If you’re self hosting n8n on Render, the database you pick determines how many workflows you can run, how resilient they feel, and how fast you chew through free tier limits. I’ve tried both Neon and Aiven’s managed PostgreSQL offerings. Neon wins for n8n. Here’s why.
Serverless architecture: ideal for intermittent workloads
- Neon: Fully serverless. Databases scale to zero after five minutes of inactivity, so you only consume compute when something actually runs. n8n often idles between jobs, making Neon’s behavior a perfect fit.
- Aiven: The free tier is a single always-on node. It doesn’t pause when idle, so your free credits evaporate simply by existing.
Winner: Neon. The scale-to-zero model aligns with n8n’s workload patterns and stretches your compute allowance farther.
Storage and project allowances
- Neon: 0.5 GB storage per project with up to 20 projects on the free plan. Aggregate that and you effectively have 10 GB to spread across experiments.
- Aiven: 1 GB storage, but only a single free PostgreSQL service. If you need multiple environments, you’re out of luck.
Winner: Neon. More projects plus generous project level storage delivers flexibility for staging, QA, and client demos.
Compute power and billing
- Neon: Each project gets 100 CU-hours per month. Because Neon suspends idle databases, that allowance lasts much longer than the headline number.
- Aiven: 1 vCPU and 1 GB RAM running 24/7. Works fine for continuous workloads, but n8n’s sporadic usage wastes those resources.
Winner: Neon. Usage based billing and auto-suspend mean you actually benefit from the free tier during downtime.
Connection limits and pooling
- Neon: PgBouncer pooling supports up to 10,000 concurrent connections. Plenty of headroom for parallel n8n executions.
- Aiven: Limited to 20 concurrent connections. There’s no built-in pooling, so heavy bursts will hit the ceiling quickly.
Winner: Neon. High concurrency keeps large automation bursts from overwhelming the database.
Developer workflows and branching
- Neon: Database branching lets you create read-only copies for testing, QA, and previews. Spin up a branch, run a risky workflow, and discard it when you’re done.
- Aiven: Managed Postgres basics are there backups, SSL, metrics but no branching feature built in.
Winner: Neon. Branching is a productivity booster for automation engineers iterating on n8n flows.
Verdict for n8n on Render
Neon is the superior free tier partner for n8n. It treats compute like a serverless resource, gives you generous storage across multiple projects, and bakes in developer friendly capabilities like branching and connection pooling. Aiven is still a fantastic platform once you’re ready to explore streaming, observability, or NoSQL experiments but for the everyday database backing your n8n workflows, Neon just fits better.
Tags: #n8n #Render #PostgreSQL #NeonDB #Aiven #Serverless #Database #DevOps #Automation #FreeTier
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