N8n Cloud Hosting for less than $1 per month

aliasfox · January 1, 2025, 3:15am

TL;DR;
I wanted to host n8n on the cloud so I didn’t have to spin it up locally, could manage my workflows on multiple devices with ease, and so that I could execute my workflows through their API on a schedule. But the free tier was a joke and I didn’t want to spend $20/mo for what OVH offers for under $1 per month.

n8n Charges $20/mo (left) for their Starter plan, while Render offers a comparable plan for $25/mo and up (right):

n8n System Requirements:

Component	Sizing	Supported
CPU/vCPU	Minimum 10 CPU cycles, scaling as needed	Any public or private cloud
Database	512 MB - 4 GB SSD	SQLite or PostgreSQL
Memory	320 MB - 2 GB

I got n8n running pretty easily on OVH, through their KVM (I used Putty to connect over SSH). I but did have to figure out things by myself as all the documentation I found recommends using Docker, which I did not use. Then I got busy installing all of the useful Community Nodes and various Integrations:

Then I set up my Credentials and started finalizing setting everything the way I want it.

Now that I have n8n setup, I’m going to be experimenting with making a “Reasoning” workflow and getting Bolt.diy to use it like any other Provider API endpoint. I have a really cool plan that I’ve been working on, and I look forward to seeing how it works out. But that’s a story for another time.

Now, after getting n8n, Postgres, nginx up and running, this is what I got:

Hardware Specs

Operating System: Debian 12
CPU: 1vCore @ 2.0GHz (Intel pc-i440fx-8.2)
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 20GB
- Read: 376 MB/s
- Write: 292 MB/s
Bandwidth:
- Download: 97.49 Mbit/s
- Upload: 98.46 Mbit/s
- Latency: 1.5 ms

Under normal load conditions, this is what I was seeing:

CPU Usage shows < 1%
RAM Usage shows < 35%
Base n8n uses ~6GB of storage
n8n with 100+ Community Nodes installed ~11GB.

Pretty good for on $11.64 a year.

And I’m pretty happy with the setup, just a little disappointed that some of the n8n features are locked behind an Enterprise paywall. Not a deal breaker though. I might check out Flowise and Langflow as well but I know as they use Python under the hood, they are more resource intensive. However, LangFlow allows you to export a flow into Python code, which could be quite useful. I would prefer something that could work with Cloudflare Pages and Workers though, so I would probably be looking into compiling the workflow into NodeJS. One thing at a time though.

And while this is really only for my own personal development purposes, if anyone would like a setup tutorial, please let me know. Also, if anyone knows some other alternatives or “a better way”, please let me know. I’m always looking to learn.

PS. Please scroll down for technical details if you’re interested.

Thanks!

> lscpu
Architecture:             x86_64
  CPU op-mode(s):         32-bit, 64-bit
  Address sizes:          40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
  Byte Order:             Little Endian
CPU(s):                   1
NUMA:
  NUMA node(s):           1
Vendor ID:                GenuineIntel
  BIOS Vendor ID:         QEMU
  Model name:             Intel Core Processor (Haswell, no TSX)
    BIOS Model name:      pc-i440fx-8.2  CPU @ 2.0GHz
Virtualization features:
  Virtualization:         VT-x
  Hypervisor vendor:      KVM
  Virtualization type:    full

> du -h --max-depth=0
11G

> lspci | grep -i vga
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Cirrus Logic GD 5446

> speedtest-cli
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Download: 96.05 Mbit/s
Upload: 98.64 Mbit/s

> free -h
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           1.9Gi       652Mi       161Mi        26Mi       1.3Gi       1.2Gi
Swap:             0B          0B          0B

technolog · January 1, 2025, 2:32pm

Great!!!

if anyone knows some other alternatives or “a better way”, please let me know.

Check out this project Windmill.

If I’m not mistaken, they are already using AI on some level. They have a 20 minute overview video there. I can provide a link here if I can.

