The Hidden Costs of Self-Hosting n8n (The Self-Hosting Tax)

🔬 Tested on n8n v2.22.0 (self-hosted, community edition) — June 4, 2026
⚠️ CAUTION ADVISED Practitioner Verdict — updated 2026-07-08

What we found: Deep-dive analysis of infrastructure, maintenance, and reliability costs of self-hosting n8n.

📚 Test environment: n8n v2.22.0 (self-hosted, community edition) | Last audited: June 4, 2026
$6.7K
Annual TCO (Small Team)
15h
Monthly DevOps Burden
$2.0K
Gobii Annual Cost
3.3x
Cost Multiplier
📊 Annual TCO: Self-Hosted n8n vs Gobii Managed
Annual Total Cost of Ownership (Small Team) $0 $2K $4K $6K $8K $720 Hosting $3.8K DevOps $2.2K Downtime $6.7K Total $2.0K Gobii Self-Hosted n8n Gobii Managed