How to Deploy a Django App on Railway in 10 Minutes

Deploying a Django app shouldn't take a full day of DevOps work. Railway changes that.

What You Need

• A Django project on GitHub
• A requirements.txt with gunicorn and whitenoise
• A Procfile with: web: gunicorn yourproject.wsgi --bind 0.0.0.0:$PORT

Step 1: Connect GitHub

Sign in to Railway, click "New Project", select "Deploy from GitHub Repo". Pick your repo. Railway auto-detects Python.

Step 2: Add PostgreSQL

Click "+ New" → "Database" → "PostgreSQL". Railway automatically sets the DATABASE_URL environment variable. Your Django app picks it up if you're using django-environ or dj-database-url.

Step 3: Set Environment Variables

Add these in your service's Variables tab:
- SECRET_KEY — generate one with python -c "from django.core.management.utils import get_random_secret_key; print(get_random_secret_key())"
- DEBUG = False
- ALLOWED_HOSTS = .railway.app

Step 4: Deploy

Railway builds and deploys automatically. Run python manage.py migrate and python manage.py createsuperuser in Railway's shell.

That's it. Your Django app is live with PostgreSQL, SSL, and auto-deploys on every push.

Why Railway Over Heroku?

• Free tier with $5/mo credit (Heroku killed their free tier)
• PostgreSQL included (no add-on needed)
• Faster builds
• Better UI
• No credit card required to start

The whole process takes under 10 minutes. We use Railway for all our client projects at Altitudz — it's the fastest path from code to production.