StacksFree Verdict: 8/10. n8n is free in 2026 only when you self-host the Community Edition: it runs indefinitely on your own machine with almost the complete feature set, while n8n Cloud itself has no free plan and starts at €20 per month — so the self-host route is the real free tier for indie hackers on a budget.
How This Guide Was Built
This guide was built from the official n8n documentation, the official n8n pricing page, and community reports, and it verifies the free Community Edition terms, Cloud pricing and trial limits, Docker install steps, and platform availability — one caveat up front: we did not run n8n hands-on.
Specifically, we checked:
- The Community Edition’s free self-hosting terms and its feature list, per the docs on ways to use n8n and the community edition features page
- n8n Cloud’s current plans, prices, and execution allowances on the pricing page
- The Cloud trial’s duration, execution cap, and post-trial rules in the free trial documentation
- The exact Docker commands and supported platforms in the Docker installation guide
Because we did not run n8n hands-on, every command, limit, and price below is attributed to those official sources rather than to our own testing.
One timing note before you start: per n8n’s announcement, n8n 3.0 arrives in October 2026 as a Docker-only release, with npm installation retired — which makes the Docker workflow below the future-proof path.
Last verified: September 2026.
Is n8n free to self-host?
Yes — n8n is free to self-host: the Community Edition runs on your own hardware indefinitely with almost the complete feature set, while n8n Cloud has no free plan in 2026 and paid plans start at €20 per month billed annually, per the docs on choosing how to run n8n and the official n8n pricing page.
That makes self-hosting the closest thing to a free tier n8n offers. For comparison, the managed path is subscription-only across the board: Starter costs €20 per month billed annually with 2,500 executions per month, Pro is €50 per month with 10,000 executions per month, and Business runs €667 per month, all listed on the pricing page. If your automations fit inside a couple of thousand executions a month and you own any machine that runs Docker, the Community Edition gives you the workflow engine itself for €0.
What Are the Limits of the n8n Cloud Free Trial?
The n8n Cloud free trial lasts 14 days and includes Pro features up to a 1,000-execution cap with no credit card required — but when the trial ends, the workspace is deleted, and you get 90 days to export your workflows, per n8n’s free trial documentation.
The details, straight from that documentation:
- 14 days of Pro features. The trial runs on Pro-tier capabilities for its full two weeks, not a stripped-down Starter experience.
- 1,000 executions. A cap of 1,000 executions applies across the trial period.
- No credit card. You can start the trial without entering payment details.
- Workspace deletion. When the 14 days are up, the trial workspace is deleted.
- 90-day export window. You have 90 days after the trial ends to export your workflows — pull them down early anyway.
Treat the trial as an evaluation window rather than a free plan: export anything you build, and move anything you want to keep running onto a self-hosted instance or a paid plan.
How to Self-Host n8n for Free (Step by Step)
You can self-host n8n for free in a handful of steps: install Docker, create a data volume, run the official container, then open http://localhost:5678 and create an owner account, following n8n’s Docker installation guide — the Community Edition this installs is free to run indefinitely with almost the complete feature set, per the official documentation.
- Install Docker. Docker is n8n’s recommended installation path and runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. It is also the only distribution channel going forward: per n8n’s announcement, n8n 3.0 ships in October 2026 as a Docker-only release, with npm installation retired.
- Create a persistent data volume. This keeps your credentials and workflows intact between restarts:
docker volume create n8n_data- Run the n8n container. The exact command from the installation guide:
docker run -it --rm --name n8n -p 5678:5678 -e GENERIC_TIMEZONE="<YOUR_TIMEZONE>" -v n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n n8nio/n8nReplace <YOUR_TIMEZONE> with your IANA timezone, for example Europe/Berlin.
- Open the editor and create an owner account. Browse to http://localhost:5678 and set up the owner login for your instance.
- Optionally register a free n8n account. Registering with just an email (a free license) adds three features to a self-hosted instance — folders, debug in editor, and custom execution data — per the community edition features page.
Not a Docker person? n8n’s documentation also offers an official one-line install script (curl -fsSL https://get.n8n.io | sh), and since the source code is public on GitHub, you can audit exactly what you are self-hosting.
How to Build Your First Free n8n Workflow
Your first free n8n workflow is the four-node chain from the official first-workflow tutorial: a Schedule Trigger fires on a timer, a NASA API node fetches data, an If node branches on the result, and PostBin captures the output — a complete automation that costs nothing to run.
How the chain works, per that tutorial:
- Schedule Trigger starts the workflow on a schedule you define, with no external event needed.
- NASA API calls an external API for live data; the tutorial itself points you to the free key from api.nasa.gov, so there is nothing to buy.
- If inspects something in the NASA response and routes items down true or false branches.
- PostBin captures whatever your workflow sends so you can inspect the result in your browser.
Because the whole chain executes inside your own instance, the tutorial’s exercise burns zero trial executions and zero paid-plan quota. The same pattern extends to AI steps: once your node chain works, our free Gemini API guide explains what Google’s Gemini free tier currently allows, so you can budget your API calls before wiring one into a workflow.
What’s Missing From the Free Community Edition?
The free Community Edition omits n8n’s team and governance features: custom variables, environments, external secret stores, log streaming, multi-main mode, projects, SSO with SAML or LDAP, workflow and credential sharing, and Git version control are all paid-tier capabilities, according to n8n’s community edition features page.
For a solo builder, most of that list is team plumbing: projects and workflow sharing assume colleagues, SSO assumes an organization, and environments with Git version control assume a release pipeline. None of it blocks scheduling, branching, or calling external APIs on your own server — the automation core is all there.
If you would rather not run a server at all, our Pipedream free tier guide covers the fully managed alternative, and Pipedream’s tool page summarizes its current free limits in one place.
FAQ
The FAQ below answers the three most common questions about n8n’s free options in 2026 — whether n8n is free at all, what the Community Edition leaves out, and what happens when the Cloud trial ends — with each self-contained answer citing official n8n documentation wherever a specific limit or price appears.
Is n8n free?
Partly. The Community Edition is free to self-host indefinitely with almost the complete feature set, per n8n’s documentation, while n8n Cloud has no free plan — paid plans start at €20 per month billed annually on the pricing page. Self-hosting on hardware you already own is the genuinely free route in 2026.
What is not included in the free Community Edition?
The paid tiers add custom variables, environments, external secret stores, log streaming, multi-main mode, projects, SSO (SAML/LDAP), workflow and credential sharing, and Git version control, per n8n’s feature comparison. Solo builders rarely need any of these, but teams that share credentials or log in through company single sign-on will need a paid plan.
What happens when the n8n Cloud trial ends?
Your trial workspace is deleted when the 14-day trial ends, per n8n’s trial documentation, though you keep a 90-day window to export your workflows. To continue automating without interruption, either move to a paid plan or self-host the free Community Edition on your own hardware.