Compare Microsoft Power Automate vs n8n

Microsoft Power Automate

Microsoft's automation platform combining cloud flows, desktop RPA, AI Builder and 1,000+ connectors inside the Microsoft 365 estate.

0 upvotesintermediate

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n8n

AI Workflow AutomationFreemium

Source-available workflow automation you can self-host for free, with per-execution pricing, native AI agent nodes and full code control.

0 upvotesadvanced

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Pricing

Pricing Comparison

Microsoft Power Automate

Included with Microsoft 365$0

Basic cloud flows using standard connectors only

Power Automate Premium$15/user/mo

Premium connectors, attended desktop RPA, AI Builder credits, Dataverse

Power Automate Process$150/bot/mo

Unattended RPA for a single concurrent process, organisation-wide

Hosted Process$215/bot/mo

Unattended RPA with Microsoft-hosted infrastructure, no VM to manage

Process Mining add-on$5,000/tenant/mo

Enterprise process discovery and analysis, Premium plan required

n8n

Community Edition$0

Self-hosted, unlimited workflows and executions, source available

Starter$20/mo

2,500 executions/month, unlimited workflows and users, AI credits included

Pro$50/mo

10,000 executions, 20 concurrent executions, admin roles, global variables

Business$800/mo

40,000 executions, SSO and LDAP, Git version control, multi-environment

Enterprise$Custom

Unlimited executions, 200+ concurrency, dedicated SLA support, log streaming

Features

Feature Comparison

Microsoft Power Automate

Cloud FlowsDesktop FlowsAttended RPAUnattended RPA1,000+ ConnectorsAI BuilderProcess MiningTask MiningDataverse StorageCopilot BuilderApproval FlowsTeams IntegrationSharePoint TriggersScheduled FlowsBusiness Process FlowsFlow AnalyticsOn-Premises GatewayEnvironment Governance

n8n

Self-HostingPer-Execution BillingNode Graph EditorJavaScript NodesPython NodesAI Agent NodesLangChain SupportVector Stores500+ IntegrationsCustom NodesWebhooksSub-WorkflowsError WorkflowsExecution HistoryGit Version ControlEnvironment StagingCommunity NodesSSO and LDAP

Fit

Best For & Not For

Microsoft Power Automate

✅ Best For

✅IT and operations teams inside Microsoft-centric organisations, where SharePoint, Teams, Outlook and Dataverse are already the systems of record

✅Enterprises that need to automate legacy Windows desktop applications with no API, which browser-based and API-first tools simply cannot reach

✅Companies wanting approval workflows embedded natively in Teams and Outlook rather than bolted on through a third-party tool

✅Organisations running structured document processing at scale, where AI Builder can extract fields from invoices, forms and receipts inside the same platform

❌ Not For

❌Small teams outside the Microsoft ecosystem, since much of the value comes from bundled M365 entitlements you would not otherwise be paying for

❌Anyone budgeting for unattended RPA casually, because pricing jumps from per-user to per-bot and four concurrent processes alone run into hundreds of dollars monthly

❌Teams wanting simple self-serve setup, as licensing, environments, Dataverse and gateway configuration all demand real administrative effort

❌Users needing the long tail of consumer and indie SaaS connectors, which Zapier and Make cover far more comprehensively

n8n

✅ Best For

✅Developers and technical operators who want unlimited executions at near-zero cost by self-hosting on a small VPS

✅Companies with data residency, GDPR or compliance constraints that rule out sending workflow data through a third-party cloud

✅Teams building AI agents and RAG pipelines who need vector stores, memory and multiple model providers inside the same workflow canvas

✅High-volume automation users whose complex multi-step workflows would be prohibitively expensive under per-task or per-credit billing

❌ Not For

❌Non-technical users who want a point-and-click experience, since expressions, JSON handling and node debugging assume real technical comfort

❌Teams with no DevOps capacity, because self-hosting means you own updates, backups, SSL renewal and uptime monitoring

❌Anyone needing the broadest connector library, as n8n ships around 500 integrations versus thousands on Zapier and Make

❌Cloud users who rely on community-built nodes, since n8n Cloud disables community node installation for security reasons

Availability

Platform & Accessibility

Microsoft Power Automate

web-baseddesktopmobileapi

n8n

web-baseddesktopapi

Use & Audience

Tasks & Who It's For

Microsoft Power Automate

Tasks

ai-productivity ai-data ai-email

Who it's for

developer small-business marketer

n8n

Tasks

ai-coding ai-data ai-productivity

Who it's for

developer small-business freelancer

Integrations

Microsoft Power Automate

Storage

SharePointOneDrive

Communication

Microsoft TeamsOutlook

Data & Spreadsheets

Excel

Database

DataverseSQL Server

CRM

SalesforceDynamics 365

Other

SAPAzure

Customer Support

ServiceNow

n8n

Database

PostgresAirtablePineconeSupabase

Communication

SlackTelegram

Data & Spreadsheets

Google Sheets

Other

OpenAIAnthropic

Development

GitHub

Writing & Docs

Notion

Webhooks & API

HTTP Request

Use Cases

Real-world Use Cases

Microsoft Power Automate

Ravi manages IT for a 400-person engineering firm and built an approval flow that routes purchase requests through Teams, replacing an email chain that regularly lost requests and cutting approval time from five days to under one.

Helen runs finance at a manufacturer where invoices arrive as scanned PDFs. Her AI Builder flow extracts vendor, amount and date fields and writes them to Dataverse, removing roughly 30 hours of monthly keying from her team.

Tomasz automates operations at a logistics company using a legacy Windows dispatch system with no API. A desktop flow now logs in nightly and reconciles delivery records, ending a two-hour manual routine nobody wanted to own.

n8n

Arjun, a backend engineer at a fintech startup, moved 40 Zapier automations to self-hosted n8n on a $5 VPS and cut the team's automation bill from $340 a month to under $10 with no loss in reliability.

Freya runs data ops at a healthcare analytics firm where patient data cannot leave EU infrastructure. She self-hosts n8n in their own cloud and now automates report generation that compliance had previously blocked entirely.

Ivan built an internal support agent using n8n's AI agent node connected to a vector store of 900 help articles. It now resolves 62 percent of tier-one tickets before a human ever opens them.

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