Should I use Docker or a serverless platform?

It depends on your workload. Serverless (Vercel, AWS Lambda) is simpler for stateless request-response workloads — no server management, instant scaling. Docker is better for long-running processes, stateful services, self-hosted open-source tools (n8n, databases) and workloads where serverless cold starts or per-invocation costs are problematic. Most of our architectures combine both: Next.js on Vercel (serverless) and self-hosted services in Docker.

What is the difference between Docker Compose and Kubernetes?

Docker Compose orchestrates multiple containers on a single host — it is simple, well-documented and appropriate for small-to-medium production deployments. Kubernetes orchestrates containers across a cluster of hosts with automatic scaling, rolling deployments and self-healing. For n8n deployments and single-server backends, Docker Compose is correct. Kubernetes adds significant operational complexity that is only justified at large scale or in enterprise environments with existing cluster infrastructure.

How do you deploy n8n with Docker?

We deploy n8n using Docker Compose with PostgreSQL (replacing the default SQLite for production reliability), a Caddy or Nginx reverse proxy for SSL termination, and automated daily database backups. The entire stack is defined in a single docker-compose.yml file and managed via standard Docker commands. Updates are performed by pulling the latest n8n image and restarting the container — zero-downtime with proper health check configuration.

Is self-hosting with Docker secure?

Docker containers provide process isolation but are not a security boundary on their own. For production self-hosted deployments, we apply hardening measures: run containers as non-root users, use read-only filesystems where possible, apply network segmentation between containers, enable secrets management (Docker Secrets or environment variable injection from a vault), keep base images updated and configure firewall rules to expose only necessary ports. We provide documented security configurations for all self-hosted deployments.

Infrastructure

Docker

Container-based deployment for consistent, reproducible environments.

Book a Discovery Call Docker website

Docker is the industry-standard containerisation platform. Containers package an application and all its dependencies into a portable, isolated unit that runs identically across development, staging and production environments. We use Docker for all self-hosted n8n deployments, backend services and any application requiring consistent multi-environment parity.

Why we chose it

Why Ascii-Core uses Docker

1
"Works on my machine" problems eliminated by containerising every service
2
Self-hosted n8n, PostgreSQL and Redis deployments standardised as Docker Compose stacks
3
CI/CD integration — Docker images are the deployment artifact, tested once and deployed everywhere
4
Isolation — multiple services run on the same host without dependency conflicts

Ideal use cases

When to use Docker

Self-hosted n8n automation deployments
Backend API services requiring environment consistency
Multi-service architectures orchestrated with Docker Compose
CI/CD pipelines where the build artifact must be identical across environments
On-premise deployments for clients with data residency requirements

Trade-offs

Honest limitations

We believe in accurate trade-offs. These are the cases where a different tool may be the better choice.

Container orchestration at scale requires Kubernetes — Docker Compose is not suitable for production clusters at high traffic
Adds infrastructure knowledge requirement compared to fully managed PaaS (Vercel, Railway)
Image build times add to CI/CD pipeline duration

Services