An n8n workflow that checks something every five minutes runs about 8,640 times in a 30-day month. n8n Cloud's Starter plan, €24 a month on monthly billing, includes 2,500 of those runs. The cheapest plan that covers that one workflow is Pro, at €60 a month. OVHcloud rents a 2 vCPU, 4 GB server with no commitment for €4.49 a month, and self-hosted n8n doesn't count runs at all.
That gap is why people self-host. The server side is where most guides go stale: they quote prices that have since moved and point at plans you can no longer buy. Below is what n8n's own documentation says you need and what 11 hosts charged for it on 17 October 2026. After that come the two places a self-hosted bill grows once you've signed up.
Where n8n Cloud stops being the cheaper option
n8n Cloud bills by executions, and one execution is one complete run of a workflow, however many steps it has. On n8n's pricing page, checked 17 October 2026, Starter costs €24 a month (€20 billed yearly) for 2,500 executions, and Pro starts at €60 a month (€50 yearly) for 10,000. Self-hosted n8n has no execution cap.
So the question is how many runs your workflows add up to. n8n's own FAQ gives the rule: a schedule that fires every 5 minutes lands at roughly 8,600 to 8,900 executions a month. A webhook fires once per event, so a form that gets 100 submissions a day costs 3,000 a month by itself.
| What you run | Executions per month | Smallest n8n Cloud plan | n8n Cloud, monthly billing | OVHcloud VPS-1, no commitment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 workflow, hourly | 720 to 744 | Starter | €24 | €4.49 |
| 3 workflows, hourly | 2,160 to 2,232 | Starter | €24 | €4.49 |
| 1 workflow, every 15 minutes | 2,880 to 2,976 | Pro | €60 | €4.49 |
| 1 workflow, every 5 minutes | 8,640 to 8,928 | Pro | €60 | €4.49 |
| 2 workflows, every 5 minutes | 17,280 to 17,856 | A Pro size above 10,000 | more than €60 | €4.49 |
A single 15-minute poller pushes you off Starter. For most small setups that's where Starter ends: 2,500 executions is about three hourly workflows and nothing else.
Run it over two years and the money is lopsided. Starter on yearly billing comes to €480. OVHcloud's VPS-1 on monthly billing comes to €107.76, or €91.44 if you prepay each year at €3.81. Pro on yearly billing is €1,200. The €372 between Starter and the VPS is what you pay n8n to keep the server patched and backed up, and for some teams that's a fair price. Cloud also caps a single run at 5 minutes on Starter and 40 on Pro, and keeps 7 days of execution history on Starter.
One caveat for EU buyers: OVHcloud's €4.49 excludes VAT, and n8n's pricing page doesn't say whether its euro prices do. Treat the exact gap as approximate.
How much server n8n needs
n8n's own Hetzner deployment guide, checked 17 October 2026, says a Hetzner CPX11 (2 vCPUs, 2 GB RAM) is enough "for most usage levels". Add the n8n Assistant, which runs AI-generated code in a Docker-in-Docker sandbox, and the guide asks for at least 4 GB of RAM and 2 vCPUs. That floor comes from the vendor. Most other sizing advice comes from hosts selling the servers.
Plain n8n in 2 GB means the default setup: one container and an SQLite database, which is a single file on disk with no separate database server. That covers a handful of workflows that move small JSON payloads around. It gets tight in the situations n8n's memory troubleshooting page lists: large JSON responses, files that n8n keeps in memory by default, heavy Code nodes, and manual test runs, because a run you start by hand in the editor keeps an extra copy of the data for the browser.
Two upgrades push you past 2 GB. PostgreSQL, which n8n supports in versions 16 to 18, is the database you want once workflows hold anything you'd hate to lose. Queue mode splits n8n into a main instance that receives triggers and workers that run executions, with Redis passing jobs between them. It's included in the free Community edition, and n8n's docs advise against running it on SQLite. For reference, n8n's single-instance benchmark ran on a 4 GB machine with Postgres.
Hetzner's own price data, read on 17 October 2026, lists the CPX11 from n8n's guide only in its two US locations, Ashburn and Hillsboro, at €17.49 a month before the €0.50 IPv4 address. The Cost-Optimized line (CX and CAX), which most n8n tutorials used, shows "Currently not available" on Hetzner's cloud page. In Germany and Finland the 2 GB option is now the CPX12 with 1 vCPU at €11.99 including IPv4, and the 4 GB CPX22 is €19.99. The Hetzner price history shows how far that line moved; for ARM boxes elsewhere, see ARM VPS hosting in 2026, since n8n publishes ARM64 images too.
