Self-Host n8n on a Hostinger VPS (Practical 2026 Guide)

Short version: Hostinger is the fastest paid way to get a real, always-on n8n instance. You buy a VPS, apply the prebuilt n8n template from hPanel, point a domain at it, turn on HTTPS, and log in. Budget a few dollars a month, not zero. If you want truly free and do not mind living in the terminal, the Oracle Cloud route further down is the alternative.

Disclosure: this post may include Hostinger affiliate links. If it does and you buy through one, the site can earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it never changes the price you pay or what I recommend.

I run n8n in production for clients. If you want your own n8n without babysitting a server, the first thing to settle is the cheapest way to host it. For a long time my answer was Oracle Cloud's free tier, and it still is if free is the only thing that matters. But Hostinger quietly shipped a one-click n8n VPS template, and for most people that is now the path of least resistance. You trade a few dollars a month for skipping the fiddly parts.

Here is the full walkthrough, with real 2026 pricing, the plan I would pick, and the tradeoffs.

Want to see n8n doing real work first? Run my Google Maps lead finder or the SEO audit, both live n8n workflows.

Is n8n on Hostinger actually free? No, and here is the real cost

Let me kill the confusion first. n8n the software is free to self-host. The server it runs on is not. Those are two separate bills, and only one of them is zero.

When you self-host, you are paying for the machine, not the app. On Hostinger that machine is a VPS, and it starts at $6.49 a month on a 24-month upfront term, renewing higher once that term ends (full breakdown below). So "free n8n on Hostinger" really means "free software on a paid server."

If your only goal is a $0 total, that is a different guide: my Deploy n8n on Oracle Cloud Free Tier post covers the truly free route. Oracle's Always Free ARM instance costs nothing forever, but you install everything by hand. Hostinger is the opposite deal: you pay a little and you click a template. More on that tradeoff at the end.

If you are still deciding between self-hosting and n8n Cloud in the first place, read the n8n pricing guide and run your numbers through the n8n cost calculator before you commit. Self-hosting wins on cost at scale; it loses on convenience.

The real cost: Hostinger VPS plans for n8n

Here are the plans that matter for n8n, captured in July 2026 from Hostinger's US site. Read the two price columns carefully, because the headline number has a catch.

The catch: those intro prices only apply on a 24-month commitment paid upfront, and they roughly double at renewal. KVM 1 is $6.49 a month now and $11.99 a month once the term ends. Shorter terms cost more per month. So when you budget, budget the renewal number, not the teaser. Hostinger also changes this pricing often, so treat the table as "verify before you buy" rather than gospel. These are USD figures from the US-facing page; other regions and currencies show different numbers.

Which plan should you pick for n8n? It comes down to RAM

RAM is the constraint that matters, not CPU. Idle n8n barely uses around 100 MB, but real memory use is driven by how much data your workflows push around, and it climbs fast once you add a database and workers on the same box.

Here is how I split it:

• Cheapest that really works: KVM 1 (4 GB RAM). n8n publishes no minimum for a plain install, and its Docker Compose guide asks for 4 GB and 2 vCPUs only when the AI assistant sandbox runs alongside it. Without that sandbox, KVM 1's 4 GB is comfortable for a single-user automation stack. The only thing you give up is the second vCPU n8n likes to have for headroom.
• Comfortable production pick: KVM 2 (8 GB RAM). This is what I recommend for anything real. Once you run n8n plus its own PostgreSQL, and especially if you use the queue-mode template with Redis and workers, 8 GB is the safe floor that keeps the box from thrashing. The extra vCPU helps too.

If this is a solo instance for your own automations, start on KVM 1 and save the money. If it is going to run client work, do not cheap out: get KVM 2.

Step by step: n8n on a Hostinger VPS

The big win here is the template. You do not install Docker or n8n by hand.

