Getting Started with n8n on Scalingo

n8n is an open-source workflow automation tool that lets you connect apps, APIs, and databases without heavy coding. It works like a visual editor where you drag, drop, and link nodes to create automated workflows. It supports both scheduled and event-driven automations.
n8n can interact with more than 200 services, and allows to run custom scripts or API calls when necessary, making it a great solution for data syncing, process automation, or no-code integrations.

Planning your Deployment

By default, n8n uses SQLite to save credentials, past executions, and workflows. Since using SQLite on Scalingo is not an option, you’ll have to provision a Scalingo for PostgreSQL® addon. We usually advise to start with a Scalingo for PostgreSQL® Starter or Business 512 addon, and change for a more powerful plan later if need be.
Depending on several factors such as the amount of data processed by your n8n workflows, the way your workflows are built, and the number of workflows you run at the same time, n8n can consume a lot of RAM. We usually advise to start with an XL container, and change for a more or less powerful plan later, depending on your usage.
The Enterprise edition of n8n provides some interesting features, such as custom variables, external secrets, Single Sign-On, version control with Git, or muti-main mode. Depending on your use case, purchasing an Enterprise license might really worth it. See full comparison for more details.

Deployment Example

At Scalingo we are using n8n everyday to run tedious tasks. These tasks handle quite a lot of data, and save us a lot of time. Since we rely on it for our business, we also want to have a resilient and effective solution.

Our current setup is as follow:

We are running an Enterprise edition, so we can benefit from all the nice features.
We are running in queue mode, with a multi-main setup, which allows us to scale-out when needed, and have better performances.
2 x 2XL containers for the web process type
2 x 2XL containers for the worker process type, which handle our queues
1 x Scalingo for PostgreSQL® Business 2G addon
1 x Scalingo for Caching Business 1G addon

Deploying

Using our One-Click Deploy Button

Click the One-Click Deploy button belowto automatically deploy n8n with your Scalingo account:

Using the Command Line

We maintain a repository called n8n-scalingo on GitHub to help you deploy n8n on Scalingo. Here are the few additional steps you will need to follow:

Clone our repository:

git clone https://github.com/Scalingo/n8n-scalingo
cd n8n-scalingo

Create the application on Scalingo:

scalingo create my-n8n

Notice that our Command Line automatically detects the git repository, and adds a git remote to Scalingo:

git remote -v

origin   https://github.com/Scalingo/n8n-scalingo (fetch)
origin   https://github.com/Scalingo/n8n-scalingo (push)
scalingo git@ssh.osc-fr1.scalingo.com:my-n8n.git (fetch)
scalingo git@ssh.osc-fr1.scalingo.com:my-n8n.git (push)

Provision a Scalingo for PostgreSQL® Starter 512 addon:

scalingo --app my-n8n addons-add postgresql postgresql-starter-512

(optional) Instruct the platform to run the web process type in a single XL container:
```
scalingo --app my-n8n scale web:1:XL
```

Set a few mandatory environment variables:
These must be set with the given values:

scalingo --app my-n8n env-set N8N_PORT=\$PORT
scalingo --app my-n8n env-set N8N_PROTOCOL=https
scalingo --app my-n8n env-set DB_TYPE=postgresdb

When running in queue mode, the following one must be set:

scalingo --app my-n8n env-set N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY=<SOME RANDOM STRING>

Everything’s ready, deploy to Scalingo:
```
git push scalingo master
```

Using the Terraform Provider

Start by forking our n8n repository

Place the following block in your Terraform file to create the app:

resource "scalingo_app" "my-n8n" {
  name        = "my-n8n"
  stack_id    = "scalingo-22"
  force_https = true

  environment = {
    N8N_PROTOCOL       = "https",
    N8N_PORT           = "$PORT",
    DB_TYPE            = "postgresdb",
    N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY = "<SOME RANDOM STRING>"
  }
}

Link the app to your forked repository:

data "scalingo_scm_integration" "github" {
  scm_type = "github"
}

resource "scalingo_scm_repo_link" "default" {
  auth_integration_uuid = data.scalingo_scm_integration.github.id
  app                   = scalingo_app.my-n8n.id
  source                = "https://github.com/<username>/n8n-scalingo"
  branch                = "master"
}

Provision a Scalingo for PostgreSQL® Starter 512 addon and attach it to your app:

resource "scalingo_addon" "my-n8n-postgresql" {
  app         = scalingo_app.my-n8n.id
  provider_id = "postgresql"
  plan        = "postgresql-starter-512"
}

(optional) Instruct the platform to run the web process type in a single XL container:

resource "scalingo_container_type" "web" {
  app    = scalingo_app.my-n8n.id
  name   = "web"
  size   = "XL"
  amount = 1
}

Run terraform plan and check if the result looks good
If so, run terraform apply
Once Terraform is done, your n8n instance is ready to be deployed:
1. Head to your dashboard
2. Click on your n8n application
3. Click on the Deploy tab
4. Click on Manual deployment in the left menu
5. Click the Trigger deployment button
6. After a few seconds, your n8n instance is finally up and running!

Updating

n8n is a Node.js application, distributed via its own package called n8n. Updating to a newer version mainly consists in updating your requirements in the package.json file of your n8n repository.

In your n8n repository, ask npm to bump the n8n package version:
To update to the latest version:
```
npm install n8n --package-lock-only
```
To update to the next version:
```
npm install n8n@next --package-lock-only
```
To update to a specific version:
```
npm install n8n@<version> --package-lock-only
```

Commit the update:

git add package.json
git add package-lock.json
git commit -m "Upgrade to ..."

Using the Command Line

Make sure you’ve successfully followed the first steps
Push the changes to Scalingo:
```
git push scalingo master
```

Using the Terraform Provider

Make sure you’ve successfully followed the first steps
Push the changes to your repository:
```
git push origin master
```
Head to your dashboard
Click on your n8n application
Click on the Deploy tab
Click on Manual deployment in the left menu
Click the Trigger deployment button
After a few seconds, your updated n8n instance is ready!

Customizing

Environment

n8n supports a lot of environment variables.

Last update: 12 Aug 2025 Suggest edits