Free License Key Request Fails with 403 Error on Self-Hosted VPS (Hostinger)

Questions
1

Hi n8n Team,
I’m running n8n self-hosted on Hostinger VPS (Ubuntu 24.04, Docker Compose template).
When I try to request the free license key for advanced features, I get this error:
“License request failed
Failed to register community edition: connect ETIMEDOUT 172.67.68.102:443”
Steps I tried:

  • Used different emails (e.g., [email protected])
  • Checked spam/promotions folder
  • Tested network: curl -I https://license.n8n.io returns HTTP/2 404 (connection OK)
  • Tunnel mode (N8N_TUNNEL=true) also failed with 403
    n8n version: [你的版本，SSH 中 docker compose logs n8n | head -1 查]
    VPS IP: 72.61.112.205
    Domain: n8n.srv1093996.hstgr.cloud
    Any help or workaround? Thanks!
    Best,
    Silvia
2

hey silvia - that 403 error usually means your VPS IP is getting blocked by n8n’s license server (common with hosting providers). try these:

1. check if you can access https://license.n8n.io from your VPS: `curl -v https://license.n8n.io` - if it times out or blocks, your host’s IP range might be restricted

2. if thats the issue, you could try using a different DNS resolver in docker-compose (add `dns: 8.8.8.8` to your n8n service) or contact hostinger support to whitelist the n8n license server

3. alternatively, you could skip the free license for now and just use the community edition features that are available without registration - the license mainly unlocks additional integrations

lmk what the full curl response shows and we can troubleshoot from there