n8n Pricing, Self-Hosting & Plans: Is n8n Free in 2026?

n8n has one of the most misunderstood pricing structures in automation. Some people use it for free. Others pay hundreds per month. Both are making the right call for their situation.

If you're a SaaS founder or business owner evaluating n8n, this guide is for you. You'll know exactly what each plan costs, when self-hosting beats cloud, and which option fits your setup — without guessing.

CodixFlow's take: n8n's pricing model rewards technical users. The more comfortable you are with servers, the less you pay. We'll show you exactly where that crossover point is.

For a broader look at what n8n can do for your business, start with our full n8n automation services overview.

What Does n8n Actually Cost? (The Quick Answer)

n8n is free if you self-host it. The community edition is open-source. No execution limits. No monthly fee.

If you want n8n hosted for you, cloud plans start at €20/month on an annual plan. That gets you 2,500 workflow executions per month.

Here's the full picture at a glance:

One thing to note: n8n prices in euros, not dollars. If you're paying in USD, exchange rates apply.

n8n Cloud Plans: What You Get at Each Tier

Starter - €20/month (annual)

The Starter plan is for founders who want to try n8n in production. Without managing servers.

You get:

• 2,500 workflow executions per month
• Unlimited users and unlimited workflows
• 5 concurrent executions
• 1 shared project
• 50 AI Workflow Builder credits
• Forum support only

2,500 executions sounds like a lot. It isn't, once you're in production.

A single webhook-triggered workflow can burn through that fast. Think 80 triggers per day. That's 2,400 executions in a month. Just one workflow, with no buffer.

Starter works for low-traffic testing. Not for serious production use.

Pro - €50/month (annual)

Pro is where most solo builders and small SaaS teams actually land.

You get everything in Starter, plus:

• 10,000 executions per month
• 20 concurrent executions
• 3 shared projects
• 7 days of execution insights
• 150 AI Workflow Builder credits
• Admin roles and global variables
• Workflow history

10,000 executions/month covers most moderate automation setups. If you're running a lead enrichment workflow, customer onboarding sequences, and daily reporting — Pro handles it.

The jump from €20 to €50 is steep. But so is the capability gap.

Business - €667/month (annual)

This is n8n's new self-hosted tier. Launched August 2025.

It's aimed at teams who need production-grade infrastructure. But aren't ready for enterprise contracts.

You get:

• 40,000 executions per month
• SSO, SAML, and LDAP
• Git-based version control
• Multiple environments (dev, staging, prod)
• Queue mode and scaling options
• 30 days of insights

At €667/month, this isn't a casual purchase. It's for companies with 20–100 employees. Running automation at real scale.

Enterprise — Custom Pricing

Enterprise pricing is negotiated directly with n8n's sales team.

You get everything in Business, plus:

• Unlimited shared projects
• 200+ concurrent executions
• 365 days of log retention
• Dedicated support with SLAs
• External secret store integration
• Log streaming (Datadog, etc.)

No public price is listed. If you're asking, you can probably afford it — but expect four figures monthly for serious deployments.

n8n Self-Hosted: Is It Really Free?

Yes. The n8n Community Edition is genuinely free.

It's the same n8n you'd get on cloud. No crippled features. No watermarks. No execution limits.

What you're paying for instead: your own server.

A basic VPS from Hetzner, Hostinger, or DigitalOcean runs between €4–€12/month for light-to-moderate workloads. That's your real cost.

What You Need to Self-Host

1. A Linux VPS (Ubuntu works well)
2. Docker installed
3. About 60–90 minutes to set it up
4. Basic comfort with a command line

That's it. If you've ever SSHed into a server, you can do this.

What Self-Hosting Doesn't Include

Self-hosting on the Community Edition means:

• No official support — community forum only
• You manage updates — n8n releases regularly
• No built-in SSO — unless you configure it yourself
• No execution insights dashboard — you build your own monitoring

These aren't dealbreakers for technical teams. They matter a lot for non-technical business owners who just want something to work.

Self-Hosted vs Cloud: A Real-World Cost Comparison

This is the decision most founders get wrong. They assume cloud is simpler, so they pay for it. Without checking whether the maths makes sense.

Here's the honest breakdown:

A Real Client Example

We had a client running n8n on a €6/month Hostinger VPS. They were processing around 600 workflow executions per day — roughly 18,000 per month.

On n8n cloud, that volume would have required the Pro plan at €50/month minimum. On a VPS, their total infrastructure cost was €6.

Over 12 months, that's a €528 saving. And setup took us under two hours.

When they scaled to 3,000 daily executions, we moved them to a €24/month VPS. Still cheaper than any n8n cloud tier that would cover that volume.