If n8n will share the server with an AI agent, size up again. OpenClaw, the self-hosted agent gateway, is a small Node process until you let it drive a browser, and its browser tool runs a real Chromium. That headless browser is the part that eats memory. I'd budget another 2 GB for it on top of n8n. Running a local model on the same box is a different sizing exercise, covered in self-hosted LLMs on a cheap VPS.
My advice is to start at 4 GB even if n8n says 2 GB will do, because 4 GB is no longer the expensive tier. OVHcloud's 4 GB VPS-1 at €4.49 month to month (about $5.16 at our fixed 1.15 rate) undercuts the cheapest advertised 2 GB plan at 19 of the other 23 hosts we track that sell one.
What a 4 GB server costs, host by host
On 17 October 2026, 34 of the hosts HostingSift tracks sold a VPS or cloud server with at least 4 GB of RAM, 507 plans in all (nightly snapshot, managed platforms and PaaS excluded). Taking each host's cheapest such plan at its advertised price, the median is $12.29 a month. We re-checked 11 of them on the hosts' own pages that day.
The renewal price in the table is what the plan switches to after its discounted first term. 15 of the 34 cheapest plans list a renewal price above the advertised one. Month to month is the price without any commitment, where the host shows one.
| Host | Plan | vCPU / RAM / disk | Advertised price (term) | Renewal price | Month to month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OVHcloud | VPS-1 | 2 / 4 GB / 40 GB NVMe | €3.81 (12 months) | not listed separately | €4.49 |
| Contabo | Cloud VPS 4 | 4 / 8 GB / 100 GB SSD | €4.40 (24 months) | not listed separately | €5.50 |
| HostGator | Snappy 2000 NVMe 4 | 2 / 4 GB / 100 GB NVMe | $4.18 (24 months) | $9.35 | not shown |
| Time4VPS | Linux 4 | 2 / 4 GB / 50 GB SSD | €4.38 (24 months) | €8.76 | €12.99 |
| IONOS | VPS M+ | 2 / 4 GB / 120 GB NVMe | $5 (first 3 months of a 1-year term) | $14 | not shown |
| InterServer | 2 slices | 1 / 4 GB / 80 GB SSD | $6 (monthly) | $6 | $6 |
| Hostinger | KVM 1 | 1 / 4 GB / 50 GB NVMe | $6.49 (24 months) | $11.99 | not shown |
| Hetzner | CPX22 | 2 / 4 GB / 80 GB NVMe | €19.99 (monthly) | €19.99 | €19.99 |
| Vultr | Regular 2 vCPU / 4 GB | 2 / 4 GB / 80 GB SSD | $20 (monthly) | $20 | $20 |
| DigitalOcean | Basic 4 GiB | 2 / 4 GB / 80 GB NVMe | $24 (monthly) | $24 | $24 |
| Linode | Shared 4 GB | 2 / 4 GB / 80 GB SSD | $24 (monthly) | $24 | $24 |
OVHcloud and Contabo state their prices exclude VAT. Hetzner's €19.99 includes the €0.50 IPv4 address. Contabo is the odd row: it charges for 8 GB what most of the table charges for 4.
Read the advertised column with the term next to it. IONOS's $5 lasts three months of a one-year contract, then $14 applies, so year one costs $141. Time4VPS doubles at renewal, from €4.38 to €8.76. Hostinger's KVM 1 has a single vCPU, below the 2 n8n asks for with the Assistant. Its KVM 2 (2 vCPUs, 8 GB) is $8.99 on the same 24-month term and renews at $14.99.
The flat-rate clouds are the stable end of the table. DigitalOcean's 4 GiB Droplet has been $24 every night since we started tracking it on 12 February 2026, Linode's 4 GB plan $24 since 24 February, and Vultr's $20 since 22 February. OVHcloud's VPS-1 has sat at €3.81 on the 12-month price since it entered our data on 11 June 2026. The moves were elsewhere: Hostinger raised KVM 1 from $4.99 to $6.49 on 3 March 2026 (its renewal price went from $9.99 to $11.99 on 27 February), and IONOS moved VPS M+ from $4 to $5 for the promo months and from $11 to $14 after them on 18 September 2026. If DigitalOcean and Vultr are your shortlist, the DigitalOcean vs Vultr comparison covers the rest of their line-up; for bigger boxes, VPS price per GB of RAM prices 8 GB across every host.
One-click n8n installs cost nothing extra
Several hosts now sell "n8n hosting" as its own product. On 17 October 2026, none of the three we checked charged anything for the install. Hostinger's n8n plans are its KVM plans at KVM prices, Contabo puts n8n on Cloud VPS 4 "free of charge" at €4.40, and Time4VPS adds a free deployment template to its Linux VPS plans.
