n8n Self Hosted vs Cloud: Cost, Upkeep, and Limits
Cloud Starter is 20 euros a month on the annual plan for 2,500 runs. A small server can cost less, and you maintain it.
n8n self hosted vs cloud, for one developer, is a money-and-upkeep choice. Cloud Starter is 20€ a month when you pay annually, and it includes 2,500 workflow executions a month. A small server can cost less than that per month, and then you are the one who updates it, backs it up, and gets up when it stops. If you do not want that job, use Cloud.
The picture at the top is an illustration of a laptop and a small box. It is not a photograph of an n8n server, and this page did not install n8n or open a Cloud account. The numbers are from the pages linked below, opened on 24 October 2026.
n8n is the product in both cases. The software is the same kind of workflow editor. The difference is who runs the machine.
The numbers on the pricing page
From n8n's pricing page, the cards visible on 24 October 2026:
| Cloud Starter | Cloud Pro | Self-hosted Community | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price on that page | 20€ / month, billed annually | 50€ / month, billed annually | The software is free. You pay for the server |
| Executions | 2.5K a month, unlimited steps | 10K a month, unlimited steps | No execution pack on the pricing card. You are limited by the machine |
| Also on the Starter and Pro cards | Starter: 5 concurrent executions, 1,600 Assistant credits a month | Pro: everything in Starter, plus the higher card | You bring the computer |
The page says annual billing saves 17% against monthly. It does not change the execution allowance. n8n's help article "How can I add more workflow executions," updated 27 August 2026, says the same: annual billing lowers the price, and the monthly execution allowance stays the monthly allowance. That article also says a Cloud trial is capped at 1,000 executions, that Starter upgrades to Pro-1 for 10,000, and that Pro-1 upgrades to Pro-2 for 50,000. The Pro card copied above is the 10K card at 50€ a month billed annually. This page did not copy a separate Pro-2 price.
An execution is one run of a whole workflow, however many steps are in it. n8n's own example: a workflow that runs every day is about 30 or 31 executions a month. One that runs every 5 minutes is about 8,600 to 8,900 a month. That second example is already past Starter's 2,500, and it is inside Pro's 10,000 only if it is your only workflow at that pace.
Other limits on the same pricing page, in the comparison table, not on the price card:
- Starter stops an execution at 5 minutes. Pro's row says 40 minutes.
- Starter keeps 2,500 saved executions, 2.5 GB of that storage, for 7 days. Reaching the cap does not stop workflows. It drops old history.
- Starter allows 5 concurrent executions.
Cloud data, on that page's security answer, is stored in the EU, on servers in Frankfurt. Self-hosted data is wherever you put the server.
What a small server costs
n8n's Hetzner guide, opened the same day, says a CPX11 is enough for most usage, and that adding n8n Assistant means choosing a plan with at least 4 GB of RAM and 2 vCPU. The Docker Compose guide says the same 4 GB and 2 vCPU floor when you include the sandbox that runs Assistant-written code. The docs also say n8n recommends self-hosting for people who already know how to run a server, and that mistakes can lose data.
Hetzner's cost-optimized page, opened 24 October 2026, listed a CX23 at 2 vCPU, 4 GB of RAM, and 40 GB of disk, at 5.99€ a month excluding VAT, and marked that plan not available. Hetzner's price-adjustment table of 15 June 2026 lists the CX23 in Germany and Finland at 5.49€ a month excluding IPv4 and excluding VAT. Those are two official figures for the same plan name, taken on the same day from two Hetzner pages, and the product page said the plan was not available to order. A domain name and backups are extra. This page does not add a made-up total.
At the figures above, a year of Cloud Starter at the annual price is 240€ before tax. A CX23 at 5.99€ a month excluding VAT is about 72€ a year before VAT, IPv4, tax, and the time you spend on it. The software license for Community edition is not a third bill, with the limit in the next section.
Business, on the same pricing page, was 667€ a month billed annually, and the card is the self-hosted paid plan. That is a different decision from "one person, a few workflows."
What you maintain if you self-host
n8n's docs, the same day, listed the stable release as 2.44.6 and said a new minor version ships most weeks. Updating a Docker Compose install is pull, down, up. The data lives in a volume. The docs say that volume still matters even if you use Postgres, because it holds the encryption key. Lose the key and the saved credentials do not come back.
You also keep:
- A public address and HTTPS, if anything outside your house has to call a webhook.
- Backups of that volume. n8n's memory notes suggest a nightly copy. They do not run it for you.
- The box itself. A server you powered off is still billed, on Hetzner's own FAQ, until you delete it. A server that is down does not run workflows.
Community edition is free when the license applies. n8n's license FAQ says the Community license is the Sustainable Use License, for the self-hosted product, and that you can use it free when workflows are created or changed by you or people in your organization. "Internal business purpose," on that page, includes other people receiving what your workflows produce. n8n Cloud is a separate paid subscription and that FAQ does not apply to it. Read the FAQ before you plan to host n8n as a product other people log into. This page is not a full reading of the license.
Features the docs list as paid, rather than part of free Community, include SSO, environments, Git version control, and projects. The list changes. The pricing page is the list that counts.
Which one
- You want it running today, and you do not want to nurse a server: Cloud. Start from the trial if 1,000 executions is enough to find out. Move to Starter if 2,500 a month and a 5-minute cap fit the workflows. Move to the 10K Pro card if a single frequent workflow already uses thousands of runs.
- You already run servers, the workflows can live on a machine you control, and 5.99€-class hardware is enough for what you run: self-hosted Community, and budget the evening you will spend each time a release or a disk needs you.
- You need SSO, Git on the instance, or several environments: that is a paid plan on either side, not the free Community edition, and not the question this page answers for a solo setup.
Sources
Opened 24 October 2026. No n8n account was created and no server was rented.
- n8n pricing
- How can I add more workflow executions?, updated 27 August 2026
- Choose how to use n8n
- Deploy to Hetzner and the Docker Compose install page, for the 4 GB / 2 vCPU note and the version string
- Hetzner cost-optimized servers and Hetzner's 15 June 2026 price adjustment
- n8n Community license FAQ