Self-hosting doesn't make sense for everyone. If you have no technical background, no one to manage a server, and low execution volumes — cloud is cleaner. But if you have any technical capability at all, or you're working with a team like CodixFlow, self-hosting will almost always save you money at meaningful scale.

Want to see what automations you could run? Browse our n8n automation workflow templates for free.

The New n8n Business Self-Hosted Plan

In August 2025, n8n launched a self-hosted Business plan. It fills a gap that frustrated power users for years.

Previously, the choice was:

• Community Edition (free, but bare-bones)
• Enterprise (custom pricing, overkill for most teams)

The Business plan sits in between. €667/month buys you a properly licensed self-hosted instance with SSO, Git-based version control, and proper environment separation.

For a growing SaaS team running internal automation — this makes sense. You keep data on your own servers. You get enterprise-grade features. You pay a predictable flat rate.

n8n Enterprise Pricing: What to Expect

Enterprise pricing is custom. n8n doesn't publish a number.

What we know from their feature list and market positioning: expect to pay significantly more than the Business plan.

Enterprise adds:

• Dedicated support with SLAs
• 200+ concurrent executions
• Unlimited shared projects
• External secret store integration (Vault, AWS Secrets Manager)
• Log streaming to Datadog, Splunk, etc.
• Invoice billing and sales-assisted procurement

If you're evaluating n8n for a large organisation, contact n8n's sales team directly. The number will depend on execution volume, team size, and support requirements.

For most SaaS founders reading this: Enterprise isn't your next step. Pro or self-hosting is.

n8n Free Trial, Discount Codes & the Startup Plan

Free Trial

Both Starter and Pro offer a free trial — no credit card required. You get full Pro features during the trial, with Starter plan limits.

The Business plan also has a 14-day free trial. But it requires a credit card.

This is a good way to test n8n cloud before committing. Start on the free trial. Run your actual workflows. See how many executions you use. Then decide.

n8n Discount Codes

n8n doesn't run regular public discount campaigns. Codes appear occasionally through:

• Their community forum announcements
• Partner programs
• Event sponsorships

Check n8n's pricing page for any current promotions. There's no permanent discount code circulating publicly as of early 2026.

The n8n Startup Plan

This one's worth knowing about. n8n offers 50% off the Business plan for startups with under 20 employees.

It's not automatic. You apply for it. But if you qualify, you're getting the Business self-hosted tier at roughly half price — with SSO, Git version control, and environments included.

Apply through n8n's startup plan page. They verify company size before approving.

n8n Community Edition vs Paid: The Honest Comparison

Founders often ask: what do I actually lose by staying on the free community edition?

Here's the truthful answer:

You lose convenience, not capability.

The community edition has the same workflow editor. The same integrations (400+). The same AI nodes. The same code execution in JavaScript and Python.

What you don't get:

• Managed hosting (you run the server)
• Execution insights dashboard
• SSO and LDAP
• Git version control (without manual setup)
• Official support

For a technical founder building internal automation: the community edition is enough. Potentially indefinitely.

For a non-technical team that wants automation to just work: cloud makes more sense.

That's not a hedge. That's the actual answer.

Which n8n Plan Should You Start With?

Let's cut through the options.

Here's the decision, simplified:

• You can manage a server → Community Edition. Free. No limits. Set it up once and forget it.
• You can't manage a server, low volume → Starter. €20/month. Test things properly without infrastructure overhead.
• You can't manage a server, growing usage → Pro. €50/month. 10,000 executions. This is where most production cloud users land.
• You have a team, need compliance features → Business. €667/month. Self-hosted, enterprise features, predictable cost.
• You're a startup under 20 people → Apply for the Startup Plan. 50% off Business. Worth the 10-minute application.

Our recommendation: If you have any technical capacity at all — self-host on the Community Edition. The savings over 12 months pay for a lot more interesting things than cloud hosting fees.

If you want someone else to handle the setup, configuration, and ongoing management of n8n for your business — see how we build and manage n8n automations at CodixFlow.

What Most Guides Get Wrong About n8n Pricing

Most articles about n8n pricing compare cloud tiers. They miss the actual decision.

The real choice is: cloud vs self-hosted. Not Starter vs Pro.

And most articles also miss what happened in August 2025. n8n completely restructured their plans. Unlimited workflows and users across all tiers. A new Business self-hosted option. Execution-based billing with no step limits.

That changes the calculus significantly. An n8n execution now covers an entire workflow run, regardless of how many steps are in it. A 50-step workflow costs the same single execution as a 3-step workflow.

That's a major advantage over tools like Zapier (which charges per task/step) or Make (which charges per operation).

If you're comparing tools, our breakdown of n8n vs Make vs Zapier covers this in detail. Also worth reading: the best n8n alternatives if you're still deciding.

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