Self-Hosted n8n Goes Docker-Only in October 2026: The Commands, the Folder You Must Back Up First, and What 3.0 Removes

Self-hosted n8n is one of the few automation tools that is genuinely free forever with no execution cap. But one sentence in the official 3.0 breaking-changes page will break how some people install it, starting this October:

Self-hosted n8n will require a Docker-based deployment. n8n 3.0 will no longer support installations run using npm or npx n8n.

The same page states that 3.0 is “scheduled for October 2026.”

This is not a news recap. This is the how-to: copy-paste Docker commands, the folder you must back up before you move anything, and the nodes 3.0 takes away with it.

The short version

1. Free self-hosting is real. Community Edition is free forever, with no execution limit and no cap on users or workflows. Your hardware is the only ceiling.
2. But the install method changes. From 3.0, self-hosting is Docker-only. If you run npx n8n, you need to move before October.
3. n8n Cloud has no permanent free tier. It offers a 14-day trial (1,000 executions, no credit card). If you do not upgrade, the workspace is deleted, though you can download your workflows for 90 days.

1. Who has to act

2. Do this: three lines to get n8n running

Taken verbatim from the official Docker install docs, with the timezone filled in:

docker volume create n8n_data

docker run -it --rm \
 --name n8n \
 -p 5678:5678 \
 -e GENERIC_TIMEZONE="Asia/Taipei" \
 -e TZ="Asia/Taipei" \
 -e N8N_ENFORCE_SETTINGS_FILE_PERMISSIONS=true \
 -e N8N_RUNNERS_ENABLED=true \
 -v n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n \
 n8nio/n8n

Then open http://localhost:5678 and you are in the editor.

What each part does, and why the last line matters most:

• -p 5678:5678 — n8n’s default port. To use a different one, change the number on the left of the colon.
• GENERIC_TIMEZONE — this is the one the Schedule node reads. Skip it and your “every day at 9am” trigger fires on the container’s default timezone instead of yours.
• TZ — the container’s system timezone, used by everything else (log timestamps, for example). The docs list these separately; set both.
• -v n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n — the critical line. The command above includes --rm, so the container is deleted the moment it stops. The only reason your data survives is this volume. Leave it out and your workflows and credentials go with the container.

3. Migrating from npm to Docker: back up this folder first

Everything hinges on the .n8n folder in your home directory. It is not just a database. The official Docker docs call this out specifically:

When using PostgreSQL, n8n doesn’t need to use the .n8n directory for the SQLite database file. However, the directory still contains other important data like encryption keys, instance logs, and source control feature assets.

The encryption key lives in there. Every credential you have connected — Google, Slack, database passwords — is encrypted with it. Lose the key and none of them can be decrypted; you re-enter all of them by hand.

So the order is:

1. Stop your current n8n.
2. Back up ~/.n8n completely, including hidden files (cp -a or tar the whole directory — do not copy only what you can see).
3. Run docker volume create n8n_data.
4. Restore the backup into that volume (it maps to /home/node/.n8n inside the container).
5. Start it with the docker run command in section 2.
6. Log in and verify: are the workflows there, do the credentials still connect, do the schedules fire at the times you set? Only after all of that, remove the npm install.

⚠️ An honest flag on this section. The 3.0 breaking-changes page says “Step-by-step migration guidance will be coming soon” — meaning that as of 2026-08-30, n8n has not published an official migration guide. The six steps above are derived from the official Docker install docs and the data-directory note, not from an official migration manual. Rehearse on a test machine first, and keep your original ~/.n8n backup until you are certain.

4. Updating later

If you use Docker Compose, the official update sequence is:

docker compose pull
docker compose down
docker compose up -d

Pull the new image, stop the old container, start the new one. Your data lives in the volume, so it stays put.

5. What else 3.0 removes

If you are building new workflows today, stop using these — 3.0 drops them:

Nodes

• Function (legacy)
• Function Item (legacy)
• Item Lists (legacy)

Expressions

• $getPairedItem is being removed

Features

• Chat Hub
• Workflow import from URL in the editor

Tightened security defaults (these can break working flows)

• Key rotation is enabled by default
• Compression node decompression limit: 2 GiB → 256 MiB
• Maximum ZIP entries: 5,000 → 1,000

Pay attention to those last two: files you can process today may simply fail after the upgrade. If you use the Compression node on large archives, measure your actual file sizes and entry counts before you upgrade.

6. How free is free (verified on our site, 2026-08-28, read directly from official pages)

Free self-hosting includes the visual editor and 400+ integration nodes, the AI Agent / LangChain nodes (bring your own LLM key — model costs are billed by the model vendor), and the Code node for your own JavaScript or Python.

It does not include SSO (SAML), LDAP, environment management (Git-based multi-environment), log streaming, or external secrets management. Insights dashboards, global variables, and execution search sit on Cloud Pro and above.

7. The licensing catch: fair-code is not open source

Self-hosted n8n uses the Sustainable Use License, which the company describes as fair-code. It is not an OSI-approved open-source license. In practice:

• Internal commercial use inside your own company: allowed.
• Consulting — building workflows for clients and charging for your work: allowed.
• White-labelling and reselling n8n: not allowed.
• Running it as a hosted service you charge third parties for: not allowed.

If you plan to freelance with it: selling your labour is fine, selling their software is not.

8. If you do pay (billed in euros)

Our verification note records these as the original euro figures from the official pricing page, with no currency conversion applied.

Billing counts executions, not tasks: one run of a fifteen-step workflow counts as a single execution. That is why n8n tends to be cheaper than per-task competitors for long workflows, and it is the reason many teams migrate over.

9. What we could not verify (stated plainly, not guessed)

• The official step-by-step migration guide — not published yet (“coming soon” per the official page).
• The exact 3.0 release date — the page says “October 2026” with no day.
• Whether an existing npm install keeps running after 3.0 — not addressed by n8n. The reasonable assumption is that an already-installed old version keeps working but stops receiving updates. That is an assumption, not an official statement: unverified.
• Local payment methods for Taiwan — recorded as unconfirmed on our tool page.

Our take

• If you run npx n8n today: do not wait for October. The slow part of the migration is verifying that every credential still connects, and that is work you want to do on a quiet afternoon, not during the week support ends.
• If you have not started yet: use the Docker commands in section 2 and skip the migration entirely.
• If you just want to try it: the 14-day Cloud trial needs no credit card, but remember it deletes the workspace at the end. Download anything you build within 90 days.

Official links

• n8n Docker install docs: https://docs.n8n.io/deploy/host-n8n/install-options/install-with-docker
• n8n 3.0 breaking changes: https://docs.n8n.io/changelog/v30-breaking-changes
• n8n pricing: https://n8n.io/pricing/

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