n8n Self-Hosting Guide: Deploy on a VPS in 30 Minutes

13 May 2026 — 4 min read

Self-hosting n8n on a VPS gives you full control over your automation workflows — no usage limits, no vendor lock-in, and your data stays on your infrastructure. If you have a basic Linux VPS (2GB RAM minimum, Ubuntu 22.04 recommended), you can have n8n running in production in under 30 minutes. Here's exactly how to do it.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have the following in place:

A VPS with at least 2GB RAM and 20GB disk — DigitalOcean, Hetzner, and Hostinger KVM2 all work well
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (or Debian 11+)
A domain or subdomain pointing to your VPS IP (e.g., n8n.yourdomain.com)
SSH access to root or a sudo user

You do not need Docker experience, but this guide uses Docker Compose because it makes updates and restarts trivial. If you prefer a raw Node.js install, the n8n docs cover that too — but Docker is the path with the least operational pain.

Install Docker and Docker Compose

SSH into your VPS and run the following commands to install Docker:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh — installs Docker Engine
apt install docker-compose-plugin -y — adds the Compose plugin
systemctl enable docker && systemctl start docker — ensures Docker starts on reboot

Verify the install with docker --version and docker compose version. Both should return version strings without errors.

Configure n8n with Docker Compose

Create a working directory and a docker-compose.yml file:

mkdir /opt/n8n && cd /opt/n8n
Create docker-compose.yml with the following content:

version: "3.8"
services:
  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "5678:5678"
    environment:
      - N8N_HOST=n8n.yourdomain.com
      - N8N_PORT=5678
      - N8N_PROTOCOL=https
      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://n8n.yourdomain.com/
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=admin
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=changethis
      - GENERIC_TIMEZONE=America/Sao_Paulo
    volumes:
      - n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n

volumes:
  n8n_data:

Replace n8n.yourdomain.com with your actual subdomain and set a strong password. The volume ensures your workflows and credentials persist across container restarts and updates.

Set Up Nginx as a Reverse Proxy with SSL

Running n8n directly on port 5678 is fine for testing, but for production you need HTTPS. Install Nginx and Certbot:

apt install nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
Create /etc/nginx/sites-available/n8n with a server block that proxies to localhost:5678
Run certbot --nginx -d n8n.yourdomain.com to issue and auto-configure a free Let's Encrypt certificate
Enable the site: ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/n8n /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ && nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx

Your Nginx config should include proxy_pass http://localhost:5678, proxy_http_version 1.1, and the standard WebSocket upgrade headers — n8n's UI relies on WebSocket connections. Certbot will handle the SSL block automatically.

Start n8n with docker compose up -d from /opt/n8n. Navigate to https://n8n.yourdomain.com in your browser. You should see the login prompt.

Post-Install Checklist

Once n8n is running, a few things will save you headaches later:

Set up automated backups of the n8n_data Docker volume — workflows are stored there, and losing them hurts
Configure UFW to block port 5678 from external access: ufw deny 5678 — traffic should only come through Nginx
Test webhook delivery by creating a simple webhook workflow and triggering it from curl
Add N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY to your environment with a random 32-char string to encrypt stored credentials at rest
Schedule docker compose pull && docker compose up -d as a monthly cron to stay on current n8n releases

With the infrastructure running, the real leverage comes from what you build on top of it. If you want a head start instead of building every workflow from scratch, check out these ready-made n8n templates — production-ready workflows covering CRM integrations, lead routing, AI pipelines, and more, ready to import directly into your self-hosted instance.

Self-hosting n8n is a one-time setup cost that pays back immediately in flexibility. You control the execution environment, the data, the uptime SLA, and the cost curve. Once it's running, maintaining it is mostly docker compose pull once a month and keeping your SSL cert renewal automated — which Certbot handles by default.