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Migrating from Heroku to Railway: A Developer's Journey ​

Note: This article documents my recent migration to Railway and serves as a comprehensive guide for developers considering a similar transition.

After years of hosting my applications on Heroku, the removal of their free tier and increasing costs prompted me to explore alternatives. Railway emerged as the perfect solution for my needs - offering a developer-friendly platform with better ergonomics and more reasonable pricing. This post details my migration experience and why Railway has become my new platform of choice.

Why I Decided to Move ​

My journey away from Heroku was motivated by several factors:

  1. Cost Efficiency: Heroku's pricing had become increasingly difficult to justify, especially for smaller projects and experiments.

  2. Resource Limitations: The removal of Heroku's free tier meant even simple demo apps required paid dynos.

  3. Developer Experience: While Heroku pioneered easy deployments, their dashboard and CLI tools were showing their age.

After researching alternatives like Fly.io, Render, and DigitalOcean App Platform, Railway stood out for its streamlined workflow and transparent pricing model.

What Makes Railway Different ​

Railway offers a refreshing approach to cloud deployment:

  • Project-Based Structure: Unlike Heroku's app-centric model, Railway organizes by projects, making it easier to manage related services.

  • Simplified Environment Variables: Environment management is more intuitive with project-wide and service-specific variables.

  • Seamless Database Integration: Provisioning PostgreSQL databases is remarkably simple.

  • Real-Time Logs: The logging experience is significantly better, with real-time updates and easier filtering.

  • GitHub Integration: Deployments from GitHub repositories couldn't be more straightforward.

The Migration Process ​

Step 1: Setting Up Railway ​

Getting started with Railway was surprisingly simple:

bash
# Install the Railway CLI
npm i -g @railway/cli

# Login to Railway
railway login

# Initialize a new project
railway init

Step 2: Migrating the Database ​

For PostgreSQL databases, Railway made the process nearly painless:

  1. Created a new PostgreSQL service in Railway

  2. Exported my Heroku database using:

    bash
    heroku pg:backups:capture
heroku pg:backups:download

  3. Restored to Railway using their CLI:

    bash
    railway connect postgresql

  4. Imported the dump file directly through the PostgreSQL shell

Step 3: Deploying the Application ​

With the database in place, deploying the application was straightforward:

  1. Connected my GitHub repository to Railway

  2. Set up environment variables to match those from Heroku

  3. Configured the build and start commands

  4. Added a custom domain (Railway provides a free SSL certificate)

The entire process took less than an hour, with zero downtime for users.

Performance Improvements ​

After migration, I noticed several performance improvements:

  1. Faster Cold Starts: Railway's containers spin up noticeably faster than Heroku dynos.

  2. More Responsive Scaling: The platform handles traffic spikes more efficiently.

  3. Improved Database Performance: The PostgreSQL instances feel more responsive.

Cost Savings ​

The most tangible benefit has been cost. For my workload (3 small applications with databases), I've reduced my monthly hosting costs by approximately 40% while getting more resources and better performance.

Railway's pricing model is usage-based rather than instance-based, meaning I only pay for what I actually use rather than for always-on containers.

Challenges and Solutions ​

The migration wasn't without challenges:

  1. Service Dependencies: Setting up the correct dependency order between services required some experimentation.

    • Solution: Used Railway's service dependency configuration.

  2. Custom Domain Setup: Initially struggled with DNS configuration.

    • Solution: Railway's documentation provided clear steps for domain verification.

  3. Cron Jobs: Had to reconfigure scheduled tasks.

    • Solution: Used Railway's cron feature instead of Heroku Scheduler.

Tips for a Successful Migration ​

If you're considering migrating from Heroku to Railway, here are some tips:

  1. Start with a non-critical app to familiarize yourself with the platform.

  2. Use project templates where possible to speed up configuration.

  3. Keep both platforms running in parallel during initial testing.

  4. Migrate databases first, then applications.

  5. Check environment variables thoroughly before switching over.

Conclusion ​

After several months on Railway, I'm confident that switching from Heroku was the right decision. The platform offers better performance, a more intuitive developer experience, and significantly lower costs. For developers frustrated with Heroku's pricing changes or looking for a more modern deployment platform, Railway represents an excellent alternative that strikes the right balance between simplicity and flexibility.

The migration process was smoother than expected, and the few challenges encountered were quickly resolved with Railway's responsive support and comprehensive documentation.

For questions regarding migration strategies or technical implementation details, please contact me directly.