Run your business on software you own.
Railbase is a self-hosted business operating platform for growing companies: one private system for data, users, approvals, documents, workflows and modular business apps.
More structured than spreadsheets. More integrated than SaaS sprawl. Lighter than ERP.
Latest stable … · Free core to self-host. macOS, Linux and Windows, amd64/arm64.
When spreadsheets and SaaS sprawl stop scaling
Approvals live in chat, customer and vendor records are duplicated across tools, documents are hard to audit, and every new SaaS subscription creates another data island. Railbase puts operating records, workflows and business modules in one private system.
One private operating system
Everything a growing company needs to run on records it owns — identity, documents, approvals and audit — in a single self-hosted binary, with business modules installing on top at runtime. Not just a bare backend like PocketBase or Supabase.
Private data system
One self-hosted Vault file holds your business records — no external database, no container stack. A backup is a copy of one file.
Users, tenants & roles
One shared identity model with multi-tenant isolation and role-based access control across every module.
Documents & audit
Built-in file storage, versioning and access logs, so evidence, policies and reports have one governance layer.
Approvals & workflows
Approvals and work items live on business objects — not in email and chat — on one shared task and authority surface.
Install the modules your company needs
The marketplace is organised by business capability — start with one module and expand into a suite when you're ready.
Finance
GL · AP · AR · FAMonth close, subledgers and audit-ready books on one shared ledger.
Governance
Risk · Compliance · Documents · TasksRisk ownership, controls, evidence and board/audit reporting.
Operations
Inventory · PTP · Sales · ConnectorPurchase flow, stock movements and operational approvals.
People
LMS · HTR · DocumentsTraining, onboarding, acknowledgments and policy evidence.
Commerce
Shop · Sales · ARStorefront, orders and revenue posting for growing sellers.
Productivity & Documents
Translate · Chat · DocumentsTranslation, internal collaboration and document workflow.
Private by default, simple to operate
Self-hosting Railbase is one binary and one file — designed to run on your server or private cloud, with your IT partner if you have one.
- One binary to run — no container stack to orchestrate.
- One Vault file to back up — a backup is a file copy.
- Your server or private cloud — operating records never leave it.
- No vendor database holding your business data.
- railbase.app handles the catalog, licenses and signed artifacts.
- Built-in AI that can run on your own hardware — no prompts sent to a model vendor.
Adopt Railbase gradually
There is a path beyond "download" — start free and grow module by module.
- 1Start with the free self-hosted core.
- 2Install one business module or suite.
- 3Migrate a process off spreadsheets and SaaS.
- 4Add integrations or a custom module as you grow.
What is Railbase?
Railbase is a self-hosted business operating platform. It combines a private backend runtime with installable business modules, so a growing company can run core workflows, approvals, documents and operational records in one system it owns.
Under the hood it ships as a single self-hosted binary: authentication, an embedded NoSQL document database (Vault), REST APIs with auto-CRUD, realtime subscriptions, multi-tenancy with role-based access control, file storage, scheduled jobs and a full admin console — no external database and no container stack to operate.
Business capability comes from modules — finance (GL/AP/AR/FA), risk, operations, documents, learning, translation and more. They are commercial modules you buy in the built-in marketplace and install at runtime as signed, licensed bundles. The core is free; you pay only for the modules you run.
Frequently asked questions
What is Railbase?
A self-hosted business operating platform: one private system for your business data, users, approvals, documents, workflows and installable business modules — delivered as a single binary with no external database to run.
Is Railbase free?
The core is free to download and self-host on Linux, macOS and Windows, with no usage metering — it is the adoption and trust anchor, not the product's price story. Commercial business modules are paid, priced by the value metric that fits the work, and many offer a one-time free trial.
How is Railbase different from Supabase, Firebase or PocketBase?
Those are backend infrastructure categories. Railbase is a business operating platform: on top of a private self-hosted runtime it ships business modules and company workflows — finance, risk, operations, documents — on shared identity and data, not just auth, data and API primitives.
Where is my data stored?
In a single Vault file — an embedded NoSQL document store — on your own server. A backup is a copy of one file, and moving hosts is copying it somewhere else.
How do business modules work?
Modules are signed, licensed bundles sold on the marketplace. Your instance downloads the bundle, verifies its signature and runs it at runtime — no rebuild, no third-party code to vet. Pricing depends on the module: company-wide, operator seat, usage, tenant/company plan, or custom.
Is Railbase still for developers?
Yes — developers, technical founders and implementation partners build and operate Railbase. But the product is designed around business operations: finance, risk, documents, workflows and integrations, not just a backend to code against.
Does Railbase use PostgreSQL or a SQL database?
No. Railbase stores everything in Vault — an embedded, single-file NoSQL document store that ships inside the binary. There is no PostgreSQL, MySQL or any external SQL database to run; a backup is a copy of one file.
Who is Railbase for?
Growing small and medium enterprises — roughly 20–500 people — that have outgrown spreadsheets and scattered SaaS but do not want a heavy ERP rollout. It works best when the company has a technical operator, IT partner or private server/VPS where it can self-host one binary.
Is Railbase an ERP?
Railbase is lighter than a traditional ERP. It gives you shared data, users, documents, approvals and modular business apps that you adopt gradually — no multi-year rollout before first value.
Can viewers and auditors access data without paid seats?
Yes. Viewer, self-service and auditor-style roles are free — they never consume a paid seat. Paid seats apply only to operator roles that do the work in seat-priced modules; other modules are company-wide, usage or tenant/company plans.
Does Railbase send my business data to an AI company?
Only if you choose to. AI is built into the core, but no model is configured out of the box — until you connect one, the AI features are simply unavailable and nothing else changes. You can point Railbase at a model running on your own hardware: an OpenAI-compatible server on your network, or a model file the core runs inside its own process. In that setup prompts and documents never leave your machine. If you do connect a cloud model instead, credentials and secrets are stripped before anything is sent, and every AI action is written to a tamper-evident audit trail under its own account.