Setting Up n8n and Re-authenticating Everything

Choose Your Deployment Model First

Before building anything in n8n, decide whether to use n8n Cloud or self-hosted n8n. This decision affects ongoing costs, maintenance responsibility, and certain features like multi-instance setups.

• n8n Cloud — sign up at cloud.n8n.io. Managed hosting, automatic updates, no server administration. Starter plan is €20/month for 2,500 executions. Best for teams that want a quick start without infrastructure work.
• Self-hosted (Docker) — run docker run -it --rm --name n8n -p 5678:5678 n8nio/n8n or use the official Docker Compose setup. A $5–$10/month VPS (Railway, Render, DigitalOcean, or Hetzner) is sufficient for most teams. Best for teams with technical staff who want unlimited executions and full data control.
• Self-hosted (npm) — npx n8n for a quick local install. Good for development and testing before moving to a production VPS.

First Steps After Installation

Once n8n is running, complete these setup steps before migrating any workflows:

1. Create an admin account — set a secure password immediately, especially for any instance accessible from the internet.
2. Configure a custom domain (self-hosted) — set up a domain with TLS so webhook URLs use HTTPS. External services will not POST to plain HTTP webhook URLs reliably.
3. Set your instance URL — configure the N8N_HOST and N8N_PROTOCOL environment variables so webhook URLs are generated correctly for your domain.
4. Invite team members — n8n supports unlimited users. Add everyone who will be building or monitoring workflows.

Adding Credentials: The Most Time-Consuming Step

Every app integration needs its credentials re-entered in n8n. This cannot be skipped or expedited — plan for 30–60 minutes depending on the number of integrations. For each app in your audit spreadsheet:

• OAuth apps (Gmail, Google Sheets, Slack, Notion, HubSpot) — go through the OAuth flow in n8n's credential manager. You will need to re-authorize the connection; your existing Zapier/Make OAuth tokens do not transfer.
• API key apps (Airtable, OpenAI, Stripe, SendGrid) — copy the existing API key from the service's settings page and paste it into n8n's credential form. These typically take 2–3 minutes each.
• Database credentials (Postgres, MySQL, Redis) — enter host, port, database name, username, and password. Test the connection before proceeding.

Collecting Your New Webhook URLs

For every workflow in your audit that is triggered by a webhook, you will need to know the new n8n webhook URL before switching. The URL format is: https://your-instance-domain/webhook/your-unique-id. You can find or set the path when you add a Webhook Trigger node. Create a dedicated column in your audit spreadsheet: "Old webhook URL" and "New n8n webhook URL". Fill in the new URLs as you build each workflow. Do not update external senders until you are ready to cut over.

Test One End-to-End Before Scaling

Before rebuilding your entire stack, pick one simple workflow from your audit, build it in n8n, and test it end-to-end. This confirms your credentials are working, your webhook URLs are reachable, and your n8n instance is correctly configured. Discovering a configuration problem on workflow 1 is much better than discovering it on workflow 15.