# Introduction

> What Railbase is, how plugins are sold, and where railbase.app fits in.

_Updated: 2026-06-07_

**Railbase is a single Go binary you self-host.** It gives you a production-grade
backend — auth, a typed data layer, REST + realtime APIs, jobs, an admin
console — out of one executable with no external database to operate.

The core is free to download and run. The capabilities that turn it into a
*product* — accounting, inventory, procurement, helpdesk, and so on — are
**plugins**: paid subscriptions you buy and install at runtime from a
marketplace built into the admin. There is no rebuild and no third-party code to
vet; the core pulls a signed, licensed artifact and runs it.

![The railbase.app home page](/docs/ys-home.png "railbase.app — download the free Railbase core and browse the plugin marketplace.")

## The three pieces

| Piece | What it is | Who runs it |
|---|---|---|
| **Railbase core** | The free single binary you download and host | You |
| **Plugins** | Paid, signed add-ons installed at runtime | You (bought via the marketplace) |
| **railbase.app** | The vendor's licensing, distribution & billing server | The vendor (this site) |

You run the core. **railbase.app is the source of truth** for the catalog, prices,
your licenses, and payments — your instance syncs with it to discover plugins,
complete purchases, fetch signed artifacts, and keep licenses fresh. You never
download a plugin file by hand, and your server never stores card data.

![The Railbase plugin storefront on railbase.app](/docs/ys-plugins.png "The storefront catalog: each plugin is a paid, per-seat subscription your instance installs at runtime.")

> [!NOTE]
> railbase.app is a secondary resource for day-to-day work. **Everything you can do on
> this site — browse, buy, install, manage billing — you can also do from inside
> your own Railbase admin.** See [Installing plugins](installing-plugins).

## What you'll find in these docs

- **[Quickstart](quickstart)** — download, run, and install your first plugin in
  a few minutes.
- **Core Concepts** — the [architecture](architecture), [how plugins
  work](how-plugins-work), and [licensing & seats](licensing-and-seats).
- **Guides** — day-to-day tasks like [installing plugins](installing-plugins)
  and [managing billing](managing-billing).
- **Self-Hosting** — [deploying](deployment), [backups](backups-and-restore),
  and [security](security) for production.
- **Reference** — the [CLI](cli) and [environment variables](environment-variables).

## What Railbase is *not*

> [!IMPORTANT]
> In the **hosted distribution** model, third-party plugins are acquired only
> through the built-in marketplace as signed, verified artifacts — there is no
> "sideload an untrusted binary from disk" path. (First-party plugins can also be
> registered into a self-hosted build at compile time; that's a build you control,
> not a downloaded binary.) See [How plugins work](how-plugins-work) and
> [Installing plugins](installing-plugins).