ActivepiecesAI Workflow Automation
Freemium
MIT-licensed open-source automation with per-flow pricing instead of per-task, plus AI agents, MCP support and free unlimited self-hosting.
Visit Website →n8n
FreemiumSource-available workflow automation you can self-host for free, with per-execution pricing, native AI agent nodes and full code control.
What is n8n?
n8n is a source-available workflow automation and AI agent platform that you can run entirely on your own infrastructure at no licensing cost, or use as a managed cloud service. Its defining commercial feature is per-execution billing: one complete run of a workflow counts as one execution no matter whether it contains three nodes or fifty. For teams building complex multi-step automations, this inverts the economics of task-based and credit-based competitors, often by an order of magnitude. n8n presents workflows as a node graph where you can drop in JavaScript or Python code nodes anywhere you need logic that no connector provides. Its AI tooling is unusually deep for an automation platform, with LangChain-based agent nodes, vector store integrations, memory, and support for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and locally hosted models. Because the Community Edition is free to self-host with unlimited executions, n8n has become the default choice for technically comfortable teams who want to own their automation layer rather than rent it.
Key Features
Self-HostingPer-Execution BillingNode Graph EditorJavaScript NodesPython NodesAI Agent NodesLangChain SupportVector Stores500+ IntegrationsCustom NodesWebhooksSub-WorkflowsError WorkflowsExecution HistoryGit Version ControlEnvironment StagingCommunity NodesSSO and LDAP
Integrations
Database
PostgresAirtablePineconeSupabase
Communication
SlackTelegram
Data & Spreadsheets
Google Sheets
Other
OpenAIAnthropic
Development
GitHub
Writing & Docs
Notion
Webhooks & API
HTTP Request
How to Use n8n
1Choose self-hosted Docker or n8n Cloud
2Deploy the instance or start a cloud trial
3Create a workflow and add a trigger node
4Chain app, code or AI agent nodes together
5Map data between nodes using expressions
6Execute the workflow manually to debug
7Activate it and monitor executions
✅ 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
Reviews
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Pricing
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
EnterpriseCustom
- ✓Unlimited executions
- ✓200+ concurrency
- ✓dedicated SLA support
- ✓log streaming
Prompts to Try
Build a workflow with an AI agent node that answers support emails using a Pinecone vector store of our docs
Create a workflow that runs a Python node to clean a CSV then writes rows into Postgres
Set up a webhook trigger that validates a payload and routes it to different sub-workflows
Design a nightly workflow that scrapes competitor pricing and posts a Slack digest
Use Cases
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.
Meera, a growth engineer, wrote a Python node inside n8n that scores inbound leads on 14 custom signals and writes the score back to Salesforce, letting her SDR team stop chasing unqualified accounts.
Callum manages a media site and built a workflow that watches 30 RSS feeds, summarises new articles with Claude and drafts a newsletter section, turning a three-hour Monday task into a ten-minute review.
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