Migrate from Railway

Railway and Stackpad are similar in concept — both are PaaS platforms where you deploy full-stack apps with databases. This guide covers the differences and how to migrate.

What stays the same

• Git push to deploy — both platforms deploy on push
• Project + services model — same concept of projects containing multiple services
• Database services — PostgreSQL, MySQL/MariaDB, Redis as project services
• Private networking — services communicate via internal DNS
• Environment variables — set in the dashboard, injected at runtime
• Templates — pre-configured multi-service stacks

What’s different

Feature	Railway	Stackpad
Infrastructure	GCP (US-based)	Hetzner (EU-based)
GDPR	US company	EU company, EU-only infrastructure
Pricing model	Usage-based (RAM/CPU per minute)	Fixed monthly plan + overages
Regions	US-West, US-East, EU-West	EU only (multiple locations)
CLI	railway CLI	Dashboard-only (for now)
Nixpacks	Yes (custom buildpack)	Dockerfile generation (framework-specific)
Volumes	Persistent volumes	Persistent volumes for databases
Cron jobs	Cron service type	Use templates (e.g. n8n for scheduling)

Step-by-step migration

1. Create a project on Stackpad

1. Sign up at app.stackpad.eu
2. Create a new project
3. Connect your GitHub repository

2. Move environment variables

In Railway, export your variables from the service settings. In Stackpad:

1. Go to your project’s Environment Variables page
2. Click Paste .env and paste all your variables
3. Click Import

Note

Railway’s RAILWAY_* system variables don’t exist on Stackpad. Remove references to RAILWAY_ENVIRONMENT, RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN, etc.

3. Add database services

If you have PostgreSQL on Railway:

1. Click Add Service in your Stackpad project
2. Select PostgreSQL
3. Stackpad auto-generates credentials and injects DATABASE_URL
4. Redeploy your web service to pick up the connection string

The DATABASE_URL format is the same standard PostgreSQL connection string. If you’re using Prisma or Drizzle, no code changes needed.

4. Migrate your data

To migrate data from Railway to Stackpad:

1. Export from Railway: use pg_dump to create a backup of your Railway database
2. Enable Public access on your Stackpad PostgreSQL service
3. Import: run psql with the Stackpad connection string to restore the backup
4. Disable public access when done

5. Deploy and test

1. Push to your branch — Stackpad builds and deploys automatically
2. Test with the default *.stackpad.eu URL
3. Verify database connectivity and application behavior

6. Switch your domain

1. Add your domain in Stackpad’s Domains page
2. Update DNS records (CNAME for subdomains, A for root)
3. Wait for HTTPS certificate provisioning
4. Remove the domain from Railway

Pricing comparison

	Railway (estimate)	Stackpad
Web app (256MB RAM, 0.25 CPU)	~$5/month	Included in plan
PostgreSQL (256MB)	~$5/month	Included in plan
Redis (128MB)	~$3/month	Included in plan
Total	~$13/month + bandwidth	€9/month (Starter)

Stackpad’s fixed pricing makes costs predictable — no surprise bills from traffic spikes.

What’s next?

• Production checklist — verify before going live
• Troubleshooting — common issues and fixes
• Templates — browse available templates