n8n Cloud vs Self-Hosted: Cost, Upkeep and Data Control

Which should a small business choose?

Choose n8n Cloud if nobody on your team wants to look after a server. Choose self-hosting if someone technical will own it, you want no execution quota, or the data has to stay on infrastructure you control. The decision is less about the price on the page and more about who gets the alert at 2 a.m. when the server fills up.

If you are still choosing between n8n and other tools, start with n8n vs Make vs Zapier, which prices one workflow on each.

What does n8n Cloud cost?

n8n publishes three cloud-style tiers and a contact-sales tier. These are the figures on n8n's pricing page, checked 7 November 2026. All prices are shown as billed annually.

Two things in this table matter more than the headline price. First, an execution is one run of a whole workflow, so a long workflow does not cost more per run. Second, the limits that hurt small teams are usually the 5-minute maximum run time on Starter and the number of executions, not the number of workflows: Starter and Pro both list unlimited active workflows.

One caution about the page itself: the Business card lists Git version control and queue mode, while the feature table marks both as Enterprise. If either matters to your decision, ask n8n to confirm in writing before you buy.

What does self-hosting actually involve?

Self-hosting means n8n gives you the software and you provide everything around it. n8n's documentation lists Docker Compose setups on a virtual machine (for example DigitalOcean or Hetzner), serverless containers on Google Cloud Run and Kubernetes starting points for AWS, Azure and Google, so there are many ways to do it. Whichever you pick, these jobs become yours:

• A server and a domain with HTTPS. The cost depends on the provider and size you choose. We have not quoted a figure because it varies by provider and region.
• A database. n8n supports SQLite and PostgreSQL. SQLite is the default for self-hosted installs, stored at ~/.n8n/database.sqlite. PostgreSQL is supported in versions 17 and 18, plus 16 for compatibility, per n8n's database documentation.
• Backups. n8n documents n8n export:workflow --backup and n8n export:credentials --backup, which write each workflow or credential to its own file. Its CLI documentation warns that exporting credentials with --decrypted writes sensitive data in plain text, so those files need protecting.
• The encryption key. n8n encrypts credentials with a key it generates on first launch and saves in the ~/.n8n folder, or that you can set with N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY (n8n docs). Store a copy with your backups, because credentials in a database backup are useless without it to someone restoring.
• Updates and security patches. Nobody does these for you.
• Monitoring. If the server stops, workflows stop silently unless you set up an alert.

The time cost is the real price of self-hosting. A server that costs little can still cost a lot if the person maintaining it bills by the hour, and a workflow that quietly stopped running a week ago costs more than either.

What does the free Community Edition leave out?

Self-hosting the Community Edition is not the same product as the paid plans. According to n8n's documentation on Community Edition features, the free edition does not include:

• custom variables
• environments
• external secrets
• external storage for binary data
• log streaming
• multi-main mode
• projects
• SSO (SAML, LDAP)
• sharing of workflows and credentials
• Git version control

It does include queue mode and logging. Registering the Community Edition with an email address, which is free, adds folders, debug in editor and custom execution data.

For a one-person business this list is mostly irrelevant. For a team of five, the missing sharing and projects features are the ones that bite: workflows and credentials belong to the person who created them, and there is no built-in Git history of changes. If several people will edit workflows, price that limitation in before you assume free is cheaper.

What does the licence allow?

n8n is source-available, not open source in the usual sense. The Community Edition is under the Sustainable Use License, which in n8n's LICENSE file says you may use or modify the software "only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use." It also says you may distribute it or provide it to others only "free of charge for non-commercial purposes."

In plain terms:

• Running n8n to automate your own business is covered.
• Running it for your own clients as a paid, hosted service is not clearly covered, and the licence's wording points the other way. Agencies, including ours, should read the licence and ask n8n directly before building a paid offering on top of it.
• Do not remove or alter the licence notices in the software.

This is a reading of n8n's published text, not legal advice. If a contract or a client's data depends on the answer, get it confirmed in writing.

Where does your data live?

On Cloud, n8n runs the infrastructure and your workflow data sits with them; check their current documentation and terms for the region and processing details that apply to your data protection obligations. Self-hosted, the data sits wherever you put the server, which gives you control and makes you the party responsible for securing it. If you handle personal data, the legal duty to protect it is yours either way, so write down where it is stored and who can reach it.

The mistake most comparison pages make

Most pages that compare the two treat "free" as the self-hosted price and the Cloud fee as the cost. That leaves out the maintenance hours, the features the free edition lacks, and the licence limit. A fairer comparison asks four questions: who will maintain it, what happens when it breaks, which features do you need, and are you using it for your own business. If you cannot answer the first two, Cloud is cheaper in practice.

We run our own daily checks and reports on automation, and the lesson from that is consistent: the build is the easy part. Ownership after launch is what decides whether the automation still works six months later. If you want someone to map the job, choose the hosting and maintain the workflows, see our AI automation service. We quote after mapping the work. For what to automate first, read what to automate first, and for market pricing of the work itself, see how much an automation agency charges.