n8n Self-Hosted vs n8n Cloud: Pricing, Limits, and When to Self-Host in the EU (2026)

Dabster Labs · Last updated 27 August 2026

n8n Community Edition is free to self-host under n8n’s fair-code Sustainable Use licence. n8n Cloud starts at EUR 20 per month billed annually for 2,500 executions, with data stored in Frankfurt. Self-host when you need data on your own EU server, environments, Git, log streaming or per client isolation. Choose Cloud when nobody will maintain a server.

Both options run the same n8n. The difference is who operates it, what it costs in money and hours, and which features are switched on. The prices below are n8n’s list prices as read on n8n.io/pricing on 27 August 2026. They change, so check the page first.

n8n Cloud plans

n8n Cloud is the hosted version. You sign up, n8n runs the server, and you pay per plan. One execution is one full workflow run, however many steps it contains. All Cloud plans allow unlimited active workflows and unlimited users, and all Cloud data is stored in Frankfurt, Germany.

Support on Starter and Pro is the community forum. Enterprise comes with dedicated support under an SLA. The figures above are the annual billing rate; monthly billing costs more per month, and n8n shows the exact amount on the pricing page.

The jump from Pro to Business is large. For most small businesses in Cyprus and Greece the real question is whether Pro is enough, and if not, whether self-hosting beats EUR 667 per month.

Self-hosted options

Self-hosted n8n runs on a server you control. Three tiers exist, and only the first is free.

• Community Edition. Free under n8n’s fair-code Sustainable Use licence. Standard features, no licence key, no execution cap other than what your server can handle. You choose the country the server sits in.
• Business (self-hosted). Needs a licence key from n8n. Adds environments (dev, staging, prod), Git version control for workflows, log streaming to your monitoring tools and SSO.
• Enterprise (self-hosted). Needs a licence key. Everything in Business plus dedicated support under an SLA. Pricing on request.

For a single company with one production instance, Community Edition covers almost everything. The paid tiers matter when several people edit workflows, when you need a staging copy before changes go live, or when IT policy requires SSO.

What self-hosting really costs

The licence is free. The running is not. Here is where the money and the hours go.

• The server. A small VPS from an EU provider is enough for most SME workloads and typically costs a fraction of the Cloud Starter plan.
• Updates. n8n releases often, and some releases change how nodes behave. Someone has to read the release notes, update a test copy first, then production.
• Backups. You need a tested backup of the database and of the encryption key that protects stored credentials. Lose the key and every saved credential is unrecoverable, even with a full database backup.
• Monitoring. A stopped instance does not send an alert on its own. Workflows simply stop, and you find out when a client asks why nothing arrived.
• Someone on call. When a webhook fails at nine in the evening, a person has to look. On Cloud that person works for n8n. Self-hosted, that person works for you.
• Housekeeping. TLS certificates renew, the operating system needs patches, disk space fills with execution history.

The honest rule: if nobody in your company already runs a Linux server, the hours will cost more than the Cloud Pro plan. If someone does, self-hosting is cheaper from the first month and gives you control that Cloud cannot.

Limitations to know before self-hosting

• You own security. Firewall, TLS, access control, patching and the response when something goes wrong are yours. n8n does not see your instance.
• SSO and environments are paid features. Community Edition has neither. If you need a dev and prod split with Git, you need a Business or Enterprise licence key, or you run two separate Community instances and move workflows by hand.
• No vendor support on Community. The forum and the documentation are good, but nobody at n8n is obliged to answer you.
• Execution history grows. Every run is stored by default, with its data. On a busy instance this fills the database within months. You must set retention limits and prune old executions yourself.

Requirements

The minimum for production is short, and every item matters.

1. A Linux server with Docker. A small VPS in the EU is enough to start.
2. A domain name with a valid TLS certificate. Webhooks from other services need a public HTTPS address.
3. A proper database for production. The built-in file database is fine for testing, not for a business that depends on the workflows. n8n’s documentation recommends PostgreSQL.
4. Backups of the database and the encryption key, stored on another machine, and restored at least once to prove they work.
5. Monitoring from outside the server, so that a stopped instance triggers an alert to a person.

Optional but useful: an outgoing e-mail account for user invitations and password resets.

How we run it for clients

Dabster Labs runs one n8n instance per client, on EU servers. No shared instance, no shared database, so one client’s data never mixes with another’s.

We do not sell hosting on its own. Hosting comes inside monthly management, from EUR 699 per month, which covers monitoring, fixes when a workflow or an integration breaks, security updates for n8n and the server, one change request per month and a monthly report on what ran and what failed. The full price list is on our pricing page, and the cost article shows what typical builds come to.

The instance belongs to the client. If a client wants to stop management, we hand over the server access, the workflows and the credentials, and they continue on their own or with someone else. Nothing is locked to us.

n8n vs Make vs Zapier on price

The three tools count usage differently, and that matters more than the headline price. n8n counts a full workflow run as one execution, however many steps it has. Make counts operations, roughly one per module that runs. Zapier counts tasks, roughly one per action step. A ten step workflow that runs once costs one unit on n8n and about ten on the other two.

Self-hosted n8n has no execution cap at all, only the server’s capacity. Neither Make nor Zapier offers a self-hosted version, so with those tools the cost per month keeps rising with volume, and the data sits wherever the vendor puts it.

Where Make and Zapier win is the first hour: sign up, connect two apps, done. For a handful of simple workflows at low volume, any of the three is affordable. Once workflows have many steps, run often, or handle personal data of EU customers, n8n is the cheaper and cleaner option. We compare the three in detail in our guide to workflow automation in Cyprus with n8n, Make and Zapier.

Frequently asked questions

Is n8n Community Edition free for commercial use?

Yes for internal business use. The fair-code Sustainable Use licence lets a company run n8n for its own operations without paying. The licence draws lines around reselling n8n, embedding it in a product you sell, or hosting it as a service for others. If any of those describe your plan, read the licence text on n8n’s site before you build on it.

Where is n8n Cloud data stored?

In Frankfurt, Germany, on all Cloud plans. That keeps the n8n side inside the EU. Your workflows may still send data to other services, such as an AI model or a CRM, and each of those has its own location and terms.

Can I move from n8n Cloud to self-hosted?

Yes. Workflows export as JSON files and import into any n8n instance. Credentials do not travel in a usable form, so you re-enter them. Execution history stays behind. Plan for an afternoon of work for a small setup, plus one test run of every workflow on the new server.

Is self-hosted n8n GDPR friendly?

It gives you the control GDPR asks for: data on a server in the EU, retention you set yourself, access you can restrict and log. It does not make you compliant by itself. You remain the controller, you still need a lawful basis for each processing step, and every external service a workflow calls is a processor you must list and assess.

How many executions does a small business need?

It depends on how your workflows are triggered, not on company size. A workflow that fires on an event, such as a new form entry or a new invoice, uses one execution per event, so a few hundred per month is normal. A workflow that polls a mailbox every five minutes uses more than 8,000 executions per month by itself, whether or not anything changed. Count your triggers and their frequency before you pick a plan, and use webhooks instead of polling where you can.

Do you offer n8n hosting?

Yes, as part of monthly management, not as a standalone service. Each client gets a dedicated instance on an EU server, we keep it updated, monitored and backed up, and the client can take it over at any time.

If you are deciding between n8n Cloud and a self-hosted instance for your business, contact us with a short description of the workflows you have in mind and we will tell you which option fits.

See also: Managed n8n hosting in the EU: what it includes and when it beats n8n Cloud

How we do this for clients: Workflow automation built and run on n8n by Dabster Labs