I recently deployed n8n on my Azure VPS using Coolify, and it completely changed my approach to automation economics.

Why This Setup?

n8n gives you workflow automation without vendor lock-in—think Zapier, but self-hosted and endlessly customizable. Coolify acts as your self-hosted Platform-as-a-Service, handling deployments, SSL certificates, and infrastructure with a clean UI. Running it on Azure means enterprise-grade infrastructure with predictable costs.

The Financial Game-Changer

Here's the real win: no per-execution fees, no workflow limits, no tiered pricing.

With SaaS automation platforms, you're constantly calculating:

• Cost per workflow run
• Monthly execution quotas
• Premium features locked behind higher tiers
• Scaling anxiety as your business grows

Self-hosting eliminates all of that. Create 10 workflows or 10,000—your Azure VPS bill stays the same. Build complex multi-step automations without watching a meter tick up.

The Quick Deployment

Instead of wrestling with Docker Compose files and reverse proxy configurations, Coolify reduces the entire deployment to:

• Point it to your n8n Docker image
• Configure your domain
• Let Coolify handle the rest (SSL, networking, environment variables)

What would typically take an afternoon of configuration happened in minutes.

What I'm Running

My n8n instance now handles:

• API integrations between services
• Automated data pipelines
• Webhook processors for incoming events
• Scheduled tasks without cron jobs
• Complex multi-step workflows

All without counting executions or worrying about monthly limits.

The Sweet Spot

This setup shines when you:

• Need unlimited workflow executions
• Want to build freely without cost constraints
• Require data to stay on your infrastructure
• Need to scale without subscription anxiety

The result? Enterprise-level automation capability for roughly the price of a coffee per month in server costs. No per-workflow charges. No execution limits. Just pure automation freedom.

Looking for a ready-to-go n8n solution? We help teams deploy and optimize self-hosted n8n instances. Contact us to get your unlimited automation stack running.