1. Buy a VPS plan. KVM 1 is the cheapest that works; KVM 2 is the comfortable production pick. Remember the intro price wants a 24-month upfront commitment and renews higher.
2. Open the OS settings in hPanel. Log into hPanel, open VPS, select your server, click Manage, open the "OS & Panel" dropdown and choose Operating System.
3. Apply the n8n template. Type "n8n" in the search box and pick "Ubuntu 24.04 with n8n" (or the "queue mode" variant if you plan to scale with workers later). Confirm the reinstall. This wipes the disk, so Hostinger warns that all files will be deleted, and you set a root password during the process.
4. Wait for it to provision. The template installs n8n inside Docker for you. The config lives at /root/docker-compose.yml. Once it is up, you can reach the instance from the "Manage App" button in the VPS Overview.
5. Point a domain at it. In your DNS zone (Hostinger's editor or wherever your domain is registered), add an A record for a subdomain like n8n.yourdomain.com pointing at the VPS's public IP. A domain is required to issue an SSL certificate.
6. Turn on HTTPS. n8n needs a real https:// URL in production so inbound webhooks and OAuth redirects resolve to a public secure address instead of the container's internal port 5678. Hostinger's tutorial puts n8n behind an NGINX reverse proxy that forwards port 443 to localhost:5678, with a free auto-renewing Let's Encrypt certificate issued via Certbot. Caddy is a simpler one-file alternative that auto-provisions Let's Encrypt, but NGINX plus Certbot is Hostinger's documented path. One caveat: Hostinger's own docs are slightly inconsistent here. The template support article implies you can reach the box at https://n8n.[your-vps-hostname] out of the box, while the step-by-step tutorial has you set up NGINX and Certbot by hand for a custom domain. Treat the manual reverse-proxy path as the reliable route for your own domain.
7. Set the environment variables. Edit /root/docker-compose.yml (or its .env): set WEBHOOK_URL to your public https URL, N8N_HOST to your domain, and N8N_PROTOCOL=https. Skip this and n8n builds webhook URLs from its internal port 5678 and hands unreachable addresses to external services. For production, point n8n at PostgreSQL with DB_TYPE=postgresdb, keep a fixed N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY, and keep a persistent volume for /home/node/.n8n.
8. Bring it up and log in. Apply with docker compose up -d, open https://your-domain, and create the owner account on first login.

One thing to verify yourself: it is not fully documented whether the default (non-queue) template ships with PostgreSQL or SQLite. The queue-mode variant clearly uses Postgres and Redis. For production, open /root/docker-compose.yml and switch to DB_TYPE=postgresdb if it is still on SQLite.

After it is running: updates, backups, and the license reality

Getting to the login screen is the easy part. Keeping the instance healthy is where most self-hosters get burned.

Updates. n8n ships releases constantly. On the Docker template you update with docker compose pull && docker compose up -d. Do not let it drift. Skipping updates means missing security patches and node fixes, and the longer you wait, the riskier the eventual jump across major versions.

Backups. Back up three things: the PostgreSQL database (your workflows, executions, and settings), the persistent .n8n data directory, and above all the N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY. That key is the one people forget. Lose it and you permanently lose access to every stored credential even if the database survives. Skip the DB backup and a botched OS reinstall wipes every workflow you built. Hostinger offers VPS snapshots you can enable, but they do not replace exporting the database and the key. My self-hosted n8n production checklist has a nightly backup script, a restore you can test and an update routine that pins the version.

Use Postgres, not SQLite, in production. The default SQLite is fine for kicking the tires but not for real use: it locks the whole file on every write, has no safe hot backups, and cannot do queue mode. Set DB_TYPE=postgresdb for anything you rely on.

The license reality. Self-hosted n8n is the Community Edition under n8n's Sustainable Use License, Version 1.0. It is "fair-code," not fully open source. You can run it free for your own internal business, personal, or non-commercial use, with unlimited workflows and users. What you cannot do is resell it as a hosted or managed service to third parties, or white-label it, without a commercial or Enterprise license. If you are a consultant building workflows for clients, you are fine: n8n's license page lists consulting such as building workflows as allowed. Hosting one instance yourself and charging clients to access it is not, and that is the line where you talk to n8n.

Hostinger vs Oracle Cloud: how they compare

Both self-host the exact same free n8n software. The difference is what you pay and how much fiddling you tolerate.

Hostinger is the cheap-and-easy paid route. You pay for the VPS (from $6.49/mo on a 24-month term, renewing at $11.99), but you get a genuine one-click template, a managed hPanel UI, guaranteed always-on resources, and support. You can reach the n8n login in minutes, with only a domain and HTTPS left to wire up.

Oracle Cloud is the truly-free-but-fiddly route. Its Always Free ARM VM is $0 forever and more powerful on paper. But there is no n8n template. You provision the VM, wrangle SSH keys and ingress rules, install Docker and n8n by hand, and set up your own reverse proxy and SSL. Oracle can also reclaim idle Always Free instances. My full walkthrough is here: Deploy n8n on Oracle Cloud Free Tier.

Simple rule: pick Oracle if $0 beats your time and you are comfortable on the command line. Pick Hostinger if you would rather pay a few dollars a month to click a template and skip the setup. Neither one makes n8n itself cost money; you are only paying for, or getting free, the server underneath. If Oracle has no free capacity for you, Google Cloud's free e2-micro sits in between: the 1 GB VM is free, but its IPv4 address costs a few dollars a month, as my Google Cloud free tier guide explains.

Sources

• Hostinger VPS plans and pricing
• Hostinger n8n VPS template guide
• Hostinger self-host n8n tutorial
• n8n webhook URLs behind a reverse proxy
• n8n Sustainable Use License
• n8n supported databases

Pricing and template details were captured from Hostinger's US site in July 2026 and can change. Re-verify on the live pages before you buy.

Want it set up and hardened for you?

If you would rather skip all of this and have a production n8n instance stood up, secured, backed up, and connected to your tools, that is the work I do for clients as an n8n consultant. Book a 30-minute call and I will get you running.