Agents & automation
n8n
Workflow automation platform for technical teams, with a visual editor, code steps, AI agent nodes, and cloud or self-hosted deployment.
What n8n does
n8n connects apps and services into automated workflows that you build on a visual canvas. Workflows start from triggers such as webhooks or queues and pass data through a chain of steps. The GitHub README counts more than 1,500 integrations, and steps can also run JavaScript or Python, call any HTTP or GraphQL API, or import a cURL command.
For AI work, n8n has an AI Agent node, AI steps, an MCP Server Trigger and an MCP client, human approval for tool calls, and evaluations for testing AI workflows. The editor shows each step's inputs and outputs beside its settings, lets you re-run a single step, and can replay or mock data so you are not waiting on external systems.
You can use n8n Cloud or host it yourself with Docker, Docker Compose or npm. The free self-hosted Community edition has almost the complete feature set; paid Business and Enterprise license keys unlock SSO, environments, Git version control and similar team features. The code is public on GitHub under n8n's Sustainable Use License and n8n Enterprise License, which n8n describes as fair-code. Pricing counts full workflow executions, not individual steps or users.
n8n suits IT, security and DevOps teams and developers who want automation they can extend with code. People without technical experience are pointed to n8n Cloud, since self-hosting means running your own infrastructure.
- Onboarding new employees across several internal systems.
- Enriching security incident tickets with data from other tools.
- Building AI agents that call tools and APIs, with human approval steps.
- Connecting SaaS apps and internal APIs with webhooks and custom code.
Who should use it
- Technical teams that want visual workflows with code when needed.
- Organizations that need to self-host automation on their own infrastructure.
Who should look elsewhere
- Non-technical users who want to self-host; the docs say self-hosting requires technical expertise.
- Teams that want a permanent free hosted plan; n8n Cloud offers a 14-day trial.
Strengths
- JavaScript and Python code steps run anywhere in a workflow.
- Free self-hosted Community edition with almost the full feature set.
- Pricing is per full workflow execution, with unlimited steps, users and workflows.
- AI agent, MCP and evaluation features are built in.
Limitations
- Cloud Starter allows 5 concurrent executions and a 5-minute maximum execution time.
- SSO, environments and Git version control need a paid Business or Enterprise license.
- The cloud has a 14-day free trial, not a permanent free plan, and the public API is not available during the trial.
- Self-hosted use is governed by n8n's fair-code Sustainable Use License, so check its terms for your use case.
Sources
- AI Workflow Automation Platform - n8nOfficial sitePrimaryn8n.io
- n8n Plans and Pricing - n8n.ioPricing pagePrimaryn8n.io
- n8n DocsOfficial docsPrimarydocs.n8n.io
- docs.n8n.io/choose-how-to-use-n8n.mdOfficial docsPrimary
- docs.n8n.io/connect/n8n-api.mdOfficial docsPrimary
- github.com/n8n-io/n8nRepositoryPrimary
n8n alternatives
JarvisCore
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Open-source Python framework for multi-agent systems with peer-to-peer coordination, layered memory and a credential broker.
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