Set Up Your n8n Environment (Do This Before Week 1)

Hi everyone!

As you know, our upcoming cohort will focus on n8n. Before we begin, please make sure you've set it up using one of the following options:

1. Use n8n Cloud at https://n8n.io/ – The easiest, beginner-friendly option. You can simply purchase it there (14-day free trial available). The Starter plan is enough for our course and basic usage.

Benefits: No need to worry about memory limits or downtimes. You can invite others to your project. We frequently use this option with clients - they invite us as editors. You can connect most tools to n8n in a few clicks (Gmail, Drive, Slack).

Downsides: It's pricier than self-hosting. There are some limitations on how many times your workflows can run.

2. Self-host it on a cloud provider – A more affordable option that requires a bit of technical setup. For example, you can use Hostinger or Railway.

Here's a video guide:

→ Hostinger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etk8qpNA_Aw

→ Railway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbG0CYN7JiY

Benefits: It can be as cheap as $6/month. You have no limits on how many operations your n8n can process (as long as your server is powerful enough).

Downsides: You will not have an option to invite others by email, only by sharing your login/password. You'll need to keep an eye on server resource usage if you deal with big files. You'll also need additional setup for connecting Gmail, Slack, and other services (this happens because you need to add your n8n website to the list of trusted connections for each of them).

3. Install it locally – Free, but requires more setup and may have some connectivity issues.

Here's a tutorial:

→ How to install locally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHfY748TD2E

Benefits: Free, no limitations on the amount of operations. You can make n8n work with your local files or your browser.

Downsides: More technical setup, plus the other downsides of self-hosting mentioned above.

Make sure you have one of these options running before the cohort starts.

LLM Access for API Building

You'll also need access to a Large Language Model (LLM) such as:

OpenAI API
Gemini API
Claude API

If you already have an account with one of these, great! If not, please subscribe or create a free-tier account before we start.

Note: ChatGPT is different from OpenAI API, and Gemini is different from Gemini API. You need an API account and an API key - they are billed per usage and are cheap.

Serop and I both use OpenAI, but you can use whichever you prefer. Gemini offers some free credits, which could be a good starting point if you'd like to experiment.

I also use OpenRouter: https://openrouter.ai/ - it's an aggregator of many LLMs that allows you to have one account instead of many and still have access to all LLMs. Some options there are free, others incur a small fee on top of regular API usage. OpenRouter handles it for you.

Any questions? Drop them below. If you have trouble with the setup, let us know and we'll record a video for you.

See you inside! 🚀

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