Complete Guide to Self-Hosting n8n in 2025

Self-hosting n8n gives you complete data sovereignty, no per-execution pricing, and the ability to run unlimited workflows. The tradeoff is infrastructure responsibility — but with Docker and a modern VPS, the setup takes under 2 hours and maintenance is minimal. This is the exact stack we use for client deployments that handle sensitive data.

What You'll Need

• A VPS with at least 2 vCPU / 4GB RAM (we recommend Hetzner CX22 at €5.77/mo, or DigitalOcean Droplet 4GB)
• A domain name pointed at your server's IP
• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
• Basic Linux CLI familiarity

Step 1: Server Setup

# SSH into your server
ssh root@your-server-ip

# Update packages
apt update && apt upgrade -y

# Install Docker
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
systemctl enable docker

# Install Nginx + Certbot
apt install nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y

Step 2: PostgreSQL Database

n8n uses SQLite by default, which is fine for personal use but breaks under concurrent load. For production, use PostgreSQL.

# docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'
services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres:16
    restart: always
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: n8n
      POSTGRES_USER: n8n
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n:latest
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "5678:5678"
    environment:
      - DB_TYPE=postgresdb
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=postgres
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE=n8n
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_USER=n8n
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD=${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=${N8N_USER}
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=${N8N_PASSWORD}
      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://n8n.yourdomain.com
      - N8N_PROTOCOL=https
      - N8N_HOST=n8n.yourdomain.com
      - EXECUTIONS_PROCESS=main
      - N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY=${N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY}
    volumes:
      - n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n
    depends_on:
      - postgres

volumes:
  postgres_data:
  n8n_data:

Step 3: SSL with Nginx

# /etc/nginx/sites-available/n8n
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name n8n.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:5678;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
        # Required for n8n websockets
        proxy_read_timeout 88400;
        send_timeout 88400;
    }
}

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/n8n /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
certbot --nginx -d n8n.yourdomain.com
systemctl reload nginx

Step 4: Queue Mode for High-Volume Workflows

Queue mode uses Redis to distribute workflow execution across multiple worker processes — essential if you're running more than ~20 concurrent workflows or have long-running jobs.

# Add to docker-compose.yml
  redis:
    image: redis:7
    restart: always

  n8n-worker:
    image: n8nio/n8n:latest
    command: worker
    environment:
      # Same env vars as n8n, plus:
      - EXECUTIONS_PROCESS=worker
      - QUEUE_BULL_REDIS_HOST=redis
    depends_on:
      - redis
      - postgres

Set EXECUTIONS_PROCESS=queue on the main n8n instance and worker on worker instances. Scale worker replicas with docker-compose up --scale n8n-worker=3.

Step 5: Monitoring with Grafana

n8n exposes Prometheus metrics at /metrics (enable with N8N_METRICS=true). Key metrics to watch:

• n8n_executions_total — total executions by workflow and status
• n8n_executions_duration_seconds — p50/p95 execution time
• n8n_failed_executions_total — alert on spikes
• nodejs_heap_space_size_used_bytes — memory usage

Add a Prometheus scrape target for your n8n instance and import the community n8n Grafana dashboard (ID: 17556).

Backup Strategy

Daily PostgreSQL dumps to S3-compatible storage:

# /etc/cron.daily/n8n-backup
#!/bin/bash
docker exec postgres pg_dump -U n8n n8n | gzip |   aws s3 cp - s3://your-bucket/n8n/backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql.gz

Also back up the n8n_data volume which contains credentials and workflow files.

Need help deploying n8n for your team? Book a free audit — we set up and manage n8n infrastructure as part of our automation packages.