swetrix

Swetrix is open-source, privacy-friendly analytics. The Community Edition tracks page views, custom events, funnels, sessions, and errors. Only a handful of Swetrix templates exist on Railway (~7 listings) compared to thousands for Umami — room to stand out with a complete, documented stack.

About Hosting Swetrix

This template deploys the official Swetrix v5.4.1 images with Railway Redis, ClickHouse, and an nginx gateway. Only the gateway is public; API, frontend, Redis, and ClickHouse use private DNS.

Architecture

                    ┌─────────────┐
  Browser ──HTTPS──►│   Gateway   │ (this repo)
                    └──────┬──────┘
           ┌───────────────┼───────────────┐
           ▼               ▼               ▼
    ┌────────────┐  ┌────────────┐  ┌────────────┐
    │ Swetrix FE │  │Swetrix API │  │ ClickHouse │
    │  :8080     │  │   :5005    │  │  (volume)  │
    └────────────┘  └──────┬─────┘  └────────────┘
                           │
                    ┌──────▼──────┐
                    │    Redis    │
                    └─────────────┘

Environment Variables

Gateway (this repo)

Variable	Description	Secret	Example/Notes
`SWETRIX_API_HOST`	Private hostname of Swetrix API	No	`${{Swetrix-API.RAILWAY_PRIVATE_DOMAIN}}`
`SWETRIX_FE_HOST`	Private hostname of Swetrix FE	No	`${{Swetrix-FE.RAILWAY_PRIVATE_DOMAIN}}`
`SWETRIX_API_PORT`	API port	No	`5005`
`SWETRIX_FE_PORT`	FE port (Railway `$PORT`)	No	`8080`

Swetrix API (`swetrix/swetrix-api:v5.4.1`)

Variable	Description	Secret	Example/Notes
`SECRET_KEY_BASE`	Auth/session secret	Yes	`${{secret(64)}}`
`BASE_URL`	Public Swetrix URL	No	`https://${{Gateway.RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}`
`REDIS_HOST`	Redis hostname	No	`redis` (short name — not `.railway.internal`)
`REDIS_PORT`	Redis port	No	`6379`
`REDIS_PASSWORD`	Redis password	Yes	`${{Redis.REDISPASSWORD}}`
`CLICKHOUSE_HOST`	ClickHouse HTTP endpoint	No	`http://${{ClickHouse.RAILWAY_PRIVATE_DOMAIN}}`
`CLICKHOUSE_PORT`	ClickHouse HTTP port	No	`8123`
`CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE`	ClickHouse database	No	`analytics`
`CLICKHOUSE_USER`	ClickHouse user	No	`default`
`CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD`	ClickHouse password	Yes	Same value as ClickHouse service
`SMTP_MOCK`	Skip real email (MVP)	No	`true`
`DISABLE_REGISTRATION`	Lock registration after first user	No	`true`
`CLIENT_IP_HEADER`	Client IP behind proxy	No	`x-forwarded-for`

Swetrix FE (`swetrix/swetrix-fe:v5.4.1`)

Variable	Description	Secret	Example/Notes
`BASE_URL`	Public Swetrix URL	No	`https://${{Gateway.RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}`

ClickHouse

Variable	Description	Secret	Example/Notes
`CLICKHOUSE_DB`	Database name	No	`analytics`
`CLICKHOUSE_USER`	User	No	`default`
`CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD`	Password	Yes	`${{secret(32)}}`

Attach a volume at /var/lib/clickhouse.

Deploy and Host

Create a new Railway project.
Add Redis (Database → Redis).
Add ClickHouse — Docker image clickhouse/clickhouse-server:25.8-alpine, volume at /var/lib/clickhouse.
Add Swetrix API — swetrix/swetrix-api:v5.4.1 with variables above.
Add Swetrix FE — swetrix/swetrix-fe:v5.4.1 with BASE_URL.
Deploy this repo as Gateway with host/port variables above.
Enable public HTTP on Gateway only.
Open the gateway URL → register first user at /login.
Create a Swetrix project and add the tracking script.

Or run scripts/deploy-swetrix-railway.ps1 from the monorepo.

Common Use Cases

Funnels and custom events without GA4
Privacy-first analytics for side projects and MVPs
Session and performance tracking you self-host
Teams that want Swetrix CE without VPS Docker Compose

Why not Umami?

Choose Swetrix when you need funnels, custom events, or session-level analytics. Choose Simple Analytics (same author) when you want a tiny FastAPI app you own outright.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Fix
API cannot connect to Redis	Set `REDIS_HOST=redis` (short name), not `redis.railway.internal`
Gateway 502	Set `SWETRIX_FE_PORT=8080` — Railway overrides FE port from 3000
ClickHouse crash loop	Volume must mount at `/var/lib/clickhouse` (not `/data`). Wipe volume if corrupted from wrong path.
Registration closed	Expected after first user when `DISABLE_REGISTRATION=true`

Dependencies for Swetrix Hosting

Service	Source	Volume
Gateway	GitHub repo (this template)	—
Swetrix API	`swetrix/swetrix-api:v5.4.1`	—
Swetrix FE	`swetrix/swetrix-fe:v5.4.1`	—
Redis	Railway Redis plugin	—
ClickHouse	`clickhouse/clickhouse-server:25.8-alpine`	`/var/lib/clickhouse`

Deployment Dependencies

Why Deploy Swetrix on Railway?

One HTTPS URL, five services on private networking, ClickHouse on a volume — Swetrix CE without maintaining Docker Compose on a VPS. Recommend 2GB+ RAM for ClickHouse.

Marketing site

Preview website/index.html. Marketplace icon: export website/icon.svg to 512×512 PNG.

Author

romeoxt — herbylegall9@gmail.com

License

MIT (this template). Swetrix CE is licensed separately.