How to Use n8n for FREE in 2026 - n8n Self Hosting Setup

In this video, I'll show you how to use NADN completely free. NADN is one of the most powerful Noode automation tools available, and by the end of this video, you'll have it running with unlimited automations and zero monthly subscription fees. The key is something called self-hosting. Okay, so what is self-hosting? First, let's back up. NAD is a workflow automation software. It's like Zapier or Make, but more powerful and way more flexible. You build automations by connecting various nodes with no coding required. Like any software, it needs a machine to run it. That machine is your host. There are two main ways to host NAD. The first is NADN cloud. This is the managed option. NAD the company provides their own hardware in the cloud. You sign up, everything's hosted for you and it just works. The downside is cost and flexibility. Their starter plan runs around $20 a month build annually or $24 monthly and it scales up from there based on usage. The other option is self-hosting. You provide your own machine and in return the software is completely free forever. You control everything. The only cost is the hardware that runs it. So if you want to self-host, where do you actually run it? You've got three main options. First, your local machine, your laptop, your desktop, whatever you're using right now. This is the only truly free option, but it only runs when your computer is on. Close your laptop, your automation stop. Restart for an update, they stop. And if you need web hooks, where an external service triggers your workflow, you're dealing with tunneling, port forwarding, and exposing your home IP to the internet. For testing, okay, sure. for anything real. Not worth it. Second, a Raspberry Pi or home server. Now you've got something always on, but you'll need to buy hardware, set up an operating system, configure Docker, deal with networking, port forwarding, dynamic DNS, and hope your home internet stays stable. If it goes down, your automations go down. Here's what NADN's own documentation says about self-hosting. Self-hosting NADN requires technical knowledge including setting up and configuring servers and containers, managing application resources and scaling, securing servers and applications, and configuring NADN. You'll also need to be comfortable in the terminal. I've linked the official docs below if you want to go this route, but for most people, this is more hassle than it's worth. Which brings us to option number three, a VPS. For as little as $5 a month, you get a machine that's always online, accessible from anywhere in the world with a static IP or even a custom domain that handles web hooks properly. No hardware, no home network headaches, and someone else handles the uptime. For most people, especially if you're not already comfortable managing servers, this is the route I recommend. All right, so if a VPS is the way to go, which one should you use? There are a lot of options out there and honestly most will work just fine, but for this tutorial I'm using Hostinger and I genuinely think it's the best option for most people. Here's why. First, they have a one-click NAN template. You don't need to install Docker, pull images, or touch the command line. You simply sign up, select the template, and NAD is running. That alone saves you a ton of setup and potential headaches, especially if you're new to this. Second, it's cheap. Their plans already start around $5 a month. And I've got a link that gets you an extra 10% discount on top of whatever deal they're already running. Use the link on screen or in the description below. It'll take you straight to the right page, auto apply the discount, and pre-select the NAND template for you. Let me show you exactly what that looks like. So, when you click that link, you'll land in land on this page here, or something very similar, and you'll see right away that the coupon has already been applied. Go ahead and click claim deal. That'll scroll you down the page to the pricing for the VPS. The minimum you need to get started is the KVM1 plan. And like I mentioned, normally it starts at $5 per month, but our discount has already been applied to this price. Go ahead and click choose plan. On the next page, you'll get an order summary. The first box is a drop down that lets you select the period for the order. By default, it's set to 24 months. I recommend keeping it there to get the absolute best price. If you want daily auto backups, now would be the best time to add it to get the best price. You can always add the auto backups later, but this coupon only works once, so if you know you're going to want it, go ahead and add it now. Next, choose a server location that's closest to you or your audience. The lower the latency, the better. Finally, there's an optional section to select your operating system, but you don't need to do anything here because NAND should already be selected. Click continue in your order summary. Then register your account. Next, add your billing information. Then enter your payment information to complete the order. After the payment goes through, you'll get this confirmation. You can click the button or wait for the countdown to finish. Now, you'll need to set up your VPS. First things first, create a root password. This is different than the password for your hosting account. This is the password for your server. Make sure it's secure and keep it safe somewhere like a password manager. Then click next. You might be offered a free malware scanner. It's free and adds additional protection. So, I recommend keeping this checked. Click finish setup. And that's all it takes. Hostinger will now set up your VPS for NAN. This can take a few minutes. So, now's a good time to stretch. Get a drink of water or a cup of coffee. And just like that, our server is all set up and ready to go. Now, before you go any further, we need to verify our Hostinger account. Open your inbox in a new tab and look for a verification email from Hostinger. Click the button to verify your email account. When you land in the hosting or dashboard, you're good to go. You can close out this tab and your email. Next, you need to set up your NAD account. To do this, click manage app. Fill out the form with your email name and create a password. Then, click next. Next, fill out the brief survey or just click get started to skip it. Now, this popup that says get paid features for free forever is really important. Make sure your email is entered correctly. Then click send me a free license key. Open up your email inbox again. Find and open the email from NAN. Then click activate license key. You'll get a confirmation that says your license has been activated. You can close out those extra tabs and return to the first NAD page. Now NAD is all set up and ready to go on your virtual private server. Next, you can test that Naden is working properly by quickly installing a template. To access templates, click the box icon in the bottom left. This will open a dialogue window that provides a few featured templates. You can select from one of these, or click see more templates. On the page that loads, you can filter templates by category, search by apps or use cases, or simply scroll through and find one you like. When you find a template you want to use, click the orange use for free button, then click import template. If the workflow template you selected requires any account credentials, the wizard will prompt you to set those up. Simply follow the prompts to get started. And if you need help setting up any account, most account credential setup dialogues provide a link to open the relevant documentation. Once you finish setting up your account credentials, you'll be able to see the full template loaded in. And many templates provide you specific notes and details about how to use and set up the template. Here I've grabbed a basic AI agent starter template. To interact with it, let's click open chat, type a simple greeting. We can see the AI agent think and then respond. Now, one other perk of self-hosting is that you get access to community nodes that aren't even available on the regular NAD cloud plan. These are nodes that are created by the NADN user community and then made public for anyone to use. To access community nodes, click on the gear icon in the bottom left, then click on community nodes. Click install a community node and then click browse. You can search for nodes using the search bar up top. Look for things like functionality or the app names or scroll through and find one you like. To install a node, copy the name of the node. Then, back on the page we came from on nadn, paste the node name into the npm package name field. Click the acknowledgement box, then click install. When it's all installed, it should show up in your community nodes list. To use your new community node in a workflow, simply search for it when adding nodes. You'll see it appear in the list with a box icon next to it to indicate that it's a community node. Now, there's one final perk you'll get when self-hosting NAD on your own VPS, but this perk is also a responsibility. If you buy the managed NAND cloud plan through NADN, they'll manage updates to the NAND software for you. But when you self-host, you get to choose exactly when to update the software. This also means that you're the one responsible for updating the software periodically to make sure it's compatible with all the nodes you're using. To update your NAND software, go to the hosting or VPS manager, then click Docker Manager in the upper right. Then in the project section, click the three dots next to NADN and select update. You'll get an indicator saying that it's being updated and a confirmation that says project updated when it's done. Now you know how to self-host NADN. Don't forget the link below for an additional 10% discount on your hosting or VPS. And if you want to learn how to actually build workflows and AI agents from scratch in NADN, check out my complete tutorial linked on screen. Thanks for watching.