Deploy and Host Windmill (Self-Hosted Retool / Airflow Alternative) on Railway

Windmill is an open-source developer platform and workflow engine — a self-hosted alternative to Retool, Airflow, and n8n. Turn scripts in Python, TypeScript, Go, Bash, or SQL into internal tools, auto-generated UIs, REST endpoints, and scheduled or event-driven workflows, all from one instance. [Updated August '26]

About Hosting Windmill (Self-Hosted Retool / Airflow Alternative)

This template runs the full Windmill stack: a server (web UI + API), a dedicated worker that executes jobs, and a PostgreSQL database that stores scripts, flows, and run history. Server and worker share the same image and database over Railway's private network, so you scale throughput by adding worker replicas without touching the server. Database migrations run automatically on first boot. Sign in with the default admin@windmill.dev / changeme and change the password immediately. Everything persists to a Postgres volume, so redeploys keep your scripts, flows, schedules, and history intact.

Common Use Cases

Internal tools and admin panels backed by scripts, with auto-generated UIs
Scheduled ETL, data syncs, and cron jobs replacing Airflow DAGs
Webhook and API endpoints that run custom code on demand

Dependencies for Windmill (Self-Hosted Retool / Airflow Alternative) Hosting

A PostgreSQL database (included in this template)
A worker service to execute jobs (included in this template)

Implementation Details

The server runs with MODE=server and the worker with MODE=worker, both pointed at the same DATABASE_URL over the private network with sslmode=disable. Add more worker replicas or raise NUM_WORKERS to scale job throughput.

Why Deploy Windmill (Self-Hosted Retool / Airflow Alternative) 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 Windmill (Self-Hosted Retool / Airflow Alternative) 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.