Belmo
Deploy Railsin minutes.
Push your Ruby on Rails project to GitHub and Belmo runs the full production setup — asset precompilation, database migrations, Puma configuration. No Capistrano recipes, no nginx configs, no DevOps. Your full-stack Rails app goes from repo to live URL automatically.
Steps
1. Connect your GitHub
Sign up and install the Belmo GitHub App. We'll list all your repositories — pick the one with your Rails project.
2. We detect Rails
Belmo identifies Rails projects by scanning for a Gemfile containing the rails gem alongside config/routes.rb. We detect the Rails version, determine whether you're using Sprockets or Propshaft for assets, and check for JavaScript bundling via esbuild, Webpacker, or importmaps. The Ruby version is read from .ruby-version or your Gemfile constraints.
3. Your app is live
During deployment, we run assets:precompile to build your CSS and JavaScript bundles, then start Puma with production-tuned thread and worker settings. Your controllers, views, Action Cable channels, and Active Storage uploads all work immediately. Active Job background processing is supported if you configure a queue adapter through environment variables.
Rails deployment without the operations burden
rails db:migrate runs on every deploy
rails db:migrate runs as a release-phase task before traffic shifts. If a migration fails, the new version doesn't go live and you keep serving the old one. Add db:seed or custom rake tasks via the release hook in your Procfile-equivalent config.
assets:precompile and Propshaft
rails assets:precompile runs at build time. Sprockets, Propshaft, importmap, jsbundling-rails (esbuild/rollup/webpack), and cssbundling-rails (Tailwind, Bootstrap, Sass) are all detected from your Gemfile and pipeline. Fingerprinted assets get long cache headers.
master.key from RAILS_MASTER_KEY env
Don't commit config/master.key. Set RAILS_MASTER_KEY as a Belmo env var and Rails decrypts credentials.yml.enc at boot. Rotate without redeploying. The same trick works for config/credentials/production.key in multi-environment setups.
Action Cable and WebSockets
Action Cable connections terminate at our load balancer and forward cleanly to your Puma workers. Set ALLOWED_REQUEST_ORIGINS via env to your custom domain. Use the managed Redis add-on or your own as the pub/sub layer.
Sidekiq, GoodJob, Solid Queue
Whichever job runner you've chosen, deploy it as a separate service. bundle exec sidekiq, bundle exec good_job start, or Rails 8's Solid Queue all run alongside your web service with the same env and code revision.
Free Rails app, no sleeping dynos
The classic Rails-on-free-Heroku experience without the 30-minute sleep. Your hobby Rails app stays warm, your demo doesn't take 12 seconds to wake up, and your Hello World on the Starter plan costs $0 with HTTPS included.
Ready to deploy your Rails app?
From GitHub to production in under 5 minutes. No credit card needed.
Key facts and common questions
Rails hosting on Belmo is a managed Platform-as-a-Service that builds and runs your Rails application directly from a GitHub repository, without you operating servers, container registries, or build pipelines.
What is the fastest way to deploy a Rails app on Belmo?
Install the Belmo GitHub App on the repository, pick the branch, and click Deploy. Belmo detects config/application.rb, runs bundle install and assets:precompile, applies pending migrations, and boots Puma with the right thread count for your plan. The first deploy of a standard Rails project finishes in about 2–4 minutes.
How long does a Rails deployment take on Belmo?
A typical Rails app with a precompiled asset pipeline deploys in 2–4 minutes on the first deploy and 60–90 seconds on subsequent deploys (gems and assets are cached).
Which Rails versions does Belmo support?
Belmo supports Rails 6.1, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, and 8.0 on Ruby 3.2+. Ruby version is read from .ruby-version or the ruby directive in your Gemfile.
How much does it cost to deploy a Rails app on Belmo?
The Starter plan is free for one always-on Rails service. Hobby is $19/month for 3 services on shared infrastructure. Pro is $35/month for 10 services on a dedicated CX22 server. See pricing for the full plan matrix.