---
title: "Deploy a Gin App"
description: "Learn how to deploy a Gin app to Railway with this step-by-step guide. It covers quick setup, one-click deploys, Dockerfile and other deployment strategies."
date: 2026-01-30T00:00:00.000Z
updated: 2026-10-29T11:14:11.389Z
topics: ["Frameworks"]
tags: ["Deployment", "Gin", "Go", "Backend"]
url: https://railway.com/guides/gin
---

# Deploy a Gin App

[Gin](https://gin-gonic.com/) is a high-performance web framework for Go (Golang) that provides a martini-like API while being significantly faster (up to 40 times) due to its use of `httprouter`. It's designed for developers seeking both speed and productivity.

This guide covers how to deploy a Gin app on Railway in four ways:

1. [One-click deploy from a template](#one-click-deploy-from-a-template).
2. [From a GitHub repository](#deploy-from-a-github-repo).
3. [Using the CLI](#deploy-from-the-cli).
4. [Using a Dockerfile](#use-a-dockerfile).

## One-click deploy from a template

[![Deploy on Railway](https://cms.railway.com/media/aeo-6ec9624cf8f8a7408f19e40a27a1e6020de459a42ac3fe1c4a016cb01cd1aa9b.png)](https://railway.com/new/template/dTvvSf)

It is highly recommended that [you eject from the template after deployment](https://docs.railway.com/templates/deploy#eject-from-template-repository) to create a copy of the repo on your GitHub account.

**Note:** You can also choose from a <a href="https://railway.com/templates?q=gin" target="_blank">variety of Gin app templates</a> created by the community.

## Deploy from a GitHub repo

To deploy a Gin app on Railway directly from GitHub, follow the steps below:

1. Fork the basic <a href="https://github.com/railwayapp-templates/gin" target="_blank">Gin GitHub repo</a>.
   - If you already have a GitHub repo you want to deploy, you can skip this step.
2. Create a <a href="https://railway.com/new" target="_blank">New Project.</a>
3. Click **Deploy from GitHub repo**.
4. Select the `gin` or your own GitHub repo.
   - Railway requires a valid GitHub account to be linked. If your Railway account isn't associated with one, you will be prompted to link it.
5. Click **Deploy Now**.

Once the deployment is successful, a Railway [service](https://docs.railway.com/services) will be created for you. By default, this service will not be publicly accessible.

To set up a publicly accessible URL for the service, navigate to the **Networking** section in the [Settings](https://docs.railway.com/overview/the-basics#service-settings) tab of your new service and click on [Generate Domain](https://docs.railway.com/networking/public-networking#railway-provided-domain).

![screenshot of the deployed gin service showing a hello world API response on a browser](<https://cms.railway.com/media/aeo-5a184824b945ba0db8c58149e46747ec094e4985530f8d5b1274ab2754dc4c96.avif>)

## Deploy from the CLI

1. <a href="https://docs.railway.com/guides/cli#installing-the-cli" target="_blank">Install</a> and <a href="https://docs.railway.com/guides/cli#authenticating-with-the-cli" target="_blank">authenticate with the CLI.</a>
2. Clone the forked <a href="https://github.com/railwayapp-templates/gin" target="_blank">gin GitHub repo</a> and `cd` into the directory.
   - You can skip this step if you already have an app directory or repo on your machine that you want to deploy.
3. Run `railway init` within the app directory to create a new project.
4. Run `railway up` to deploy.
   - The CLI will now scan, compress and upload your gin app files to Railway's backend for deployment.

## Use a Dockerfile

1. Clone the forked `gin` repo and `cd` into the directory.
   - You can skip this step if you already have an app directory or repo on your machine that you want to deploy.
2. Create a `Dockerfile` in the `gin` or app's root directory.
3. Add the content below to the `Dockerfile`:

   ```docker
   # Use the Go 1.23 alpine official image
   # https://hub.docker.com/_/golang
   FROM golang:1.23-alpine

   # Create and change to the app directory.
   WORKDIR /app

   # Copy go mod and sum files
   COPY go.mod go.sum ./

   # Copy local code to the container image.
   COPY . ./

   # Install project dependencies
   RUN go mod download

   # Build the app
   RUN go build -o app

   # Run the service on container startup.
   ENTRYPOINT ["./app"]
   ```

4. Either deploy via the CLI or from GitHub.

Railway automatically detects the `Dockerfile`, [and uses it to build and deploy the app.](https://docs.railway.com/builds/dockerfiles)

**Note:** Railway supports also <a href="https://docs.railway.com/guides/services#deploying-a-public-docker-image" target="_blank">deployment from public and private Docker images</a>.

## Next steps

Explore these resources to learn how you can maximize your experience with Railway:

- [Add a Database Service](https://docs.railway.com/databases/build-a-database-service)
- [Monitor your app](https://docs.railway.com/observability)
- [Running a Cron Job](https://docs.railway.com/cron-jobs)