Setting Up Self-Hosted n8n on VPS
n8n is an open-source workflow automation tool — like Zapier, but self-hosted and free.
### Prerequisites
- A VPS with at least **1 GB RAM**
- Ubuntu 20.04+ or Debian 11+
- A domain name pointing to your VPS
### Step 1 — Install Node.js & npm
```bash
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
apt install nodejs -y
node -v # Should show v20.x
```
### Step 2 — Install n8n
```bash
npm install n8n -g
```
### Step 3 — Run n8n with PM2 (keeps it running)
```bash
npm install pm2 -g
pm2 start n8n
pm2 save
pm2 startup
```
### Step 4 — Set Up Reverse Proxy with Nginx
```nginx
server {
listen 80;
server_name n8n.yourdomain.com;
location / {
proxy_pass http://localhost:5678;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
}
}
```
### Step 5 — Install SSL
```bash
certbot --nginx -d n8n.yourdomain.com
```
### Access n8n
Visit **https://n8n.yourdomain.com** and create your admin account.
### webzworld Managed n8n
Don't want to set it up yourself? We offer **managed n8n hosting** — we set up and maintain n8n on a VPS for you. Contact us for pricing.