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Self-Hosting n8n on a Raspberry Pi with Cloudflare Tunnels 

20 Sept 2025

I use n8n for automating various tasks and integrating different services. However, once the workflow is created, I didn’t really keep track of it. Looking at my forwardcents.app account, I realized that I was paying $10 per month for self-hosting n8n. Since I have a Raspberry Pi 4 sitting idle, I decided to set up n8n on it and expose it to the internet using Cloudflare Tunnels. This way, I can run n8n for free on my local hardware while making its workflows accessible globally.

In this tutorial, I will guide you through setting up n8n on a Raspberry Pi and exposing it to the internet securely using Cloudflare Tunnels. This setup allows you to run n8n for free on your local hardware while making its workflows accessible globally, enabling integration with external services like Slack or Telegram.

If you are a visual learner, you can watch the video below where I walk you through the entire process.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

  • A Raspberry Pi (RPi) (I used RPi 4 in this tutorial).
  • Raspberry Pi Imager installed on your computer to flash the Raspberry Pi OS onto an SD card. You can download it from here.
  • A Cloudflare account with a configured domain.

Installing Raspberry Pi OS

To install the Raspberry Pi OS on your Raspberry Pi, follow these steps:

  1. Connect the SD card to your computer.
  2. Open the Raspberry Pi Imager application. Raspberry Pi Imager
  3. Click on Choose Device and select your RPi version. Select Device
  4. Click on Choose OS and select Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit). Select OS
  5. Click on the Choose Storage button to flash the OS onto the SD card. Select Storage
  6. Click on the Next button.
  7. A dialog box will ask you to confirm if you want to customize the settings. Select Edit Settings to customize the settings.
  8. In the OS Customisation dialog, configure the following:
    • Set a hostname (e.g., n8n-pi).
    • Set a username and password for the default user. You will use this to log in to your Raspberry Pi.
    • Select Configure wireless LAN and enter your Wi-Fi SSID and password if you are using a wireless connection.
    • Set your locale settings (language, timezone, keyboard layout).
    • In the Services tab, enable SSH to allow remote access to your Raspberry Pi.
    • Configure the SSH key.
    • Click on the Save button to save your customizations. OS Customisation
  9. Click on Yes to continue with the customization settings.
  10. Read the warning about data loss and click on Yes to start flashing the OS onto the SD card.

Booting Up Raspberry Pi

After the flashing process is complete, you are ready to boot up your Raspberry Pi. Insert the SD card into your Raspberry Pi and power it on. If you enabled SSH during the OS customization, you can access your Raspberry Pi remotely via SSH.

  1. Open a terminal on your computer.
  2. Use the following command to connect to your Raspberry Pi via SSH (replace username and hostname with the values you set during OS customization):
Terminal window
ssh username@hostname
  1. If prompted, accept the SSH key fingerprint by typing yes.
  2. If you setup a password, enter it when prompted.

Note: If you are not able to connect via SSH, ensure that your Raspberry Pi is connected to the same network as your computer and that SSH is enabled. Connect a monitor and keyboard to your Raspberry Pi to troubleshoot any network or SSH issues.

Setting Up Cloudflare Tunnel

Cloudflare Tunnels establish a secure, outbound-only connection between your private resources and Cloudflare’s global network, allowing you to expose local services to the internet without opening inbound firewall ports.

Configure Cloudflare Zero Trust

  1. Log in to your Cloudflare dashboard.
  2. Navigate to Zero Trust from the left-hand sidebar.
    • If this is your first time using Zero Trust, you will need to go through a simple configuration process. Zero Trust is available for free, but you may need to provide billing information.

Create a New Tunnel

  1. Once on the Zero Trust dashboard, expand Networks in the left-hand sidebar.
  2. Click on Tunnels.
  3. Click the Add a tunnel button.
  4. Select Cloudflared as your tunnel type.
  5. Click Select Cloudflared.
  6. Enter a descriptive Tunnel name (e.g., n8n tunnel).
  7. Click Save tunnel.

Install cloudflared on Raspberry Pi

Next, you need to install the cloudflared daemon on your Raspberry Pi. The Cloudflare dashboard will provide commands for different operating systems. For Raspberry Pi OS, select the Debian or Red Hat tab, then choose ARM64.

  1. Access your Raspberry Pi via SSH or open a terminal in the Raspberry Pi OS.
  2. Create a directory for keyrings:
Terminal window
sudo mkdir -p --mode=0755 /usr/share/keyrings
  1. Add Cloudflare’s GPG keys to verify package authenticity:
Terminal window
curl -fsSL https://pkg.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-main.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/cloudflare-main.gpg >/dev/null
  1. Add the Cloudflare repository to your system’s package list:
Terminal window
echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloudflare-main.gpg] https://pkg.cloudflare.com/cloudflared any main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cloudflared.list
  1. Update your package list:
Terminal window
sudo apt update
  1. Install cloudflared:
Terminal window
sudo apt install cloudflared -y

Run Cloudflared Service

After installing cloudflared, you can connect your Raspberry Pi to the Cloudflare Tunnel.

  1. Go back to your Cloudflare Tunnels dashboard.
  2. Copy the provided command for installing and running the connector. It will look similar to this (replace <YOUR_TOKEN> with the actual token from your dashboard):
Terminal window
sudo cloudflared service install <YOUR_TOKEN>

Important: The token in the command is sensitive. Do not share it with anyone. 3. Paste and run this command on your Raspberry Pi. 4. Once the command runs successfully, verify the Status in your Cloudflare dashboard for the tunnel. It should show as Connected.

