The best free self-hosted web-based file manager.
Filebrowser-Quantum is a modern, self-hosted web file manager for browsing, uploading, sharing, and organizing files through a clean responsive UI. It supports multiple storage “sources,” indexed search with real-time updates, granular access control, and flexible authentication options.
Hosting Filebrowser-Quantum is mainly about persistence and access. You deploy the service (commonly via Docker), attach a persistent volume for its database/config/cache, and configure one or more “sources” that point to the directories you want to manage. You’ll set an admin password and can optionally enable SSO (OIDC), define sharing rules, and tune indexing/previews. Make sure the cache and database paths are writable and mapped to durable storage so data survives redeploys.
config.yaml defining server settings and file “sources”Minimal config.yaml example (adjust paths to match your Railway volume mounts):
server:
port: 80
database: "/home/filebrowser/data/database.db"
cacheDir: "/home/filebrowser/data/tmp"
sources:
- path: /srv
config:
defaultEnabled: true
Common env vars you’ll set in Railway:
FILEBROWSER_CONFIG=/home/filebrowser/data/config.yaml
FILEBROWSER_ADMIN_PASSWORD=change-me
Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.
By deploying Filebrowser-Quantum on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.