Installation, SSL & Your First Workflow

Why n8n Is the Automation Tool of 2025

n8n went from 45,000 to over 157,000 GitHub stars in 2025, making it the fastest-growing open-source project of the year — and for good reason. It's a visual workflow automation platform that does everything Zapier and Make do, except you own it, you host it, and you never pay per-task pricing again.

A single RamNode KVM VPS at $5/month gives you unlimited workflows, unlimited executions, and zero per-task fees. Over a year, you're saving anywhere from $200 to $1,200 compared to SaaS automation tools — and you get full control over your data.

Prerequisites

• • A RamNode KVM VPS (1 GB RAM minimum, 2 GB recommended) running Ubuntu 24.04
• • A domain name with DNS pointed to your VPS IP (e.g., n8n.yourdomain.com)
• • SSH access to your server
• • Basic comfort with the Linux command line

Don't have a VPS yet? RamNode's KVM plans start at $4/month and include up to $500 in annual credits for new accounts. Spin one up at ramnode.com and you'll be running n8n in under 15 minutes.

Step 1: Prepare Your Server

SSH into your VPS and start with a fresh system update:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install Docker and Docker Compose. Docker keeps n8n isolated from the rest of your system and makes upgrades trivial:

# Install Docker
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo sh

# Add your user to the docker group (log out and back in after)
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

# Install Docker Compose plugin
sudo apt install -y docker-compose-plugin

Log out and back in so the group change takes effect, then verify:

docker --version
docker compose version

Step 2: Set Up the Project Directory

Create a clean directory structure for your n8n deployment:

mkdir -p ~/n8n-docker && cd ~/n8n-docker
mkdir -p n8n_data caddy_data caddy_config

We're going to use Caddy as our reverse proxy. Unlike Nginx, Caddy handles SSL certificate provisioning and renewal automatically via Let's Encrypt — zero configuration, zero cron jobs, zero certificate expiry surprises at 3 AM.

Step 3: Create the Docker Compose File

Create your docker-compose.yml. Replace n8n.yourdomain.com with your actual domain and set a strong encryption key:

version: "3.8"

services:
  caddy:
    image: caddy:2-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile
      - ./caddy_data:/data
      - ./caddy_config:/config
    networks:
      - n8n-network

  n8n:
    image: docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - N8N_HOST=n8n.yourdomain.com
      - N8N_PORT=5678
      - N8N_PROTOCOL=https
      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://n8n.yourdomain.com/
      - N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY=your-strong-encryption-key-change-this
      - GENERIC_TIMEZONE=America/New_York
      - N8N_SECURE_COOKIE=true
    volumes:
      - ./n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n
    networks:
      - n8n-network

networks:
  n8n-network:
    driver: bridge

A few things worth noting:

• N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY — Encrypts your stored credentials. Generate a strong one with openssl rand -hex 32 and save it somewhere safe. If you lose this key, all your saved credentials become unreadable.
• WEBHOOK_URL — Tells n8n the public URL for incoming webhooks. Without it, webhook trigger nodes will generate internal URLs that external services can't reach.
• N8N_SECURE_COOKIE — Ensures session cookies are only sent over HTTPS.

Step 4: Configure Caddy for Automatic SSL

Create the Caddyfile:

n8n.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy n8n:5678
}

That's it. That's the whole Caddy configuration. Caddy will automatically obtain a Let's Encrypt SSL certificate, configure HTTPS, redirect HTTP to HTTPS, and handle certificate renewals. Compare that to writing Nginx config blocks, installing Certbot, configuring renewal hooks, and debugging certificate chain issues.

Step 5: Configure Your Firewall

Before starting n8n, lock down your VPS. Only three ports need to be open:

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp    # SSH
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp    # HTTP (for ACME challenge and redirect)
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp   # HTTPS
sudo ufw enable

Step 6: Launch n8n

Make sure your DNS A record for n8n.yourdomain.com points to your VPS IP, then:

cd ~/n8n-docker
docker compose up -d

Watch the logs to confirm everything starts cleanly:

docker compose logs -f

You should see Caddy obtain the SSL certificate and n8n start on port 5678. Once you see n8n ready on 0.0.0.0, port 5678, open your browser and navigate to https://n8n.yourdomain.com.

Step 7: Create Your Owner Account

On first visit, n8n presents a setup screen. Create your owner account with a strong password. This is the admin account — it has full access to all workflows, credentials, and settings. Once you're in, take a moment to explore the dashboard. You'll see the workflow canvas, which is where you'll spend most of your time.

Step 8: Build Your First Workflow — Uptime Monitor

Let's build something immediately useful: a workflow that monitors a website every 5 minutes and emails you if it goes down. This is a workflow that would cost you tasks on Zapier every single time it runs — here, it's free.

Create the Workflow

1. Click "Add workflow" in the n8n dashboard
2. Name it Website Uptime Monitor

Add a Schedule Trigger

Click the + button to add your first node:

1. Search for "Schedule Trigger"
2. Set it to trigger every 5 minutes
3. This replaces the need for external cron jobs — n8n handles scheduling natively

Add an HTTP Request Node

Click the + after the Schedule Trigger:

1. Search for "HTTP Request"
2. Set the method to GET
3. Set the URL to the website you want to monitor
4. Under Options, set Timeout to 10000 (10 seconds) and toggle on Full Response

Add an IF Node for Conditional Logic

Click the + after the HTTP Request:

1. Search for "IF"
2. Set Value 1 to {{ $json.statusCode }}
3. Operation: is not equal to
4. Value 2: 200

This routes the workflow into two paths: one for when the site is down (status ≠ 200) and one for when it's healthy.

Add an Email Node on the "True" Path

On the true output (site is down), add a Send Email node:

1. Configure your SMTP credentials (Gmail, SendGrid, or your mail server)
2. Subject: ⚠️ ALERT: Website Down — {{ $json.statusCode }}
3. Body: Your website returned status code {{ $json.statusCode }} at {{ $now.toISO() }}.

Add Error Handling

Click on the HTTP Request node, go to Settings, and enable "Continue On Fail". This ensures that if the request times out or the server is completely unreachable, the workflow continues instead of stopping dead.

Then add another IF node that checks for errors:

• Value 1: {{ $json.error }} — Operation: is not empty
• Route this to the same email alert node

Activate the Workflow

Click the "Active" toggle in the top right corner. Your workflow is now live and will check your website every 5 minutes, 24/7, at zero marginal cost.

Quick Reference: Essential n8n Commands

# View logs
docker compose logs -f n8n

# Restart n8n
docker compose restart n8n

# Update n8n to latest version
docker compose pull n8n
docker compose up -d n8n

# Stop everything
docker compose down

# Backup your data
tar -czf n8n-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz n8n_data/