Route Traffic for n8n

Now that the cloudflared connector is running, you need to define how external traffic should be routed to your n8n instance.

  1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, after your tunnel is connected, click Next to proceed to “Route Traffic”.
  2. Under Public Hostname, configure the following:
    • Subdomain: Enter a desired subdomain (e.g., n8n).
    • Domain: Select your configured domain (e.g., harshil.dev).
    • Path: (Optional) Leave empty if you want n8n to be available at the root of the subdomain.
    • Service Type: Select HTTP.
    • URL: Enter localhost:5678 (This is the default port where n8n will run locally on your Raspberry Pi).
  3. Click Save tunnel.

Cloudflare will now create the necessary DNS record for your service. At this point, if you try to navigate to your subdomain (e.g., n8n.harshil.dev), you will likely encounter a “Bad Gateway” error because n8n is not yet running on your Raspberry Pi.

Deploying n8n with Docker Compose

This section covers setting up n8n on your Raspberry Pi using Docker and Docker Compose.

Install Docker and Docker Compose

To install Docker and Docker Compose on your Raspberry Pi, follow these steps:

  1. Update your package list:
Terminal window
sudo apt update
  1. Install Docker:
Terminal window
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
  1. Add your user to the docker group to run Docker commands without sudo:
Terminal window
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
  • You may need to log out and log back in for the group change to take effect.
  1. While the above steps install Docker, and Docker Compose as a plugin, you can verify the installation by checking the versions:
Terminal window
docker --version
docker compose version
  1. If Docker Compose is not installed, you can install it manually:
Terminal window
sudo apt install docker-compose-plugin

Create n8n Configuration Files

You’ll create a directory for n8n and configure environment variables and a Docker Compose file.

  1. Access your Raspberry Pi via SSH or open a terminal in the Raspberry Pi OS.
  2. Create a directory for your n8n configuration:
Terminal window
mkdir n8n
cd n8n
  1. Create an .env file to store n8n environment variables:
Terminal window
nano .env
  1. Add the following configurations to the .env file, replacing subdomain.domain.tld with your chosen subdomain:
.env
N8N_HOST=subdomain.domain.tld
N8N_PROTOCOL=https
N8N_RUNNERS_ENABLED=true
N8N_PERSONALIZATION_ENABLED=false
GENERIC_TIMEZONE=Europe/Berlin
  • N8N_HOST: The domain you configured in Cloudflare.
  • N8N_PROTOCOL: Use https for secure connections via Cloudflare Tunnel.
  • N8N_RUNNERS_ENABLED: Set to true to enable n8n runners.
  • N8N_PERSONALIZATION_ENABLED: Set to false (optional, can be omitted as true is default).
  • GENERIC_TIMEZONE: Set your desired timezone.
  1. Save and exit the .env file (Ctrl+X, Y, Enter for nano).
  2. Create a docker-compose.yml file:
Terminal window
nano docker-compose.yml
  1. Add the following Docker Compose configuration. This defines the n8n service, its image, port mappings, environment variables (loaded from .env), and a volume for persistent data.
docker-compose.yml
services:
  n8n:
  image: docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n
    restart: always
    ports:
    - 5678:5678
    environment:
    - N8N_HOST=${N8N_HOST}
    - N8N_PROTOCOL=${N8N_PROTOCOL}
    - N8N_RUNNERS_ENABLED=${N8N_RUNNERS_ENABLED}
    - N8N_PERSONALIZATION_ENABLED=${N8N_PERSONALIZATION_ENABLED}
    - WEBHOOK_URL=https://${N8N_HOST}
    - GENERIC_TIMEZONE=${GENERIC_TIMEZONE}
    - TZ=${GENERIC_TIMEZONE}
    volumes:
    - ./n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n
  1. Save and exit the docker-compose.yml file.

Start n8n Container

  1. Start the n8n container using Docker Compose:
Terminal window
docker compose up -d

This command will pull the n8n Docker image (which might take a few minutes depending on your internet speed) and start the container in detached mode.

  1. Check the logs to see if n8n started correctly:
Terminal window
docker compose logs

You might initially see errors like Error: Command "start" not found. This indicates a permissions issue that needs to be resolved.

Fix Permissions and Restart n8n

The n8n_data volume created by Docker Compose might have incorrect permissions, preventing the n8n container from writing its configuration.

  1. Stop the n8n container:
Terminal window
docker compose stop
  1. Change the ownership of the n8n_data directory to the user ID 1000 (which corresponds to the node user inside the n8n Docker container):
Terminal window
sudo chown -R 1000:1000 n8n_data
  1. Start the n8n container again:
Terminal window
docker compose start
  1. Check the logs once more to confirm successful startup:
Terminal window
docker compose logs

You should now see messages indicating that migrations are running and eventually: Editor is now accessible via: https://subdomain.domain.tld.

Access n8n in Your Browser

  1. Open your web browser and navigate to the subdomain you configured (e.g., https://n8n.harshil.dev).
  2. You should now see the n8n “Set up owner account” screen.
  3. Enter your desired Email, First Name, Last Name, and Password.
  4. Click Next.
  5. You will be redirected to the n8n dashboard, ready to create your first workflow.

Conclusion

You have successfully installed n8n on your Raspberry Pi and made it accessible over the internet using Cloudflare Tunnels. This setup provides a secure and free way to host your own automation workflows. You can now leverage n8n’s extensive capabilities to automate tasks, integrate various services, and prototype new automations, all while benefiting from the performance and security features of Cloudflare.

References:

Last updated on 20 Sept 2025