Self-Host n8n Workflow Automation with InfraPilot

Why Self-Host n8n?

n8n Cloud costs $20–50/mo. The self-hosted version is free for unlimited workflows, unlimited executions, and unlimited users. More importantly, your automation logic and the data it processes stays on your infrastructure — not in a third-party SaaS cloud. For automations that touch customer data, invoices, or API keys, this matters.

Prerequisites

• VPS with Docker installed, minimum 1 GB RAM
• InfraPilot installed: curl -fsSL https://infrapilot.org/install.sh | bash
• A subdomain for n8n (e.g. automation.yourdomain.com)

Step 1 — Create the Compose Stack

mkdir -p ~/apps/n8n && cd ~/apps/n8n

services:
  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      N8N_HOST: automation.yourdomain.com
      N8N_PORT: 5678
      N8N_PROTOCOL: https
      WEBHOOK_URL: https://automation.yourdomain.com
      GENERIC_TIMEZONE: Europe/London
      DB_TYPE: postgresdb
      DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST: db
      DB_POSTGRESDB_PORT: 5432
      DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE: n8n
      DB_POSTGRESDB_USER: n8n
      DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE: "true"
      N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER: ${N8N_USER}
      N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD: ${N8N_PASSWORD}
    ports:
      - "5678:5678"
    volumes:
      - n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n
    depends_on:
      - db

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: n8n
      POSTGRES_USER: n8n
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - db_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

volumes:
  n8n_data:
  db_data:

Create .env:

DB_PASSWORD=strong-n8n-db-password
N8N_USER=admin
N8N_PASSWORD=strong-n8n-password

docker compose up -d

Step 2 — SSL and Reverse Proxy via InfraPilot

1. InfraPilot → Traffic → Proxy Hosts → Add Proxy Host
2. Domain: automation.yourdomain.com
3. Forward host: n8n, port: 5678
4. Enable WebSocket support — n8n's editor uses WebSockets for live execution updates
5. Enable Let's Encrypt SSL and force HTTPS

n8n also uses webhooks to receive data from external services. The WEBHOOK_URL environment variable tells n8n its public URL so it can generate correct webhook URLs for your workflows. Make sure this matches the domain you set in InfraPilot.

Step 3 — Log In and Build Workflows

Visit https://automation.yourdomain.com, log in with your basic auth credentials, and you'll see the n8n workflow editor. Connect it to Slack, GitHub, Google Sheets, Stripe, Airtable, or any of n8n's 400+ integrations.

Useful Automations to Start With

• New GitHub PR → Slack notification — never miss a review request
• New Stripe payment → update a Google Sheet — lightweight revenue tracking
• InfraPilot webhook alert → PagerDuty — route infrastructure alerts to your on-call system
• Scheduled database backup → upload to S3 — automated DR for self-hosted databases

Monitoring n8n with InfraPilot

n8n execution queues can pile up if a workflow is waiting on a slow external API. Watch the n8n container's CPU and memory in InfraPilot — if memory climbs steadily, check for stuck workflows in the n8n Executions log. Set a restart policy and an InfraPilot alert to notify you if the container restarts unexpectedly.