Most agencies that move to n8n hit the same wall in week one. Somebody has to spin up a server, install Postgres, wire up SSL, set up backups, and pray the next n8n release doesn't break the migration. That's a week of yak-shaving before a single workflow runs.
With FlowEngine you skip all of that. Sign in, click new instance, pick a server size, and you have a working n8n with a real domain in about 60 seconds. This walkthrough takes you from zero to a logged-in n8n in five clicks.
Step 1: Sign in (free, no card)
Go to flowengine.cloud and sign up with Google or email. The free tier exists for personal use with no credit card required, which is genuinely useful when you want to test the platform with a real client workflow before committing to a paid plan.
If you already have an n8n self-hosted setup, you don't need to migrate anything yet. The point of this guide is to get a fresh instance running so you can compare it side by side.
Step 2: Click "New n8n instance"
From the portal home, hit the Hosting tab and click New n8n instance. FlowEngine asks for a name. Pick something agency-flavoured like acme-prod or client-finance-bot. The name becomes part of the default subdomain, so make it readable.
You won't be asked for any infrastructure details. FlowEngine handles all of that.
Step 3: Pick a server size
FlowEngine offers a small set of instance sizes. The starter tier handles personal projects and light client workflows. The larger tiers are for high-volume webhook traffic, long-running scrapes, or workflows that bundle large attachments.
You can change the size later without losing data. So unless you already know your client is firing 50,000 executions a day, start small. FlowEngine will resize the underlying server when you upgrade, no manual migration.
Step 4: Custom domain (optional)
By default the instance lives on a FlowEngine subdomain like acme-prod.flowengine.cloud. That's fine for testing. For client-facing work, point a domain you own at the instance.
Drop your domain into the custom-domain field, add the CNAME record FlowEngine shows you, and SSL is provisioned automatically. This is the bit that surprises agency owners coming from self-host: a custom domain takes about 60 seconds end to end.
Step 5: First login and what's preinstalled
Once the instance reports Running, click Open n8n. You land on the standard n8n editor UI you already know. Same nodes, same workflow canvas, same expressions. FlowEngine hosts upstream n8n, not a fork.
What's already wired up for you:
- SSL on the default subdomain (and any custom domain you add)
- Daily backups of your workflows, credentials, and execution history
- Access to the FlowEngine AI proxy, so any AI node has 100+ models available without juggling your own API keys
- Health monitoring with auto-restart if the n8n process dies
You don't have to configure any of these. They run by default on every instance.
What to actually do next
Now that the instance is up, the first useful workflow takes about two minutes. Two paths agencies tend to take:
- Start from a template. FlowEngine ships starter templates and lets you save your own as reusable templates per agency. Browse the library, click deploy, and the workflow lands inside the new instance ready to edit.
- Describe it in plain English. FlowEngine's AI assistant builds workflows from a sentence. Tell it "when a Stripe payment succeeds, send the customer a Loom welcome video and add them to ConvertKit," and it produces a runnable n8n graph in your instance.
Either way, you're now in the part of n8n where the work actually happens. None of the time you spent above was on infrastructure.
How this differs from self-hosting
If you’ve self-hosted n8n before, you know the hidden tax: server upgrades, version pins, backups, and the moment one of your clients exceeds the box. Self-hosting is the right call for some teams, especially developers who want full control. It's the wrong call for an agency owner who'd rather spend that time on workflow design.
FlowEngine takes the same upstream n8n binary, runs it on managed infrastructure with daily backups and a 99.9% SLA, and gives you a portal to manage every client instance from one place. If you outgrow a server, click a bigger one. If a client churns, archive the instance. If you need SSO across multiple instances, that's a single toggle - we wrote about exactly that case study here.
Try it
Sign up at flowengine.cloud. The free tier is enough to spin up your first instance and run a real workflow end to end. If you're an agency planning to host n8n for multiple clients under your own brand, the white-label tier is on the pricing page.
Once your first instance is up, the next thing worth knowing is how to clone a working workflow into every new client instance automatically. That's the post after this one.