Clarification on StartUp License - Multiple Main Instances

Hello everyone,

I’m in the process of planning my n8n setup and I’m very interested in the StartUp plan. I have a question regarding the license activation that I couldn’t find a clear answer for in the documentation.

My intended setup involves running two or three separate main n8n instances. Each of these instances would serve a different internal project, and for security and organizational reasons, they will each connect to their own dedicated database and manage entirely separate sets of workflows.

My question is: Can a single StartUp license key be used to activate multiple of these main instances, provided they are all managed by me under one organization? Or is the license model strictly one license per running instance, regardless of the database isolation?

For context, this isn’t about creating dev/staging/prod environments for a single set of workflows, but rather logically separating different production workflows onto their own instances.

Any clarification from the n8n team or experienced users on how the license activation is fingerprinted or tied to an instance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

hello @LuZi

Better to contact n8n about that one.

But I suppose you should have a license for each instance. If you need the paid one.

Can’t say why you need separate instances in your case.