n8n

n8n is a workflow automation platform that connects apps, APIs, and AI models through a visual node editor, and it bills per workflow execution rather than per step, which makes multi-step automations dramatically cheaper to run than on step-priced competitors. The billing model is the single most important thing to understand about it. In n8n an execution is a single run of your entire workflow, and it does not matter how many steps that workflow contains or how much data it processes. A 40-node workflow that enriches a lead, scores it, writes to a CRM, and posts to Slack costs one execution. On platforms that charge per task or per operation, that same run can cost 40 units. For anyone building genuinely complex automations, that difference compounds fast. n8n is also self-hostable. The standard self-hosted version is available on GitHub, where the project has over 202,000 stars, under a FairCode license. Self-hosting is the usual route for teams with data residency requirements or those who want unlimited executions on their own infrastructure. Cloud pricing, billed annually, runs: Starter at 20 EUR/month for 2,500 workflow executions, Pro at 50 EUR/month for 10,000 executions, and Business at 667 EUR/month for 40,000 executions. Enterprise is quoted for custom execution volumes. Starter and Pro trials require no credit card and give you all Pro features against Starter limits, meaning 5 concurrent executions and 2,500 executions. The Business trial runs 14 days with full access and does require a card. All trials include 800 AI Assistant credits. Who it is for: technical teams and automation-minded founders who have outgrown no-code glue. n8n sits deliberately between Zapier's simplicity and writing your own integration service. It expects you to be comfortable reading JSON, writing the occasional JavaScript expression, and thinking about error branches. In exchange you get branching, looping, custom code nodes, self-hosting, and AI agent nodes that are hard to reach in simpler tools. How it compares: Zapier is easier for non-technical users, has a far larger app catalogue, and is the safer pick if the automation is simple and the person maintaining it is not an engineer. Make (formerly Integromat) is closer to n8n in visual power and is generally cheaper than Zapier, but is not self-hostable. Activepieces is the nearest open-source alternative. Against all three, n8n's advantages are the per-execution pricing, self-hosting, and the depth of its AI and code nodes; its disadvantage is a steeper learning curve and a smaller integration catalogue than Zapier's. Evaluate it when your Zapier bill starts scaling with workflow complexity rather than with business volume, or when a compliance requirement rules out sending your data through a third-party cloud.