How to Deploy n8n Securely on a VPS
The most common n8n security failures are not exotic: no HTTPS, an exposed port, a lost encryption key, and no backup. Fix those first, in this order.
The most common n8n security failures are not exotic: no HTTPS, an exposed port, a lost encryption key, and no backup. Fix those first, in this order.
n8n's self-hosted Community Edition is free to run under a fair-code licence — but 'free software' is not 'free hosting'. Choose on total cost, skill, and scale.
Self-hosting a CRM buys control and data ownership; SaaS buys freedom from maintenance. The right choice depends on your team, your data, and who will do the work.
A CRM holds your customer relationships — the data you cannot afford to lose or leak. Get the server, email, security and backup right before the first contact is imported.
A store's backup plan is measured in orders, not files. Decide how many orders you can afford to lose, how fast you must be back, and test the restore.
A store migration is not a file copy — it is a move with orders arriving mid-flight. Stage it, freeze it briefly, sync the delta, and keep a rollback ready.
Checkout cannot be cached, so it exposes every weakness in your hosting. Fix PHP workers, database speed, checkout scripts and the payment flow — in that order.
WooCommerce will run on modest hosting — until it won't. The requirements that matter are PHP 8.3+, modern MySQL, 256 MB of memory, HTTPS, and enough CPU and RAM for dynamic pages.
A dedicated server gives you the whole machine — and the whole responsibility for it. Know exactly which jobs are yours before you sign, or pay for a managed plan.
The closest data centre to your customers usually wins — but 'closest' means network distance, not straight-line distance, and law and cost can outweigh a few milliseconds.