There’s a suggestion, create a section where you can review different projects, not just the n8n. Maybe more options would come up. Saw admiration in the comments on topic @ColeMedin

technolog · January 1, 2025, 2:49pm

Review

aliasfox · January 1, 2025, 3:00pm

Honestly, I did a quick Google and I wasn’t sure about it, but after watching the video it’s pretty awesome. Very extensible. Flow is great to visualize but you could still compile everything to code, because it is code.

I only expected an overview and figured there would be a lot of fluff in a 20-minute video, but that thing was dense (more of a deep dive overview), and Windmill is amazing. Maybe not for your average user but I think it’s exactly what I was looking for and more.

Thank you!

technolog · January 1, 2025, 3:37pm

Here’s another project, interested in your opinion. Thank you!
mage.ai They have a demo, you can see it live

Here’s a little review

aliasfox · January 1, 2025, 3:53pm

Pretty cool, thanks for the share. I made my own ETL once for data transformation between various types (JSON, GeoJSON, CSV, XML, etc.) on the fly in the browser (with service config files and URL flags).

At large, this is definitely still generally an unsolved problem (or at least making it intuitively simple). I’m crash-course learning FME right now for my job, which is effectively a tool that does just that but more for GIS and big data.

And while FME is cool and all, I’d like a light-weight web worker or JS code that could just run in the browser without having to deploy an enterprise server or something.

Might have to grab another VPS or two to try them all out. Thanks

technolog · January 1, 2025, 4:19pm

You can take one VPS + Sidekick
VPS, you can look here, they are giving away New Year’s gifts right now. You can find so many delicious things

aliasfox · January 1, 2025, 4:27pm

Sidekick seems pretty cool, so many awesome projects and tools out there. It’s hard to keep on top of it. But I was probably just going to grab a few more VPS’s on OVH for $1/yr/ea. Thanks!

southbayjay · January 2, 2025, 6:15pm

I was just going to create a post and ask about LangFlow. After watching Cole’s newest video and he was pretty much saying don’t get stuck on the tools. I have been stuck on n8n for a couple months and not bling much of a coder, I’ve been having a hard time with the famous “no/low code” automation platform, n8n. Since you pretty much need some sort of code to run just about anything I feel like I should branch out and try another platform like LangFlow.

Anyone have any experience with it? Pros and cons?

I know it requires more coding which is fine. I think the problem I’m having mostly with n8n is it needs code snippets that I’m not familiar with and when I try to ask Claude I’m not giving it the correct terminology.

aliasfox · January 3, 2025, 12:38am

I’m now playing around with n8n, LangFlow, and Windmill. There are so many of these low/no-code flow tools like Make, Flowise, etc… it’s really hard to know which to use. I personally find n8n a little limiting and think Windmill might be the best and most extensible option, but it does have a steeper learning curve.

I really don’t know the answer, so I’m testing out several things. I just got three start VPS’s for $1/mo (first year) and I have already been using n8n but will be setting up Windmill, and Mage (an open source ETL).

And I will try LangFlow as well, but only locally as it has higher system requirements than the little starter VPS has. It kind of feels like when I was a teenager again, I tested out hundreds of different software to find out what I liked, and worked best for me.

And there are way too many options. So, I filtered the list (more than 30 | #2) down to only those that are open-source (so fully customizable) and can be self-hosted (cheap). Sorted by system resources required. Keep in mind Windmill “nodes” can be done in any language, I don’t care about resources if the code can be “compiled”, and I prefer JS/Node as it will be ultimately used for the Web and it makes sense LangFlow is a little heavy due to being written in Python. I ideally want whatever solution I go with to work with Cloudflare Pages, GitHub Actions, and/or Cloudflare Workers. It’s free for small projects, light weight, has tons of integration, can be automated with CI/CD, and has the ability to scale.

