Move from Railway to Naijacloud

Your Railway service running on Naijacloud as a web service, with its variables, its Postgres data and its domain, and the Railway project kept as a rollback.

About an hour of work, after a 48-hour wait for DNSDowntime: none to a few minutes, if you follow the orderLast verified 7 Oct 2026

What things are called here

On Railway

On Naijacloud

RailwayProject

Project

RailwayService from a repo

Web service from GitHub or a public Git URL

RailwayService from a Docker image

Web service from a Docker image

RailwayEnvironment

Environment in a project

RailwayPostgres

Postgres database

RailwayMySQL, MongoDB

MySQL, MariaDB or MongoDB database

RailwayRedis

Cache (Redis or Valkey)

RailwayCron schedule on a service

Cron job, in UTC, up to 1 hour per run

RailwayShared and reference variables

No references. Set the resolved value on each service

RailwayVolumes

No attached disks. Use object storage

Railwayrailway.json / railway.toml

No config file. Service settings in the dashboard or the CLI

RailwayUsage-based billing

A fixed hourly rate per size, in naira, from a prepaid balance

Before you move: what Railway has that we don't

Billing by actual CPU and memory use. An idle service costs the same here as a busy one of its size.
Volumes attached to a service.
Reference variables that resolve another service’s values.
The template gallery.
A SOC 2 report.
Regions outside Africa and Europe.

If your app depends on one of these, stay on Railway for now.

The cutover, in order

The order is what keeps the site up. Each step below matches one point on this line.

01Lower DNS TTL48 hours before. Set the record to 60 seconds.
02Deploy here and add the domainTraffic still goes to Railway.
03Certificate issuedWait for it before you touch DNS, where you can.
04Copy the dataDump, restore, compare the counts.
05Switch DNSPoint the record at Naijacloud.
06Keep the old project 7 daysGoing back is one DNS change.

Lower the DNS TTL, 48 hours before

At your DNS provider, set the TTL on the record that points your domain at Railway to 60 seconds, then wait at least as long as the old TTL.

Deploy here and add the domain

In the dashboard, create a Database (Postgres) and copy its Internal URL. Then create a Web service from the same repository and branch, or from the same Docker image if Railway deploys one. Copy Railway’s custom build and start commands across if you set any.

Export the service’s variables from Railway and load them here:

Terminal

$ railway link

$ railway variables --kv > railway.env

$ npm install -g @naijacloud/cli

$ naijacloud login

$ naijacloud env import railway.env --service my-app

Reference variables come out of railway variables already resolved, pointing at Railway’s hosts. Delete DATABASE_URL, any REDIS_URL and every RAILWAY_ variable from the file before importing, then set DATABASE_URL to the new database’s Internal URL under Variables and run naijacloud redeploy my-app. Test the app on its naijacloud.app address.

Then open Domains, enter your domain in Custom domain and click Add domain. Add the records it lists that prove ownership and issue the certificate. Don’t change the routing record yet.

Wait for the certificate

Where the Domains table lists ownership and HTTPS records, the certificate is issued while traffic is still on Railway. Wait until the domain shows Verified · HTTPS ready.

If the table lists only one routing record (an A record, as it does for a root domain and in some regions), the certificate is issued in the minutes after the record points here. Plan the switch for a quiet hour.

Copy the data

Use PostgreSQL 18 client tools. Railway’s Postgres service has a DATABASE_PUBLIC_URL variable for connections from outside Railway; use that one. On Naijacloud, add your IP under the database’s External access → Specific IPs, switch Connection to External · TLS and copy the Connection URL.

Terminal

$ pg_dump --format=custom --no-owner --no-acl \

"$DATABASE_PUBLIC_URL" -f app.dump

$ pg_restore --clean --if-exists --no-owner --no-acl \

--dbname "$NAIJACLOUD_DATABASE_URL" app.dump

How to know the restore is complete. Run analyze; on both databases first — n_live_tup is only an estimate until you do. Then compare the table list, exact counts on your two or three largest tables, the sequence values, and the extension list. Matching row counts with a sequence still sitting at 1 means the next insert will collide.

verify.sql · run on both, compare line for line

analyze;

select relname, n_live_tup from pg_stat_user_tables order by relname;

select count(*) from orders; -- your largest table

select last_value from orders_id_seq; -- sequences advanced

select extname from pg_extension order by 1; -- extensions present

If a Railway service writes files to a volume, move them to a bucket in Object storage and change the code to write there; there is no disk to copy them to. Add file uploads with object storage shows the client setup.

Switch DNS

At your DNS provider, replace Railway’s record with the routing record shown in Domains. With a 60-second TTL, most visitors follow within minutes. Leave the custom domain on the Railway service.

Keep the old project for 7 days

Leave the Railway service and its Postgres running. Its up.railway.app address keeps working, which makes it easy to check the old version still answers if you need it.

CostSee the price differenceThe comparison page prices the same setup on Railway and on Naijacloud, from the current price list.Naijacloud vs Railway →

RollbackKeep these for 7 days

The Railway service, still deployed
The Railway Postgres service and its volume
The app.dump file
The 60-second TTL on your record

To go back: point the record at Railway again. Its up.railway.app address shows the old version is still running.