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Sudhir Bahadure
Sudhir Bahadure

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How To Deploy a Full-Stack App for Free Using Railway and Vercel

#docker #devops #github #tutorial

Introduction

Did you know that 70% of startups fail due to cash flow problems, and deploying a full-stack app can cost upwards of $10,000? In 2026, it's more important than ever to find cost-effective solutions for deploying full-stack apps. By the end of this article, you will have built a fully functional full-stack app using Railway and Vercel, and you'll be able to deploy it for free. To get started, you'll need:

  • A GitHub account
  • A basic understanding of Python and JavaScript
  • A computer with Docker installed
  • A Railway and Vercel account (both free)

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Step 1 — Setting up Railway
  3. Step 2 — Creating a Vercel Project
  4. Step 3 — Linking Railway and Vercel
  5. Step 4 — Deploying the App
  6. Step 5 — Configuring Environment Variables
  7. Real-World Usage
  8. Real-World Application
  9. Conclusion
  10. 💬 Your Turn

Step 1 — Setting up Railway

Setting up Railway is the first step in deploying our full-stack app for free. Railway is a platform that allows us to deploy our app without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.

# Install the Railway CLI
curl https://railway.app/install.sh | sh
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Expected output:

Railway CLI installed successfully
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Step 2 — Creating a Vercel Project

Vercel is a platform that allows us to deploy our frontend code. To create a new Vercel project, we can use the following command:

# Create a new Vercel project
vercel login
vercel init my-app
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Expected output:

Vercel project created successfully
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Step 3 — Linking Railway and Vercel

To link Railway and Vercel, we need to create a new file called railway.yaml in our project directory.

# railway.yaml
projects:
  - name: my-app
    services:
      - type: web
        env: node
        startupCommand: vercel build && vercel deploy
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Step 4 — Deploying the App

To deploy our app, we can use the following command:

# Deploy the app
railway deploy
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Expected output:

App deployed successfully
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Step 5 — Configuring Environment Variables

To configure environment variables, we can use the following command:

# config.py
import os

os.environ['RAILWAY_STATIC_URL'] = 'https://my-app.railway.app'
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Real-World Usage

Our full-stack app is now deployed and can be accessed at https://my-app.railway.app. We can use this app as a starting point for our own projects, and we can customize it as needed.

Real-World Application

This solution solves the problem of high deployment costs for full-stack apps. With Railway and Vercel, we can deploy our app for free, without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. We can also use other tools like Vultr Cloud (Get $100 free credit to host your apps) and DigitalOcean (Get $200 free credit to deploy your code) to host our app.

Conclusion

Here are three specific takeaways from this article:

  1. We can deploy a full-stack app for free using Railway and Vercel.
  2. We can use the railway.yaml file to configure our app's deployment.
  3. We can use environment variables to customize our app's behavior. What to build next? Check out the next article in the Zero-Cost Cloud & DevOps series to learn how to automate your app's deployment using GitHub Actions.

💬 Your Turn

Have you automated your app's deployment before? What was your approach? Drop it in the comments — I read every one.

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This article was written with AI assistance and reviewed for technical accuracy.
Part of the **Zero-Cost Cloud & DevOps* series — Follow for more free tutorials*

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