Tool	Performance	Overhead	Extensibility	Setup	Capabilities	Complexity/Learning Curve
n8n	Efficient for automation tasks.	Minimal; self-hosted.	Extensible with custom nodes.	Straightforward; requires knowledge for self-hosting.	Versatile automation capabilities.	Low to moderate; user-friendly.
Flowise	Optimized for AI chatbots.	Lightweight and efficient.	Extensible with plugins.	User-friendly.	Focused on chatbot workflows.	Low; suitable for beginners.
Windmill Labs	High performance for complex workflows.	Moderate; can be resource-intensive.	Highly extensible with scripts.	Intricate; advanced features add complexity.	Comprehensive for task automation.	High; steep learning curve.
Huginn	Efficient for monitoring/automation.	Moderate; self-hosted.	Extensible with custom agents.	Technical knowledge required.	Monitoring, automation, and data collection.	Moderate; for developers.
Mage AI	High performance for ETL and ML workflows.	Moderate; requires adequate resources for data processing.	Extensible with custom pipelines and integrations.	Setup can be complex for advanced configurations.	Strong in ETL, machine learning, and data workflows.	Moderate to high; data engineering knowledge helpful.
LangFlow	Designed for AI agents and workflows.	Requires adequate resources.	Highly extensible with custom components.	Complex due to AI integrations.	Strong in AI-driven workflows.	Moderate to high; AI knowledge helpful.
Airflow	High performance for data workflows.	High; resource-intensive.	Highly extensible with plugins.	Complex; technical expertise needed.	Designed for data engineering and ETL.	High; steep learning curve.

I research A LOT and utilize YouTube to keep me up to date with AI (without having to keep track of it all). But there is way more cool stuff out there than I can even keep track of.

One thing I will mention though, that is making me lean towards Windmill Labs is that all nodes are also code, so I should be able to “Compile” the final workflow into pure code, which is ideal because it’s good for visuals, but the production version can run lighter, perhaps on GitHub actions or Cloudflare Workers.

southbayjay · January 4, 2025, 3:48am

Thanks for your input, you certainly did research these. I think I’ve only heard of Windmill once or twice from Cole but outside of that nothing. I’m going to jump over there and check it.

I really like n8n just because I have messed around with it and I can get basic things to work. LangFlow sounds decent but might be costly to host since it needs more resources.

aliasfox · January 4, 2025, 3:55am

My thoughts as well. I’m starting with n8n first because I already set it up and I will know the specific limitations too overcome. And what I am doing is just a prototype anyways. I think final form will likely be in Windmill.

southbayjay · January 4, 2025, 4:05am

I was just looking at Windmill and it seems to be free for up to 1000 executions per month which seems like a ton! If you need more $10 a month isn’t too expensive, I mean if I get to the point where 1000 executions isn’t enough then I better be making some money from it lol. I mean it can be self-hosted but if they’re willing to host it free, might as well use it?

southbayjay · January 4, 2025, 4:11am

I’m definitely going to hit You Tube University to get started with Windmill. I do like how they have the workspace set up with some templates for you to mess with, and it’s all inside the app.

DannyK · January 4, 2025, 11:17pm

Interesting post. You said you find n8n limiting. Do you mind sharing more detail on that please? I too am running my instance on a $25 per year vps and so far pretty happy with it. However I don’t have any clients other than my automations using http and agents.
Thanks

aliasfox · January 4, 2025, 11:31pm

$25 a year is really good, especially if you’re locked in. Mine is just an entry rate, which I find great for prototype and testing.

What I mean by limiting is that you can’t do super custom things in n8n and there is no option to export as code. I want my final version to be compiled, light weight, and therefore cheap to host and scale (if needed but not at the cost of complication, compute, or cost). For that I want to use Cloudflare Pages and Workers (plus maybe GitHub actions).

Also, a community of extension is great but n8n becomes boated quickly and ultimately I’d want something more custom tailored.

If you haven’t yet, you should really watch the 20 minute Windmill video. I want all that. I want the extensibility, and ability to compile to pure code.

amrpyt · January 5, 2025, 9:00am

Yes plz! i would be happy for this.