NoCode with Upsun: Supercharge Your Automation with Zero Code

May 14, 2025·

·Reading time: 3 minutes

The NoCode movement is transforming how we build digital tools. Whether you’re a founder, a marketer, or part of an operations team, NoCode platforms empower you to create apps, automations, and integrations — all without writing a single line of code.

In this article, you’ll learn how Upsun, a developer-friendly Cloud Application Platform, can host your NoCode workflows with ease. We’ll walk through the advantages of using Upsun and show you how to deploy n8n, a powerful open-source automation tool, in just a few minutes.

Why NoCode?

⚡ Faster time to market – Build tools in hours, not weeks.
💸 Lower development cost – No need for full-time developers.
🙌 Accessibility – Anyone on your team can contribute.
🔌 Integration ready – Easily connect hundreds of services like Slack, Google Sheets, Notion, and more.

Deploying n8n on Upsun (Step-by-Step)

Let’s set up n8n on Upsun — a self-hosted, open-source alternative to Zapier or Make.com.

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Prerequisites

An Upsun account
Git installed locally

Create your project root

Terminal

mkdir -p my-n8n-project && cd my-n8n-project && git init

Configure your n8n app

Create a .upsun/config.yaml file in your project root:

.upsun/config.yamlOpen remote file ^↗

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applications:
  app-n8n:
    type: 'nodejs:22'
    variables:
      env:
        N8N_EMAIL_MODE: 'smtp'
        N8N_SMTP_PORT: "25"
        N8N_SMTP_SSL: false
        N8N_RUNNERS_ENABLED: true
    dependencies:
      nodejs:
        n8n: "*"
        n8n-nodes-mcp: "*"
    mounts:
      '.n8n': { source: storage, source_path: n8n }
      '.cache': { source: storage, source_path: cache }
    web:
      commands:
        start: "n8n start"
      upstream:
        socket_family: tcp
        protocol: http
      locations:
        '/':
          passthru: true
          request_buffering:
            enabled: false
    hooks:
      build: |
        set -xeu
        echo 'export N8N_PORT=$PORT' >> .environment        
routes:
  "https://{all}/": { type: upstream, upstream: "app-n8n:http", primary: true, cache: {enabled: false}}
  "http://{all}/": { type: redirect, to: "https://{all}/" }

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Please note:

As it is not possible to define “dynamic” environment variable (e.g. using another existing environment variable value) in the variables.env section, we are using the hooks.build (line 31) to set N8N_PORT environment variable using internal $PORT environment variable.

Create an Upsun project

To create an Upsun project, execute the following command line:

Terminal

upsun project:create

Follow the CLI prompts to set up your project.

Deploy to Upsun

Terminal

git add .upsun/config.yaml
git commit -m "Add n8n config"
upsun push

After deployment, you’ll receive a live URL where your n8n instance is hosted.

Start Automating

You can then open the frontend by using the following command line:

Terminal

upsun environment:url --primary

You should end up on this frontend page:

You can now start creating powerful automations using n8n’s drag-and-drop workflow builder.

🔍 Example Use Cases

Here are just a few real-world automations you can build with n8n on Upsun:

📧 Email Marketing: Sync new Airtable contacts to Mailchimp.
💬 Slack Alerts: Notify your team when a customer submits a form.
📈 Social Monitoring: Track Twitter mentions and store them in Notion.
🗂️ File Watchers: Upload new Dropbox files to Google Drive automatically.

Conclusion

With Upsun, deploying and scaling powerful NoCode tools like n8n is fast, secure, and seamless. Whether you’re a technical founder or a business user, you now have the power to automate anything — without DevOps or complex infrastructure.

👉 Start building smarter workflows with n8n + Upsun today. 🚀

Have questions or need help setting up your first workflow? feel free to contact us on our Discord.

Demo Project on our Github Upsun

Last updated on May 14, 2025