A drag-and-drop workflow builder that wires your apps together and can call an LLM at any step.
Mature enough to put in production this quarter.
Any team paying for Zapier or Make and hitting the per-task bill, or one that wants automations to stay on its own server.
Zapier, Make, and the pile of one-off scripts nobody maintains.
The licence is source-available, not open source — you can self-host and use it internally, but you cannot resell it as your own hosted product.
Self-host it with Docker and rebuild your single most expensive Zapier workflow in it. Compare the monthly bill.
Custom / check the LICENSE file. GitHub could not identify a standard licence for this repository, which usually means a custom or source-available one. Read the LICENSE file before you build on it.
This is a reading of the licence label, not legal advice.
The numbers
Maintainers describe it as: “Fair-code workflow automation platform with native AI capabilities. Combine visual building with custom code, self-host or cloud, 400+ integrations.”
n8n, in short
- Should a small team use n8n?
- Adopt now. Mature enough to put in production this quarter. Any team paying for Zapier or Make and hitting the per-task bill, or one that wants automations to stay on its own server.
- What does n8n actually do?
- A drag-and-drop workflow builder that wires your apps together and can call an LLM at any step.
- What does n8n replace?
- Zapier, Make, and the pile of one-off scripts nobody maintains.
- What is the downside of n8n?
- The licence is source-available, not open source — you can self-host and use it internally, but you cannot resell it as your own hosted product.
- Can n8n be used in a commercial product?
- Its licence is Custom / check the LICENSE file, which carries obligations or restrictions for commercial use. Read the LICENSE file, and get a lawyer's read before you ship it inside a product you sell.
Head to head
Weighed against
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