Stop Paying the "Automation Tax": My Journey to Self-Hosting n8n on AWS EC2

Let’s be honest: Zapier is amazing until you see the bill. I was recently auditing a project where we hit our 5,000-task limit mid-month, and the price jump was eye-watering. That’s when I decided it was time to move the 'brain' of our automation to our own infrastructure. At BitPixel Coders, we’ve standardized on self-hosting n8n on AWS EC2. It gives us 100% data privacy and fixed costs, but the setup isn't always as simple as 'one-click.' If you’ve ever fought with Nginx SSL or Docker permissions, you know the struggle." The Body (Short & Skimmable): "I’ve spent the last few weeks refining our deployment script to make it production-grade. This isn't just a 'Hello World' setup. It’s a battle-tested roadmap for: Infrastructure: Picking the right t3.small vs. t3.medium for memory-heavy workflows. Process Management: Keeping n8n alive even if the server reboots. Security: Using Nginx as a reverse proxy to handle SSL properly (don't run your automations over HTTP!). I’ve put together a f