Deploying Django to Railway

Railway is a cloud platform with a free tier. Deploy from GitHub in minutes.

Preparing the project

pip install gunicorn whitenoise dj-database-url
pip freeze > requirements.txt

# settings.py
import os
import dj_database_url

DEBUG = os.environ.get('DEBUG', 'False') == 'True'
SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get('SECRET_KEY')
ALLOWED_HOSTS = os.environ.get('ALLOWED_HOSTS', '').split(',')

# Database from environment variable
DATABASES = {
    'default': dj_database_url.config(
        default=os.environ.get('DATABASE_URL'),
        conn_max_age=600,
    )
}

# Static files via whitenoise
MIDDLEWARE = [
    'whitenoise.middleware.WhiteNoiseMiddleware',
    ...
]
STATIC_ROOT = BASE_DIR / 'staticfiles'
STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'

Procfile

Create a Procfile in the project root:

web: gunicorn mysite.wsgi --workers 2 --bind 0.0.0.0:$PORT
release: python manage.py migrate

.gitignore

.env
*.pyc
__pycache__/
db.sqlite3
staticfiles/
media/

Deploying to Railway

1. Push the project to GitHub
2. Go to railway.app → New Project → Deploy from GitHub
3. Select your repository
4. Add PostgreSQL: New → Database → PostgreSQL
5. In the service settings, add the following variables:
   - SECRET_KEY — generate one: python -c "from django.core.management.utils import get_random_secret_key; print(get_random_secret_key())"
   - DEBUG = False
   - ALLOWED_HOSTS = your-app.railway.app
   - DATABASE_URL — pulled in automatically from the PostgreSQL service

Post-deploy commands

# In Railway → Service → Shell (or via CLI)
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py collectstatic --no-input
python manage.py createsuperuser