How to Deploy n8n in One Click on Nodion

n8n is a workflow automation tool with a visual editor and code steps. Running your own instance takes more than a container, though: n8n needs a database, persistent storage for its files, an encryption key and a public URL for webhooks. The n8n preset on Nodion sets all of that up in one go.

What you need

A Nodion account. If you do not have one yet, sign up first. Nothing else: no Docker, no server, no configuration files.

The preset gives you a working n8n with its database, volume, encryption key and public URL. It does not set up external task runners, so n8n runs them in internal mode. n8n calls that mode insecure by design and recommends external mode in production and on any instance that holds sensitive data. Use this setup to get started, and plan external runners before you put sensitive workflows on it.

Step 1: Open the n8n preset

Go to the n8n page in the catalog and click Deploy to Nodion. That opens the create form in the dashboard with the n8n preset selected. In the dashboard you get there via Applications → New, then Preset and n8n.

Step 2: Pick project, region and name

The form fills in everything n8n needs:

• the official n8nio/n8n image as the web process on port 5678,
• a PostgreSQL database n8n-db, connected through the DB_POSTGRESDB_* variables,
• a 10 GB volume n8n-data, mounted at /home/node/.n8n,
• a generated N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY, plus N8N_HOST and WEBHOOK_URL set to the app's address.

You choose the project, the region and a name. n8n needs at least 2 GB of memory, so keep a plan of that size or larger.

Step 3: Create the app

Create the app. Nodion sets up the database and the volume first, and the first release starts as soon as the database is ready. You can follow it on the Deployments tab.

Step 4: Create the owner account

Open the app's URL. n8n asks you to create the owner account; there is no default password. Do this right after the first release: until the owner account exists, anyone who opens the URL sees the setup page.

Step 5: Test a webhook

Create a workflow that starts with a Webhook node. The production URL n8n shows already uses your app's address, because the preset sets WEBHOOK_URL. Activate the workflow, copy the Production URL from the Webhook node and call it, for example with curl (replace the placeholder with the URL you copied):

curl -X POST <production-url-from-the-webhook-node> \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"hello": "world"}'

The execution shows up in n8n's executions list, and from there you can add the next steps.

Next steps

• Custom domain: add it on the app's Domains tab, then point N8N_HOST and WEBHOOK_URL on the Environment tab to it.
• Backups: turn on backups for n8n-db and keep a copy of N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY. Files on the n8n-data volume (/home/node/.n8n) are not part of database backups, so protect or export what you need from there separately.

Deploy n8n