n8n - Self-Hosted Automation That Actually Works

Honestly, I didn't want another automation tool. Already spent months with Zapier, got frustrated with Make's confusing interface, and Microsoft Power Automate requires three meetings just to set up. But our integration costs were killing us - $400/month for moving customer data around.

That $400 monthly bill is what pushed me to try n8n in the first place. Here's why it stuck.

What Actually Works

You can see the fucking code. Unlike every other platform, n8n shows you exactly what's happening. When workflows break (and they will), you can debug them instead of submitting tickets. The fair-code license means you're not locked into their ecosystem forever. Runs fine on modern Node.js versions.

Docker deployment takes 30 minutes. Not the 5 minutes their quickstart guide claims - more like 30 minutes if you know Docker, 2 hours if you don't. But once it's running, it stays running. Haven't had to restart it in 6 months.

Execution pricing actually makes sense. A workflow that pulls 1000 rows from PostgreSQL, processes them with Python code, and pushes to external services counts as ONE execution, not 1000+ tasks like Zapier would charge.

The Real Pain Points Nobody Mentions

Memory usage grows over time until you restart the container. Not a huge deal with Docker Compose, but worth knowing. The webhook node breaks with certain reverse proxy setups - took me 3 hours to figure out.

Migration from Zapier sucks. Their migration guides help, but you're basically rebuilding everything from scratch. Took us 2 weeks to recreate 15 workflows. But we went from $400/month to $0/month, so worth it.

The community forum has real answers. GitHub issues get responses, which is more than I can say for most platforms. Documentation actually explains things instead of just listing features.

Bottom line: If you know Docker and don't mind reading docs, n8n gives you way more control than Zapier at a fraction of the cost. The learning curve is real - budget 2-3 days for initial setup. But once it's running, you own the infrastructure and control the costs. That's worth something in today's SaaS pricing environment.

Been running n8n in production for 18 months across 3 environments. Here's what you need to know before you start. This section covers the production gotchas that the official docs gloss over - memory issues, database requirements, and scaling reality checks.

Docker Setup: The Good and the Ugly

Copy this Docker Compose setup:

version: '3.7'
services:
  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "5678:5678"
    volumes:
      - n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n
    environment:
      - N8N_HOST=your-domain.com
      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://your-domain.com/
volumes:
  n8n_data:

Takes 30 minutes to set up if you know Docker. Takes 2-3 hours if you're learning Docker while doing this. The official quickstart skips the reverse proxy setup that you'll definitely need.

PostgreSQL is required for production. SQLite works for testing but breaks under load. Learned this the hard way when webhook executions started failing randomly.

Memory Management Issues Nobody Warns You About

n8n has memory leaks. Not huge ones, but they exist. We restart containers weekly using cron jobs. Memory usage grows pretty significantly after a week of running.

Solution that works:

## Restart n8n weekly to clear memory leaks
0 2 * * 0 docker-compose restart n8n

Kubernetes deployments handle this better with pod recycling, but that's overkill for most teams.

Scaling: When Single Instance Isn't Enough

Single instance handles hundreds of workflows fine. We process 50,000+ executions monthly on a $40/month DigitalOcean droplet. But you'll hit limits around 100 concurrent executions.

Queue-based scaling works with Redis or PostgreSQL queues. The scaling documentation is actually accurate, which is rare. But you need to understand Node.js event loops to debug issues.

Security: Don't Skip This Shit

Enable HTTPS immediately. Credentials flow in plain text otherwise. The security guide covers this well.

External secrets are mandatory for production. We use AWS Secrets Manager integration. Works great once configured, but setup requires understanding IAM policies that are documented nowhere.

AI Features: Actually Useful

The LangChain integration isn't marketing bullshit. Built a customer support bot that processes Zendesk tickets with OpenAI responses. Works better than expected.

70+ AI nodes sounds impressive until you realize you'll use maybe 5 of them. But those 5 (OpenAI Chat, Anthropic, PDF processing) actually work as advertised.

Enterprise Features: Worth It for Teams

SSO SAML integration took 2 hours to set up with Okta. Works reliably. RBAC permissions make sense, unlike most platforms.

Audit logging generates tons of data. Good for compliance, terrible for disk space. Make sure you have log rotation configured.