Most "how much does it cost to self-host n8n" answers quote the price on the checkout page. That number is often a promo that only lasts for the first term. We track n8n hosting prices for SelfHostCost, so here's what the same hosts charge once the intro period ends, plus the costs that guides tend to leave out.
All prices below were checked on 2026-10-16 against each vendor's own pricing page (linked in the table). They exclude VAT and tax. Prices change, so check the source before you buy.
Intro vs renewal, side by side
| Host / plan | Specs | Intro | Renewal | Term | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger VPS KVM 1 | 1 vCPU / 4 GB / 50 GB NVMe | $6.49/mo | $11.99/mo | 24-month prepay | hostinger.com |
| Hostinger VPS KVM 2 | 2 vCPU / 8 GB / 100 GB NVMe | $8.99/mo | $14.99/mo | 24-month prepay | hostinger.com |
| Hostinger VPS KVM 4 | 4 vCPU / 16 GB / 200 GB NVMe | $12.99/mo | $28.99/mo | 24-month prepay | hostinger.com |
| Hostinger VPS KVM 8 | 8 vCPU / 32 GB / 400 GB NVMe | $25.99/mo | $49.99/mo | 24-month prepay | hostinger.com |
| Hetzner Cloud CX23 ¹ (not orderable) | 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 40 GB | €5.99/mo (~$7.09) | €5.99/mo | monthly, hourly billing | hetzner.com |
| DigitalOcean Basic 1 GiB | 1 vCPU / 1 GiB / 25 GiB | $6/mo | $6/mo | monthly cap, per-second | digitalocean.com |
| DigitalOcean Basic 4 GiB | 2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 80 GiB | $24/mo | $24/mo | monthly cap | digitalocean.com |
| PikaPods (managed) | n8n pod, minimum resources | from $3.70/mo | same | prepaid, hourly | pikapods.com |
| InstaPods Build (managed) | 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 25 GB | $7/mo | $7/mo | monthly flat | instapods.com |
| Elestio (managed) | entry tier specs not listed | from $11/mo | same | monthly | elest.io |
| Render Starter (managed) | 0.5 CPU / 512 MB | $7/mo + Postgres | same | monthly, prorated | render.com |
| Render 2 GB (managed) | 1 CPU / 2 GB | $25/mo + Postgres | same | monthly, prorated | render.com |
| Railway Hobby (managed) | usage-based | from $5/mo minimum, usage-based ² | usage-based | monthly | railway.com |
| Oracle Cloud Always Free ³ | 2 OCPU / 12 GB Arm | $0 (often out of capacity) | $0 | free | oracle docs |
¹ Hetzner's CX23 page currently shows it as "not available" to order in the NBG1 and HEL1 locations. We list it because it's the price people quote, but you may not be able to get it today. EUR→USD uses Hetzner's own published conversion.
² Railway's Hobby plan has a $5 monthly minimum that includes $5 of usage. That is not what n8n costs there: anything beyond the included credit is billed per second of CPU and memory, so the real number depends on your workload. We haven't measured it, and we won't guess, so Railway isn't ranked as the cheapest option here.
³ Oracle's Always Free tier is free for the life of the account, but Oracle's own docs warn about "out of host capacity" errors, and in practice it's often out of capacity. Idle instances may also be reclaimed. It's great if you can get it; just don't plan around it.
The year-two surprise
Only one provider on this list has a big intro/renewal gap, and it happens to be one of the most popular n8n picks: Hostinger.
- KVM 1: $6.49 → $11.99/mo, about +85%. That's $77.88/yr on the intro price vs $143.88/yr at renewal.
- KVM 2: $8.99 → $14.99/mo, about +67%. That's $107.88/yr vs $179.88/yr.
- KVM 4: $12.99 → $28.99/mo, about +123%. That's $155.88/yr vs $347.88/yr.
- KVM 8: $25.99 → $49.99/mo, about +92%. That's $311.88/yr vs $599.88/yr.
One detail that matters: the intro price listed above requires a 24-month prepay. So on that deal, the jump actually lands when your two-year term ends (month 25), not after twelve months. If you pick a shorter term, the starting price is different. We haven't recorded the shorter-term prices yet, so check the checkout page.
None of this makes Hostinger a bad choice. The specs are generous for the price, and there's a one-click n8n template. But if you compare it to a flat-priced VPS on the intro price alone, you're comparing a promo to a list price.
The rest of the list (Hetzner, DigitalOcean, PikaPods, InstaPods, Elestio, Render) prices monthly, with the same rate in month one and month twenty-five, as far as their pricing pages show.
Costs the headline price leaves out
Backups. A VPS doesn't back itself up. On DigitalOcean, automated backups add roughly 20–30% on top of the droplet price, so the 4 GiB box is closer to $29–31/mo with backups on. Elsewhere, budget for snapshots or an offsite dump of your n8n database. Losing a year of workflows and credentials costs more than any of these line items.
The database. n8n needs a persistent database. On Render, the $7 web service (or $25 for the 2 GB instance) is only half the bill: a Postgres instance comes on top (the Basic-256mb plan is listed at around $10/mo; we treat that figure as approximate), so expect $17+/mo in total ($35+ on the 2 GB instance). 512 MB of RAM can also be tight for n8n.
Undersized boxes. DigitalOcean's 1 GiB droplet is cheap, but 1 GB is tight for n8n plus Postgres. If you end up resizing to 4 GiB, your "$6 host" becomes a $24 host.
Your time. Self-hosted means you handle updates, TLS and backups yourself. The managed options (PikaPods, InstaPods, Elestio) charge partly for that.
How this compares to n8n Cloud
For reference, n8n's own Cloud pricing (n8n.io/pricing, checked 2026-10-16) is billed per execution, where one execution is one full workflow run:
- Starter: 2,500 executions, $24/mo or $20/mo billed yearly
- Pro: 10,000 executions, $60/mo or $50/mo billed yearly
- Pro 50k: 50,000 executions, $145/mo or $120.83/mo billed yearly
Above 50k executions, it's Enterprise (custom pricing). Self-hosted Community Edition has no execution limit, so the question is whether your execution count justifies paying for a server and looking after it. At low volume Cloud Starter is simpler; as executions grow, even Hostinger's renewal price is well below the Pro tiers.
(If you're coming from Make: its current pricing is hard to pin down, and sources conflict. make.com blocks automated reads, and dated third-party sources disagree. For the entry paid tier (Core, 10k credits), readings range from $9 to $12/mo billed yearly, or $10.59 to $16/mo billed monthly. We show it only as a range until we can confirm it by hand.)
A simple rule of thumb
- Compare hosts on the renewal price, and multiply by the months you actually expect to run.
- Add backups and, if the host doesn't include one, a database.
- Treat "not orderable" and "free if capacity exists" plans as bonuses, not your plan.
If you want to plug in your own execution or task volume, we keep a free calculator at selfhostcost.dev. Every price has a source link and a check date, no signup needed. There are also head-to-head pages like Hetzner vs Hostinger for n8n, and the full price table with sources at selfhostcost.dev/pricing.
If you want to try Railway, here's our Railway referral link (new signups get $20 in credits).
Disclosure: we run SelfHostCost. The Railway link just above is a referral link, and we may earn credit if you sign up through it. Every other link in this post is a plain link. Referral links never affect rankings.
Spotted a price that's changed? Tell us in the comments and we'll re-check it.
Top comments (0)