n8n is a very popular workflow automation platform that allows you to connect various services to automate processes using little to no code. It can be used with their subscription model or self-hosted locally or in the cloud. The benefit of having n8n self hosted comes not only from the fact that you don't have to pay the monthly fee but also that you won't be limited with the amount of active workflows.

After trying various tutorials, I found a very good one from futurminds' github and decided to create a script to try to make the installation process even easier.

These instructions were created for an AWS environment and require the use of a DNS or dynamic DNS service. Make sure you have access to both before going further.

1. An AWS account. Feel free to use any other cloud VM service but this tutorial focuses on AWS EC2. If you are using another cloud VM service, you can skip to Step 2 but keep in mind the script is tested on Ubuntu. It should work on other Debian based systems but I leave it to you to try it.
2. DNS or dynamic DNS service for the domain or subdomain you will assign to the public IP of the VM. I have only tried this with Dynu and NoIP. I also tested with Duck DNS which I usually enjoy but I got a lot of DNS issues after the setup. Use whatever service you prefer, free or not.

1. Go to your AWS account, then in the EC2 section, create a new virtual machine by clicking Launch an instance. Give it the name that you want. Select Ubuntu as the OS image. If you want it to be completely free, make sure to select anything Free tier eligible. I found that n8n runs very well on free tier configurations on AWS or Google Cloud.

   

2. For the Instance type, select t2.micro as it is Free tier eligible. For Key pair, create a new pair or use an existing one accordingly to your security guidelines or policies.

   

3. For Network settings, you can create a new security group ou use an existing one depending on your security guidelines or policies. The most important is that you allow HTTP and HTTPS traffic as this is how your n8n instance will be accessible. Allow also SSH traffic to access your instance using command line interface. (I recommend for added security change "Anywhere" to "My IP" in order to restrict who could access your instance using SSH. I also recommend that you disable SSH traffic to your instance once you are done with the installation steps.)

   

4. For Configure storage, you can choose anything between 8 to 30 GB. In the example I have used 20GB. if you choose anything more than 30GB, your instance won't be considered Free tier eligible.

   

5. At the end your summary should look like this. Make sure you see that banner indicating that your instance is Free tier eligible and click Launch instance to create and start your instance.

   

6. You should get a message telling you that your virtual machine has been created successfully. click on the instance ID and you will be back to the instance dashboard, select your new instance and click Connect to connect to the command line interface of your virtual machine. You will also find instructions to use SSH with the key you have created earlier.

   

Now that your brand new virtual machine has been created, you can go to the next step!

Before starting Step 2, you need to have a valid domain or subdomain that you can use and that you own. You can use a dynamic DNS service as I did for this tutorial. You need to select the public IP of your newly create instance and update the IP address that will be used for the name resolution. Ok, now you can really go to the next step!

1. Run the script:

   bash <(curl -sSL https://github.com/Blakkos/n8n-cloud-aws/raw/refs/heads/main/n8n_cloud_install.sh)

2. Enter your domain or subdomain name. I have used a free dynamic DNS service for this test but you can use any other paid service. Once you've entered the domain or subdomain name, press Enter and the script will start running for a few minutes:

   

3. Enter a VALID email address. You will be prompted to do so in order to start the registration process for your SSL certificate.

   

4. You have to accept the terms and conditions to go to the next step.

   

5. Answer this next question however you prefer.

   

6. If everything went well, you should see something similar to this:

   

⛔IN CASE OF AN ERROR:⛔ If this last step gives you errors (as it did to me many times), you might have a DNS related issue. Sometimes it can take a few minutes or a few hours for the update of the IP address in your dynamic DNS service to take effect. in that case, double check that you have entered the proper IP address and try later using this last command (replace the placeholder by your domain or subdomain name):

sudo certbot --nginx -d MyPlaceholder-DomainOrSubdomain.replaceme.net

7. You can now open your browser and go to the URL of your n8n instance https://MyPlaceholder-DomainOrSubdomain.replaceme.net

   

   You can now enjoy your n8n instance!

⛔IN CASE OF AN ERROR:⛔ Your instance should be accessible as soon as the script finished running. In some cases, I have noticed that the URL was not accessible and I had to reboot the instance for everything to work properly. Use this to reboot your instance:

sudo reboot

After rebooting, you should have access to your instance. Make sure the public IP address did not change. You can find it in the EC2 dashboard.

I also created a script to update to the latest version of n8n whenever you see an update notification in the dashboard. This update script works if you are using docker and if you have attached a docker volume mapped to the /home/node/.n8n folder inside you n8n container.

1. Run the script:

   bash <(curl -sSL https://github.com/Blakkos/n8n-cloud-aws/raw/refs/heads/main/n8n_cloud_update.sh)

2. Enter the name of your n8n container. To find it, you can exit with Ctrl+C and type "sudo docker ps". (If you used my install script, it will be "n8n".):

   

3. Enter the name of the docker volume mapped to the /home/node/.n8n folder located inside the container. If you have used my install script, it should be "n8n_data". (⚠️ IMPORTANT ⚠️ If you do not have that, please cancel this process with Ctrl+C):

   

4. Enter your domain or subdomain name. This is the domain from the URL you use to access the n8n dashboard (without https://).Once you've entered the domain or subdomain name, press Enter and the script will start running for a few minutes:

   

5. Once the update process is over, you will find the backup files of your workflows and credentials in the user home folder. You can also access your n8n dashboard again but this time it will be up-to-date!

⛔IN CASE OF AN ERROR:⛔ If for some reason the container does not update or start and you need to restore something, a backup is created in the user's home folder. It will have a timestamp in the name and should look like this: n8n_bk_19Feb2025_204517UTC. This folder will contain everything you need to restore the data inside a fresh n8n container. The official documentation explains how to import workflows and credentials.