n8n Hosting on VPS

Step 01 — Order your VPS

Medium plan handles n8n + Postgres + Redis for moderate workflow volume. Pick a region close to the services your workflows talk to most.

ssh root@your-server-ip

Step 02 — Install Docker and Docker Compose

n8n runs cleanest as a Docker Compose stack – Postgres for state, Redis for queue, n8n itself, and Caddy for HTTPS termination.

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | shsystemctl enable --now docker

Step 03 — Configure the n8n stack

Create a docker-compose.yml with n8n, Postgres, and Redis. Set WEBHOOK_URL to your public HTTPS endpoint so external services can hit your flows.

services:  n8n:    image: n8nio/n8n    environment:      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://n8n.yourdomain.com      - DB_TYPE=postgresdb      - DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=postgres    depends_on: [postgres, redis]

Step 04 — Set up HTTPS

Point a subdomain at your VPS IP. Caddy or Coolify reverse-proxy can handle Let's Encrypt automatically.

A   n8n.yourdomain.com   →   your-server-ip

Step 05 — Verify your first workflow

Open the n8n UI, create a Webhook → Set → Respond workflow, hit the webhook URL with curl. If you get the expected JSON back, the public endpoint, queue and DB are all wired correctly.

curl -X POST https://n8n.yourdomain.com/webhook-test/hello

Expected output:

{"status":"ok"}

• Webhooks return 404 – n8n needs the public URL set via WEBHOOK_URL env var, not just listening on localhost.
• Workflows lose state on restart – make sure Postgres is the configured DB, not the default SQLite, before you put it in production.