Self Host n8n for Completly free

What is the Plan?

Memory : supabase

n8n needs a Postgress DB to store workflows, credentials, etc.
we are going to be using supabase as the Postgress DB Provider

Compute : render:

Runs the actual n8n app, gives us a public url to use n8n from

Awaker : cron-job

Render will spin down the n8n service after 15 mintues of inactivity
so we’re gonna ping the service after 14 mintues forever to keep it active and not spin down by setting up a cron job in cron-job.org

Steps :

Setup Supabase

1. Signup/Signin

   click this link : supabase to signup or signin

2. Create a Project

   click New organization button

   • name it with your own name, doesn’t matter
   • select Type to be Personal
   • select Plan to be Free
   • click Create new organization

   click New project button

   • Organization to be whatever is selected by default
   • Project name to be n8n-db, doesn’t really matter
   • Database password to be a new password that we will need shortly
   • Region to be a West US (Oregon) Region (because Render’s Region will also be that)
   • Security to default settings
   • click Create new project

3. Get Credentials

   click the Connect button in the top bar

   

   then do these things :

   • set Type to SQLAlchemy
   • Method to Transcation pooler
   • remeber (copy) the block of text just right to Transcation pooler (SHARED POOLER)

   

Setup Render

1. Signup/Signin

   signup or signin to render

2. Create a Web Service

   create a new webservice by :

   • open New Web Service page
   • click Existing Image
   • Import Url to be this

     docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n

   • click Connect

3. Configure Web Service Creation

   in the next page, set :

   • Name to be anything, eg. n8n

   • Region to be US (Oregon)

   • Instance Type to be Free

   • Environment Variables to match this :

     Key	Value
     DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE	postgres
     DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST	the host value from the supabase page
     DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD	the Database password of the supabase project
     DB_POSTGRESDB_PORT	the port value from the supabase page
     DB_POSTGRESDB_SCHEMA	public
     DB_POSTGRESDB_USER	the user value from the supabase page
     DB_TYPE	postgresdb
     N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY	set to litteraly any random string

   • click Deploy Web Service

4. After Web Service Creation

   after deployment, you will be forwarded to the webservice dashboard we just created
   we need to set more environment variables for proper functioning of n8n

   • go to Left Sidebar > Environment > Environment Variables > Edit > Add
   • and add these environment vairbales :

     Key	Value
     N8N_EDITOR_BASE_URL	the url that render has deployed n8n to, can be found on top of the dashbaord
     WEBHOOK_URL	the url that render has deployed n8n to, can be found on top of the dashbaord

   • then click Save and deploy

Setup Cron Job

1. Signup/Signin

   signup or signin to cron-job.org

2. Create Conjob

   • go to the dashboard
   • click Create Cronjob
   • set Tile to Keep n8n Awake
   • set Url to the url render deployed n8n to. can be found on the top of Web Service page in Render
   • set Crontab expression to :

     */14 * * * *

   • click Create