The templates differ in what they set up. Hostinger offers three: plain n8n, n8n with queue mode, and one with 100+ pre-made workflows, all on KVM 1 from $6.49. Time4VPS's template installs Ubuntu 24.04, Docker and Docker Compose, n8n, PostgreSQL, Traefik with Let's Encrypt certificates, and an extra HTTP login in front of the editor. It's offered on Linux 2, 4 and 8 (€2.88, €4.38 and €7.12 a month on 24 months).
Time4VPS also sells a cheaper-looking Container VPS: the 4 GB C4 is €2.88 on 24 months against €4.38 for Linux 4. That line is OpenVZ, a container rather than a full virtual machine, and it isn't offered with the n8n template. Docker inside an OpenVZ container depends on what the host enables, so for n8n I'd pay the extra €1.50.
DigitalOcean's Marketplace has an n8n 1-Click App too. It's built by a third-party n8n consultancy rather than by n8n or DigitalOcean, and its API example creates a 2 vCPU, 4 GB Droplet, the $24 plan from the table.
None of these templates patch the server or back it up. Time4VPS says so plainly on its own page: administration, updates, security and backups stay with you. A template saves you the setup. Everything after it is still your job, and that's the €372 trade from the first section.
Execution history and files fill the disk
n8n prunes old execution data by default, deleting runs older than 336 hours (14 days) or beyond 10,000 saved executions, per n8n's execution-data docs, checked 17 October 2026. On the default SQLite database the freed space isn't returned to the disk. SQLite reuses it, and the file only shrinks after a VACUUM.
Two settings fix most of it. DB_SQLITE_VACUUM_ON_STARTUP compacts the file each time n8n restarts, and EXECUTIONS_DATA_SAVE_ON_SUCCESS=none stops n8n storing runs that worked, so only failures stay for debugging. Executions you tag or rate are never pruned, so a habit of annotating runs slowly fills the database.
Files are the bigger risk. n8n holds binary data (PDFs, images, attachments) in memory unless you set N8N_DEFAULT_BINARY_DATA_MODE=filesystem, which writes it to disk instead and gets pruned along with the executions. Queue mode can't use filesystem mode; there it's the database or S3-compatible storage, and S3 storage is a paid-edition feature.
That makes the disk column worth a second look. OVHcloud's 40 GB is the smallest in the table and fine for n8n, Postgres and a few Docker images with pruning left on. If your workflows move documents around, the 100 GB at Contabo and HostGator or the 120 GB at IONOS buys months of margin. For scale, n8n Cloud's Starter plan caps saved execution history at 2.5 GB.
Backups belong in the same budget line. OVHcloud's VPS-1 includes a daily backup of the previous 24 hours. Contabo's Auto Backup is €1.65 a month extra on Cloud VPS 4, which still leaves it well under every flat-rate cloud in the table.
What I'd run n8n on
For most people self-hosting n8n in October 2026, I'd rent OVHcloud's VPS-1 on monthly billing at €4.49 ex VAT: 2 vCPUs, 4 GB, a daily backup, and no contract to walk away from. If you're willing to prepay two years, Contabo's Cloud VPS 4 doubles the RAM for €105.60 up front.
For a few light workflows and no Assistant, n8n's own 2 GB guidance holds. InterServer's single slice (1 core, 2 GB, 40 GB) is $3 a month with no term, and Time4VPS's Linux 2 comes with the n8n template for €2.88 a month on 24 months, renewing at €5.77. Both stay inside SQLite territory, so set the pruning and vacuum options above on day one.
With the Assistant, Postgres, or an agent on the same box, go to 4 GB with 2 vCPUs: OVHcloud's VPS-1 or Contabo's Cloud VPS 4. Pick Hostinger only if you want its ready-made queue-mode template, and then take KVM 2 for the second vCPU. The Hostinger vs InterServer comparison covers the support and panel differences.
Queue mode means a main instance, workers, Redis and Postgres on one server, and that wants 8 GB. OVHcloud's VPS-2 (4 vCPUs, 8 GB, 75 GB NVMe) is €8.49 month to month or €7.21 on 12 months, and InterServer's 4 slices (2 cores, 8 GB, 160 GB SSD) are $12 a month.
Stay on n8n Cloud if your workflows fit under 2,500 runs a month and nobody on the team wants to patch a Linux server. At €20 a month billed yearly, that's a reasonable deal. Once one 15-minute poller pushes you to Pro, a €4.49 server does the same job for less than a tenth of the price.
The one move I'd avoid is following an older tutorial to Hetzner's CX line. It isn't on sale, and the CPX11 that n8n's guide names in its place costs €17.49 a month before the IPv4 address, in US locations only. For the full list of hosts we track, browse VPS hosting.
Originally published at hostingsift.com.
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