Self-hosting n8n

Try it in one command#

With Node.js between 20.19 and 24.x installed:

npx n8n

n8n starts on http://localhost:5678. Good for evaluating; not a deployment. npm-based installs are deprecated from n8n 3.0, and the AI Assistant is unavailable on them.

Docker Compose is the recommended path#

Docker avoids the operating system and tooling incompatibilities that npm installs run into, and it makes upgrades a matter of changing a tag.

Install Docker

Install Docker Desktop on Mac, Windows, or Linux, or Docker Engine plus Docker Compose on a headless Linux server.

Take a working compose file

n8n publishes configurations for several architectures in the n8n-hosting repository — single instance, Postgres, and queue mode among them. Start from the one closest to your target rather than writing your own.

Persist the data

n8n's state lives in /home/node/.n8n. Mount a named volume there. Without it, every container restart loses your workflows, credentials, and encryption key.

Set the environment

At minimum, set the timezone, the public URL, and a database. Details below.

Start it

docker compose up -d

Check docker compose logs -f on first boot — database connection problems surface there and nowhere else.

Environment variables that matter#

Variable	Why it matters
`N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY`	Encrypts stored credentials. Set it explicitly and back it up — lose it and every credential must be re-entered
`WEBHOOK_URL`	The public URL n8n advertises for webhooks. Wrong value means external services call an address that does not resolve
`GENERIC_TIMEZONE`	The timezone schedule triggers use. Defaults to UTC, which is rarely what a cron expression was written for
`DB_TYPE`	`postgresdb` for anything real. SQLite is the default and does not survive concurrent load
`N8N_HOST`, `N8N_PORT`, `N8N_PROTOCOL`	How n8n builds its own URLs behind a reverse proxy

The encryption key is the one that ends badly. It is generated on first run and stored in the data directory — if that directory is not persisted, a restart produces a new key and every credential becomes unreadable.

Use Postgres, not SQLite#

SQLite is the default and is fine for a single-user trial. For production use Postgres: it handles concurrent executions, survives larger execution histories, and is required for queue mode.

Scale with queue mode#

A single n8n process runs the editor and the executions together. Under load, workflow runs compete with the interface.

Queue mode splits them: a main instance serves the UI and enqueues work, worker instances consume the queue via Redis. Add workers to add throughput. This is also what makes multiple instances possible behind a load balancer.

Cloud providers#

n8n documents deployments for AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Run, Google Kubernetes Engine, DigitalOcean, Heroku, and others. All follow the same shape: a container, a persistent volume, a Postgres database, and a public HTTPS endpoint for webhooks.

What you take on#

Self-hosting is free of licence cost, not free of work:

Upgrades. You choose when, and you read the breaking-change notes.
Backups. The database and the encryption key. A backup missing the key restores nothing usable.
TLS and reverse proxying. Webhooks need a valid certificate on a public address.
Monitoring. Nobody is paged when your instance stops.

If that list reads as a cost rather than a feature, n8n Cloud does it for you.

n8n Cloud — the managed alternative
Security and credentials — encryption and secret handling
Handle errors — failures above the infrastructure layer

Updated Aug 15, 2026