Railway is the simplest option for deploying Maillayer. It handles databases, environment variables, and deployments in one place—no server management required.

Why Railway?

• One-click MongoDB and Redis setup
• Auto-deploys from GitHub
• Built-in logging and monitoring
• No Docker or server knowledge needed
• Generous free tier to get started

Prerequisites

• A GitHub account
• A Railway account (sign up here — get $20 in credits)
• Maillayer repository forked to your GitHub

Step 1: Create a New Project

1. Log into Railway and click New Project
2. Select Deploy from GitHub repo
3. Choose your forked Maillayer repository
4. Railway will automatically detect the Dockerfile

Step 2: Add MongoDB Database

1. In your project, click New → Database → Add MongoDB
2. Railway will provision a MongoDB instance
3. Copy the MONGO_URL from the MongoDB service's Variables tab

Step 3: Add Redis Database

1. Click New → Database → Add Redis
2. Railway will provision a Redis instance
3. Copy the REDIS_URL from the Redis service's Variables tab

Step 4: Configure Environment Variables

Click on your Maillayer service, go to Variables, and add:

NODE_ENV=production
BASE_URL=https://your-app.up.railway.app
NEXTAUTH_SECRET=your-secret-key-minimum-32-characters
TRACKING_SECRET=your-tracking-secret
MONGODB_URI=<paste MongoDB URL from Step 2>
REDIS_URL=<paste Redis URL from Step 3>

Railway automatically provides the database URLs as reference variables. You can use ${{MongoDB.MONGO_URL}} syntax to reference them directly.

Step 5: Deploy

1. Railway auto-deploys when you push to your main branch
2. Click Deploy to trigger a manual deployment
3. Wait 3-5 minutes for the build to complete
4. Click the generated URL to access your Maillayer instance

Step 6: Add Custom Domain (Optional)

1. Go to Settings → Domains
2. Click Generate Domain for a free *.up.railway.app subdomain
3. Or click Custom Domain and add your own domain
4. Update your BASE_URL environment variable to match

Monitoring & Logs

• View real-time logs in the Deployments tab
• Monitor resource usage in the Metrics tab
• Railway restarts crashed services automatically

Estimated Costs

Total: Free to start, ~$13-22/month for production workloads.

Troubleshooting

Build fails with memory error

• Railway's free tier has limited memory. Upgrade to a paid plan or reduce build concurrency.

Workers not starting

• Check logs for connection errors. Ensure MONGODB_URI and REDIS_URL are correctly set.

Can't connect to database

• Verify you're using the internal Railway URL, not the public one.