n8n Cloud vs Self-Hosted: Which Plan for Your Team?

n8n Cloud vs Self-Hosted: TL;DR

Choose n8n Cloud if: your team wants to ship automations in minutes and doesn't need to own the infrastructure.
Choose self-hosted if: you handle sensitive data, need unlimited execution history, or want to avoid per-user pricing as you scale.

What We're Comparing

n8n gives you two paths to run the same product: their managed cloud, or a Docker container you run yourself. The code is identical — the difference is who manages the server, where your data lives, and what you pay. In 2026, with n8n's AI agent and MCP features maturing fast, the deployment decision affects more than just ops overhead.

n8n Cloud Overview

n8n Cloud is the hosted SaaS version. You sign up, pick a plan, and start building workflows. No server, no Docker, no Nginx config.

The Starter plan ($20/mo) covers solo developers with 5 active workflows and 2,500 executions/month. The Pro plan ($50/mo) adds more executions, longer execution history, and multiple users. Enterprise adds SSO, audit logs, and custom SLAs.

Pros:

• Up and running in under 5 minutes — no infra knowledge needed
• Automatic updates, backups, and TLS handled by n8n
• Support is included on paid plans

Cons:

• Execution limits hit fast on busy workflows — overage costs add up
• Execution history capped at 7 days (Starter) to 30 days (Pro)
• Data leaves your network — a blocker for healthcare, finance, or regulated industries
• Per-user pricing becomes expensive past 10 users

Self-Hosted n8n Overview

Self-hosted means you run n8n on your own infrastructure — a VPS, a home server, or a Kubernetes cluster. The community edition is free and open source under the Sustainable Use License.

Setup takes 20–60 minutes using Docker Compose. You get a fully functional n8n instance with no execution limits, no user caps, and no data leaving your environment. The Enterprise self-hosted license adds SSO, LDAP, and audit logs if you need them.

Pros:

• No execution limits — run 100k workflows/month for the same VPS cost
• Full data ownership — your database, your backups, your network
• Unlimited execution history
• SSO available without an enterprise cloud contract
• Cheaper at scale: a $10/mo Hetzner VPS handles most small-team workloads

Cons:

• You own uptime, updates, and backups
• Initial setup requires Docker and basic sysadmin comfort
• No built-in support — community forum or paid enterprise contract only

Head-to-Head: Key Dimensions

Cost at Scale

Cloud pricing is per-user and per-execution. Self-hosted is a flat infrastructure cost.

Self-hosted breaks even around month 3 for solo developers who'd otherwise be on the Pro plan. For teams of 10+, the savings are significant year over year.

Setup and Maintenance

Cloud wins on time-to-first-workflow. Self-hosted requires:

# Minimal self-host setup with Docker Compose
mkdir n8n && cd n8n

cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
version: "3.8"
services:
  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n:latest
    ports:
      - "5678:5678"
    environment:
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=admin
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=changeme
      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://your-domain.com
    volumes:
      - n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  n8n_data:
EOF

docker compose up -d

Add a reverse proxy (Caddy or Nginx), configure a domain, and you're live. Updates are one docker compose pull && docker compose up -d.

Self-hosted requires you to stay current on updates — n8n ships releases frequently, and skipping versions can cause migration headaches.

Data Residency and Security

This is the clearest decision factor for teams in regulated industries.

Self-hosted keeps all workflow data, credentials, and execution logs inside your network. You can deploy air-gapped if needed. Credentials are encrypted at rest using a key you control (N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY).

n8n Cloud stores data on AWS infrastructure. Their security practices are solid, but if your compliance requirement is "data never leaves our VPC," cloud isn't an option regardless of pricing.

Execution History and Debugging

Cloud plans cap execution history: 7 days on Starter, 30 days on Pro. If you need to audit a workflow run from 45 days ago, you're out of luck on cloud.

Self-hosted stores all execution data in your local database (SQLite by default, Postgres recommended for production). History is unlimited until you prune it manually or set a retention policy.

# Self-hosted: set execution pruning in docker-compose env
- EXECUTIONS_DATA_PRUNE=true
- EXECUTIONS_DATA_MAX_AGE=90  # Keep 90 days, then prune

AI and MCP Features

Both deployments get the same n8n AI agent nodes, LangChain integrations, and MCP tool support — there's no feature gap between cloud and self-hosted on this front as of 2026. Your choice of deployment doesn't limit which AI models or MCP servers you can connect.

Which Should You Use?

Pick n8n Cloud when:

• You're prototyping or validating before committing to infra
• Your team has no DevOps capacity and needs managed uptime
• You're under 5 users and execution volume is moderate
• You need n8n support included in the contract

Pick self-hosted when:

• You process sensitive data (PII, PHI, financial records)
• You need unlimited execution history for audit or debugging
• Your team is 10+ people and per-user cloud costs are a concern
• You want SSO without paying enterprise cloud rates
• You need air-gapped or on-premises deployment

Use both when: you develop locally on self-hosted Docker and promote production workflows to cloud — some teams do this to get the convenience of cloud with local dev speed.

FAQ

Q: Can I migrate from n8n Cloud to self-hosted later?
A: Yes. Export your workflows as JSON from the cloud UI and import them into your self-hosted instance. Credentials need to be re-entered manually. Budget a half-day for a non-trivial workflow library.

Q: Is self-hosted n8n really free?
A: The community edition is free under the Sustainable Use License, which permits internal business use. Commercial redistribution or building a competing product requires a commercial license. For running automations inside your own company, it's free with no execution limits.

Q: What happens if my self-hosted instance goes down?
A: Webhooks pointing to your instance will fail until it recovers. Scheduled workflows resume on restart. For production reliability, run on a managed VPS with auto-restart (restart: unless-stopped in Docker Compose) and set up uptime monitoring.

Q: Does n8n Cloud support custom nodes?
A: Yes — you can install community nodes on both cloud and self-hosted. Cloud Pro and above supports community nodes in the UI directly.