I got tired of renewing n8n subscriptions and dealing with free trial limitations every couple of weeks, so I decided to take a different route: self-hosting n8n on Oracle Cloud's Always Free tier.
The goal was simple, build a reliable automation environment that I fully control without recurring monthly costs.
The Oracle Cloud free resources provide:
• 1 vCPU
• 6 GB RAM
• 47 GB Storage
• Always-on internet connectivity
• Completely free, forever
However, there was one challenge.
Oracle's free VM instances are in high demand, and when I attempted to create one, there were no available compute slots. The only solution was to keep retrying until a spot became available.
The problem?
Oracle recommends trying again later, but manually clicking "Create Instance" every 60 seconds isn't exactly a productive use of time.
Instead of sitting in front of my computer repeatedly checking for availability, I did what builders do:
I automated the process.
I built a bot that continuously retries the VM creation request every 60 seconds until an available slot is found and successfully provisioned.
Now, while the bot handles the repetitive work, I can continue building projects, doing other work related activities in
@smcdao, attending meetings, or even stepping away from my computer entirely.
This is exactly the kind of problem automation was created to solve.
What advantage does this give n8n?
Once the Oracle VM is provisioned, n8n can run on a dedicated cloud server rather than relying on my personal computer.
That means:
✅ n8n runs 24/7, even when my PC is turned off
✅ Workflows can execute at any time — midnight, 3 AM, weekends, holidays, whenever they're triggered
✅ Automations become more reliable and production-ready
✅ No recurring hosting costs
✅ Complete control over the environment and deployment
For anyone serious about automation, running n8n on a cloud server changes everything. Your workflows stop depending on your laptop and start operating like real infrastructure.
This project was a reminder that sometimes the best automation isn't the workflow you're building for a client—it's the automation that removes repetitive work from your own life.
If a task needs to be repeated every 60 seconds for hours, that's usually a sign that a human shouldn't be doing it.
That's where AI, automation, and good engineering come in.
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