Comparison Research
n8n Cloud vs Self-Hosted: Real Costs Compared
Anna · Designer & web developerUpdated 2026-11-06 · How we testn8n Cloud plans vs self-hosting on a VPS: monthly costs at 2,500, 10,000 and 50,000 executions, feature limits, license rules and who should pick which.
n8n Cloud starts at €20 a month (billed annually) for 2,500 workflow executions, and Pro is €50 a month for 10,000. Self-hosting the free Community edition on a VPS costs about $7 to $15 a month for the server, with no execution cap at all. So self-hosting is cheaper almost from day one. What you pay instead is time: setup, updates, backups and security are on you.
Short answer: pick Cloud if you run under a few thousand executions a month and don't want to touch a server. Pick self-hosted if you run more than that, need long workflows, or want your data on your own machine.
A quick note on how I wrote this. I'm Anna, a web designer and developer. I haven't run n8n myself, so this is a research piece based on n8n's official pricing page and docs, Hostinger's VPS pages and independent tests. Figures are as of November 2026, so check the checkout before you pay. Some links here are affiliate links.
How n8n Cloud pricing works
n8n charges by executions. One execution is one full run of a workflow, no matter how many steps it has. A workflow with 3 nodes and one with 40 nodes both count as one. All plans include unlimited users, unlimited active workflows and every integration.
| Plan | Annual billing | Monthly billing (approx.) | Executions/mo | Concurrent runs | Max run time | Log retention |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | €20/mo | ~€24/mo | 2,500 | 5 | 5 min | 7 days |
| Pro | €50/mo | ~€60/mo | 10,000 | 20–50 | 40 min | 30 days |
| Business | €667/mo | ~€800/mo | 40,000 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | 200+ | 40 min | Unlimited |
Prices from n8n.io/pricing, November 2026. n8n lists prices in euros and says annual billing saves 17%. Monthly figures are worked out from that and match what independent reviewers report. US checkouts may show dollar amounts close to these numbers.
Two details that matter:
- Business is self-hosted only for now. You get a license key for your own server, and n8n has a waitlist for a hosted version. Companies with fewer than 20 employees get 50% off Business through the startup plan.
- Going over the limit doesn't stop your workflows. n8n's FAQ says workflows keep running, but overage charges may apply if you don't move up a tier.
The free trial is capped at 1,000 executions with a short timeout per run, which is enough to test, not to run a business on.
What self-hosting costs
The Community edition is free. You run it without a license key on your own server, and there's no execution limit, no concurrency cap and no run-time cap other than what your hardware handles.
Here are Hostinger's n8n VPS plans as a price reference. They come with an n8n template preinstalled.
| Plan | Intro price | Upfront | Renews at | vCPU / RAM / NVMe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KVM 1 | $6.49/mo | $155.76 for 24 months | $11.99/mo | 1 / 4 GB / 50 GB |
| KVM 2 | $8.79/mo | $210.96 for 24 months | $14.99/mo | 2 / 8 GB / 100 GB |
| KVM 4 | $12.99/mo | $311.76 for 24 months | $28.99/mo | 4 / 16 GB / 200 GB |
Prices from hostinger.com/self-hosted-n8n, November 2026, during their Black Friday sale. Hostinger also advertises unlimited workflows and concurrent executions on every plan; in practice your RAM and CPU set the ceiling.
Add a domain or subdomain for webhooks (about $10–15 a year if you don't own one), and that's the cash cost.
Cost at three usage levels
Here's what a year looks like. Cloud uses annual billing. Self-hosted uses the KVM 2 intro price for the first year and its renewal price after that.
| Usage | n8n Cloud | Self-hosted, year 1 | Self-hosted, after renewal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2,000 executions/mo | Starter: €240/yr | ~$105/yr | ~$180/yr |
| 10,000 executions/mo | Pro: €600/yr | ~$105/yr | ~$180/yr |
| 50,000 executions/mo | Business or Enterprise: €8,000+/yr | ~$105/yr (KVM 2 is often enough) | ~$180/yr |
The gap grows fast. Self-hosting costs the same at 2,000 and 50,000 executions, as long as the server keeps up. A workflow polling an inbox every 5 minutes alone uses about 8,600 executions a month, which pushes a Cloud account from Starter to Pro.
The column the table can't show is your time. Plan on 1–2 hours to set up and around 30 minutes a month for updates, backups and checking logs. If something breaks at night, nobody fixes it but you.
Features: what each side gets
| n8n Cloud (Starter/Pro) | Self-hosted Community | Self-hosted + Business license | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Execution limit | 2,500 / 10,000 | None | 40,000 included |
| Updates and backups | Done by n8n | You | You |
| AI Assistant | 1,600–9,600 credits/mo | Bring your own API key | Preview |
| Shared projects | 1 / 3 | No | 6 |
| Sharing workflows and credentials | Yes | No | Yes |
| SSO (SAML, LDAP) | No | No | Yes |
| Git version control, environments | No | No | Yes |
| Queue mode | Managed | Yes | Yes |
| Support | Forum | Community forum | Forum |
According to n8n's docs, the Community edition leaves out projects, sharing, SSO, environments, Git version control, external secrets, log streaming, custom variables, external binary storage and multi-main mode. Registering your email unlocks folders, debug in editor and custom execution data for free.
For one person that list rarely matters. For a team that needs to share credentials safely, it does.
Control, privacy and limits
Cloud runs on n8n's servers. You don't manage anything, but you live with their limits: 5 parallel runs and 5-minute runs on Starter, 7 days of logs, and execution counts that grow with every scheduled trigger.
Self-hosted keeps workflows, credentials and execution data on your server. You set the timeout, how long logs are kept and how much memory a workflow can use. You can install community nodes and run n8n next to other tools, such as a Postgres database or a small API. The downside is that security is fully yours: an exposed editor with a weak password is an open door to every API key you've saved.
The license question for freelancers
If you build automations for clients, the license matters more than the price. n8n's Sustainable Use License allows internal business use, and its FAQ treats a consultant who builds workflows for a client as fine, provided the client doesn't create or edit workflows in your instance.
What it doesn't allow: charging clients for access to an n8n instance where they build their own workflows, or embedding n8n in a product you sell. Those need a paid Embed or Enterprise license. n8n support has also said that hosting many clients' workflows and credentials in your own instance may need Enterprise. The common safe pattern is to install n8n on the client's own server, or on n8n Cloud under the client's account, and work there.
Which one to pick
- Just testing, or under ~2,000 executions a month: n8n Cloud Starter. No setup, nothing to maintain.
- A small business with a few AI agents and webhooks, no terminal skills: Cloud Pro, if €50–60 a month is fine.
- A freelancer or developer comfortable with SSH: self-host on a VPS with 8 GB RAM. You'll pay less than Cloud Starter for unlimited executions.
- High volume, long workflows or strict data rules: self-host, and add Postgres and queue mode as you grow.
- A team that needs SSO and shared credentials: self-host with a Business license (half price under 20 employees), or talk to n8n about Enterprise.
If you go the self-hosted route, our step-by-step guide on how to self-host n8n covers server size, Docker setup and the mistakes that lose data. For the website side of your stack, see the hosting and domains guide and our Hostinger review.