Going from Self-Hosted to Cloud Version

Questions
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1

Hey N8N Community,

My organization purchased the self-hosted version of N8N this year and after a few months of using it we realized that the cloud version is better suited for our needs. I couldn’t find anything addressing this in the documentation or community forum already, but what are things to be aware of if you want to switch from self-hosted to cloud?

I assume we would have a price change in our contract and then the N8N support team will assign us a product key for our new cloud instance. Just wondering if you can change mid contract and the implications that come after.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

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Information on your n8n setup

  • n8n version:
  • Database (default: SQLite):
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main):
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app):
  • Operating system:
2

When you refer to the contract, do you mean enterprise pricing? Ask your sales representative this question before signing.

n8n self-hosted is free, aside from any infrastructure prices you may incur. You can do many of the same things now, but they are hosted and managed by n8n. I assume you are already aware of the new features, so here are some things that could have anywhere from no impact to a lot of impact:

  1. You will not have access to community nodes (although I do not know if that is coming or allowed on enterprise accounts)
  2. You will not have unlimited concurrent workflow executions
  3. You will not have an unlimited number of workflow executions (or at least without paying more)

Some people like to tailor or customize their n8n local instances, so if you installed custom tools or code, that may or may not require you to re-architect the solution.

At the end of the day, I think the n8n offerings are pretty good to meet lots of people’s needs, so you want to make sure you are comfortable with the question of how many workflow executions you run + how many concurrent workflow executions you may run.

I hope this helps. -Bill

3

This was very helpful, Bill.

My organization is on the enterprise edition for the self-hosted N8N instance. It’s just we’re finding it unnecesarily difficult to create the infrastructure we need (webhooks, CRM connection, SMTP connections, SSO, System upddates, etc.). There’s a huge reliance on IT, and as the marketing automation manager I would be able to work more independently if it was hosted on the cloud.

I was unaware of the wokflow limits, which is concerning, but I reached out to sales to see if we can extend the limit using an add-on. We’re currently at roughly 8k executions a week for 30 active workflows. I’m hoping this won’t be a blocker for us moving to cloud because the self-hosting requirements are very labor intensive on IT.

Thanks again for your feedback.

4

Glad to help.

I would check out the pricing page for executions so you feel comfortable (see below). Right now your numbers fall just below the limits of the Business plan, so if you are on Enterprise, you are probably all good unless you are planning a large scale update to more workflow executions and concurrent executions.

Some organizations can offload processes and workflows to other systems. For example, let’s say you have an n8n workflow that generates a content marketing calendar and pre-creates the content there are other tools out there to fit that job, reducing the “customness” of your implementation.

You are right to look at offloading executions, so maybe see if there are products to fill the gaps rather than writing it with code or external custom developed workflows, if that is an option for you.

I hope that helps and good luck! -Bill