How to Set Up n8n for Free: A Beginner's Guide

n8n is changing the way we automate tasks. In this guide, I'll walk you through the easiest way to set up n8n at zero cost, which is perfect for beginners. Let's get started.

Getting Started with Render

First, navigate to the website render.com. It offers a free plan called "Hobby," and we are going to use that.

1. Simply click on Get Started.
2. Enter your email address and a password to create an account.
3. Next, you need to verify your email address. Once you receive the verification email, tap on Verify Your Email.
4. This will redirect you to the Render dashboard. You have the option to provide some information about yourself, but it's completely optional. You can click on Skip to dashboard.
5. Next, you need to select a plan. Since we're using the free plan, choose the first one named Hobby.
6. Scroll down and tap on Select Plan.

Deploying n8n

Now we're ready to deploy n8n.

1. Click on New Web Service and select Public Git repository.
2. Here, you need to paste the official n8n Docker image URL, which is https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n-docker-compose. Once done, simply click on Connect.
3. Now, scroll down. If you want to change the server location, you can do it here. I'm keeping it as US West by default.
4. Next, select the Free plan. It does have some limitations, like spinning down after a period of inactivity, but don't worry. I found a cool solution to keep it active all the time, and I'll show you that at the end of this article.
5. Now, scroll down and tap on Deploy Web Service. This will start the n8n installation process, which will take around 3 to 5 minutes.

The installation is almost complete; we just need to wait until the status changes from "In Progress" to "Live." Once it's done, you'll see the n8n dashboard link. Let's open it.

Account Setup and Activation

First, we need to set up our account.

1. Enter your email ID, first name, last name, and password, then click Next.
2. On the next screen, you'll be asked to enter some details, but this step is optional. Simply click on Get Started.
3. Next, we can get a free license key to unlock all the advanced features of n8n. Just enter your email address and tap on Send me a license key.
4. You'll receive an email with the license key. Copy it, then go back to your n8n dashboard.
5. Now, go to Settings, find the activation key section, paste the license key there, and click Activate.

That's it! We now have access to all the advanced features of n8n. Okay, now we're good to go. We can start developing AI agents.

Keeping Your n8n Instance Active

As I mentioned earlier, there's a disadvantage: if our server remains inactive for 15 minutes, it will spin down, and this could remove all data. This means we'd have to set up the n8n account again, and all our AI agents' data would be lost.

To prevent this, we can use a simple trick: setting up a cron job that sends a request to our server at regular intervals.

1. For that, go to the free website cron-job.org.
2. Simply sign up for an account by entering your details. To complete the registration, you'll also need to verify your email address.
3. Once signed in, simply click on Create Cronjob.
4. Go back to your Render dashboard, copy the n8n link, and paste it into the URL field on the cron job site.
5. Give a name to this cron job and set the execution schedule to every 5 minutes.
6. Now, let's run a quick test. Tap on Start test run and check the response. If it shows 200, that means it's successful.
7. Close the test window and save the cron job.

Now it's set to run every 5 minutes, meaning it will send a request to our server at regular intervals. This ensures that our instance stays active all the time and won't spin down.

Conclusion

That's it. Everything is now completely ready. You can start creating AI agents right away. We'll be publishing more tutorials on how to develop AI agents. If you found this article useful, we hope you'll check out more of our content.