Dockhold

What it costs

$20 a month for the setup we recommend. No per-run charges, no execution limits, monthly and cancellable.

The free allowance will not run n8n, and we would rather say so here. A free account gets 256 MB of app power, which is real and genuinely useful for smaller things, and it is less than this app needs. So there is a payment step in this flow and this page does not pretend otherwise.

The sizes

You are buying capacity rather than a plan. Anything you do not give to n8n stays in your pool for your other apps.

  • Light

    $10 a month

    1 GB of app power, 10 GB of storage

    A few workflows on a schedule, plain steps, nothing heavy. The database rides on its included memory.

    The catch: The included database memory is shared and small, so a busy hour can feel slow. M4 is what will tell us exactly where that line is.

  • Recommended

    $20 a month

    1 GB of app power, 1 GB of database memory, 10 GB of storage

    Everyday automations, webhooks, a few dozen workflows, the occasional AI step.

    The catch: One instance only. Heavy file handling wants the next size up.

    Deploy n8n

  • Roomy

    $30 a month

    2 GB of app power, 1 GB of database memory, 10 GB of storage

    Busier schedules, larger files, several AI steps inside one run.

    The catch: Extra room does not make a single workflow faster, only safer under load.

  • Busy

    $60 a month

    4 GB of app power, 2 GB of database memory, 10 GB of storage

    Client work, many workflows running through the day, and a database that keeps up with them.

    The catch: Still one instance. Past this the answer is fewer things in one place, not more memory.

Every size comes with a managed database at no charge, including the free allowance. What changes up the ladder is app power, and whether that database gets dedicated memory of its own at $10 a gigabyte. Dedicated memory is query speed, not the database itself.

Worth being straight about: we have not yet measured whether n8n is happy on the included database memory. Our own deploy guide says to buy it a gigabyte, so that is what the recommendation quotes. If the measurement shows the included memory keeps up, the recommendation drops to $10 a month and this line goes away. We would rather move a price down than up.

Resizing is done later from the app's own size controls and does not need a rebuild. Growing storage is one way: it goes up and does not come back down.

Work out your own number

This starts on the recommended setup. Change anything and the total follows.

n8n wants 1 GB. Smaller sizes are for smaller apps.

Only needed once a lot of workflows run at once.

The first 10 GB costs nothing. Storage grows only upwards.

Every month

$20

$10 of app power, $10 of database memory, $0 of storage.

Monthly and cancellable. You are buying capacity, not a plan, and you can split it across as many apps as you like.

Not sure the recommendation fits you?

Three questions. One of the answers is that you do not need us for this, and we mean it.

How often should things run?
Will it handle AI steps or large files?
Does it need to run while your own computer is off?

What we would pick

1 GB, the recommended size.

Everyday automations at this rate sit comfortably inside it.

$20 a month.

Move up if you start handling large files, or run several AI steps inside one workflow.

Where this actually sits

Four ways to run n8n. Each of them is the right answer for somebody, and only one of them is us.

Option Better at Costs you Right for
A machine at home Costing nothing extra and keeping everything on hardware you can touch. It sleeps, it reboots, and nothing on the internet can reach it without work. Every upgrade and every backup is yours. Learning, and workflows that can wait until the machine is awake.
A server you rent and manage Total control. Any version, any extra software, any layout you like. You are now the operator. Certificates, upgrades, backups, memory limits and the incident at the wrong moment are all yours. People who enjoy that part, or who already run other things on the same machine.
n8n Cloud Being run by the people who write n8n, with their support and their own view of what is coming. Their pricing and their execution limits, which is the reason most people go looking. People who want the vendor relationship and do not want to think about hosting at all.
Here this page Owning the instance without operating the machine. Your address, your data, no execution limits, and capacity you can split with your other apps. A card, and a support boundary: we keep it running, and n8n questions go to n8n's own community. People who wanted to self-host and did not want the maintenance that comes with it.

Ours is $20 a month at the recommended size. What the others cost, checked on a date we will print next to them: measurement pending . The longer comparison with n8n Cloud.

What else you should know before paying anyone

  • Billing is monthly and you can cancel whenever you like.
  • Capacity is yours to split. A gigabyte bought for n8n can be divided between n8n and whatever you add next, without buying a second plan.
  • Resizing an app is done from its size controls and does not rebuild it.
  • Growing a database's storage is one way. Plan it upwards, not downwards.
  • Keep n8n at one instance. Two copies fire every schedule twice, which is a strange kind of expensive.
Deploy n8n Or do it yourself, free