How to Install n8n on Your DownDoggy.com VPS with a Custom Domain & HTTPS

This guide will walk you step-by-step through setting up n8n, a powerful workflow automation tool, on a budget-friendly DownDoggy.com VPS. You’ll secure it with your own domain and SSL, and be up and running in under 30 minutes!

✨ Who this is for: Anyone comfortable copying commands into a terminal, and who trusts their favorite LLM (like ChatGPT) when things get tricky.

What You’ll Need

A DownDoggy.com VPS (Linux, 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM) – Grab it here
A registered domain (like your-domain.com) pointed to your VPS Account
Ability to edit DNS records (via your DownDoggy.com domain control panel)
- In our example we’re using a subdomain automation.your-domain.com (we updated the A-Record)
A terminal / SSH access (via PowerShell, CMD, etc.)

🛠️ Step 1: SSH into Your Server

Once you have your VPS Account setup, you’ll need to SSH into your VPS server.

ssh root@your-server-ip

Tip: You can find your IP from your DownDoggy Control Panel when you activated your VPS.

🔄 Step 2: Update Your Server

Keep things fresh and secure:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

👤 Step 3: (Optional but Recommended) Create a Non-Root User

adduser n8nuser
usermod -aG sudo n8nuser
su - n8nuser

🐳 Step 4: Install Docker and Docker Compose

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
sudo apt install docker-compose-plugin -y
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker  # Apply group change immediately

📁 Step 5: Set Up Your n8n Folder

mkdir ~/n8n && cd ~/n8n
mkdir n8n_data

📝 Step 6: Create Your `docker-compose.yml`

nano docker-compose.yml

services:
  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n
    ports:
      - "5678:5678"
    volumes:
      - ./n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n
    environment:
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=admin
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=(YOUR STRONG PASSWORD)
      - N8N_PAYLOAD_SIZE_MAX="64mb"
      - TZ=America/Los_Angeles
      - N8N_HOST=automation.your-domain.com
      - N8N_PROTOCOL=https
      - N8N_PORT=5678
      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://automation.your-domain.com
      - N8N_SECURE_COOKIE=false
      - N8N_COMMUNITY_PACKAGES_ALLOW_TOOL_USAGE=true
    restart: always

Save and exit (Ctrl+O, Enter, Ctrl+X).

▶️ Step 7: Launch n8n

docker compose up -d

Check it’s running:

docker ps

You should see n8n running with port 5678 exposed.

🌐 Step 8: Point Your Domain to Your Server

Host: automation
Points to: Your VPS IP address

Wait ~5 minutes for DNS to propagate.

🌐 Step 9: Install NGINX to Reverse Proxy

sudo apt install nginx -y


Create the config:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/n8n


Paste this (use your real domain!):

nginxCopyEditserver {
    listen 80;
    server_name automation.your-domain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:5678;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

Enable and reload:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/n8n /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Check:

curl -I http://localhost

Should return 200 OK.

🔒 Step 10: Secure with SSL via Let’s Encrypt

Install Certbot:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y

Run:

sudo certbot --nginx -d automation.your-domain.com

Choose Option 1: Reinstall if it finds an existing cert.

This will:
✅ Secure your site with HTTPS
✅ Automatically update your NGINX config
✅ Enable auto-renewals

Test it:

https://automation.your-domain.com

You should see the n8n login screen with a secure lock!

🧠 Troubleshooting Tips

Error	Fix
413 Payload Too Large	Make sure `N8N_PAYLOAD_SIZE_MAX="64mb"` in Docker and `client_max_body_size 64M;` in NGINX
Lost connection to server	Confirm WebSocket headers are set in NGINX config
AI Agent fails to call tool	Check your MCP tool exposes a valid JSON schema
n8n container restarts	Use `docker logs n8n-n8n-1` to debug and watch memory via `docker stats`

✅ Final Checks & Tips

If you hit issues, try: bashCopyEditdocker logs n8n-n8n-1 tail -n 50 /var/log/nginx/error.log
Use:
- curl -I http://localhost curl -I http://automation.your-domain.com
to troubleshoot responses
Not sure why something isn’t working? Ask your favorite LLM! “Hey ChatGPT, n8n is up on port 5678 but NGINX is returning 502. What’s wrong?”

🎉 You’re Done!

You’ve now got:

n8n installed and running on Docker
Access via your custom domain
HTTPS secured with Let’s Encrypt
Basic authentication enabled

If you have any issues with this setup feel free to reach out to the community for help!