How to add a new client and give them their own n8n instance

You just landed a new client. Their automation work is going to live alongside three other clients you're already running. The first hour of the engagement is the part where someone usually ends up sharing a login, copy-pasting credentials, or accidentally giving the new client read access to another client's workflows.

FlowEngine has a built-in client invite flow that handles all of this in three clicks. You add the client by email, pick which instances they should see, and send the invite. They land in their own client portal under your branding, see only what you assigned, and are billed how you decided. This guide walks through the full flow.

Two ways to bring a client on

FlowEngine lets you invite a client under one of two payment models. Pick the one that fits the engagement before you start clicking:

• You Pay. The client gets access to one or more instances you already own. You keep the bill. Use this when the client is on a flat retainer that includes infrastructure, or when you want to keep their data on instances you control.
• Ask Client to Pay. FlowEngine provisions a new instance and bills your client directly through Stripe. Use this when the client wants their own infrastructure on their own credit card, or when you want to keep your bill clean.

Both paths produce the same client experience: the client lands in a portal under your agency branding, signs in, and sees only the workflows you've granted access to. The difference is who pays and who owns the instance.

Step 1: Open the Clients tab

Sign into the FlowEngine portal and click Clients in the sidebar. You'll see a table of every client you've already added with their email, the instances assigned to them, and a status badge (Active, Pending, or Inactive).

Click the Invite button (it lives in the left rail of the Clients tab, with a second copy in the empty state until you have your first client). The Invite Client modal opens.

Step 2: Enter their email

Drop in the client's name (optional, used as their display name in your portal) and email (required). The email is also where the invite link is sent. Pick a real one, not a shared inbox - each invite is single-use.

Step 3: Pick the payment model

A pair of tabs sits between the email field and the rest of the form: You Pay and Ask Client to Pay. Pick the one matching the engagement.

You Pay path

Below the tabs you'll see a checklist of every n8n instance you currently own. Tick the ones this client should see. You can pick one, several, or all - whatever the engagement needs. Below the instances, a separate Link Services section appears if your agency runs WhatsApp services on FlowEngine - same checklist style.

The client will only see what you tick. If you have ten instances and tick three, they get the three. The other seven stay invisible to them. This is the key safety net for multi-client agencies: there's no way for client A to see client B's instances unless you actively tick the box.

Ask Client to Pay path

Pick whether the engagement includes hosting. If yes, choose a storage tier (10 / 30 / 50 GB) and FlowEngine provisions a fresh instance for them, billed to their card. If no, they're an "external" client - they're using a setup of their own outside FlowEngine and you're using the portal just for visibility and project management.

The client picks monthly or annual billing themselves when they accept the invite, so you do not need to commit to a cycle on their behalf.

Step 4: Send the invite

Click Send Invite. FlowEngine fires off the invitation email and the client appears in your Clients table with a Pending status. The status flips to Active the moment they click the link, set their password, and sign in.

If the email goes to a busy inbox and they don't click within a few days, you can resend the invite from their row in the Clients table without re-creating anything. The link is also visible to you so you can drop it directly into a Slack message or your project tracker if email is unreliable.

What the client sees

After they accept, the client experience looks like this:

1. Email from your agency address (set up in Settings → Email - covered in other guides) with the invite link.
2. Click the link, set a password, land in the client portal at your custom domain (if white-labelled) or a FlowEngine subdomain.
3. Their dashboard shows only the instances and workflows you assigned. Execution history, credentials, billing, all scoped to what they own or were granted.
4. They can run executions, view logs, and (if you've granted edit access) modify workflows. They cannot see anything outside their scope, including the names of your other clients.

This is the piece that makes the relationship feel professional. The client gets a portal that looks like a product you built, with their data isolated from everyone else's.

One detail worth knowing

Inviting clients requires the Max plan. The free and starter tiers are for single-operator setups; the moment you start adding paying clients, you'll bump into the upgrade prompt. The good news is that Max also unlocks white-label, agency SMTP, and per-client cost tracking, so the tier covers the full agency motion in one move.

Try it

If you've been juggling shared logins or running everything under your personal account, this flow takes about ninety seconds end to end and replaces a category of admin work that scales linearly with your client count. Sign in at flowengine.cloud, open the Clients tab, and invite your first client. The invite is reversible - you can remove a client and revoke access from the same table at any time.