n8n
Open-source workflow automation with AI nodes
Overview
n8n is the open-source alternative to Zapier — node-based workflow automation that can be self-hosted. Strong AI-node library (LLM calls, vector stores, agents). Self-hosting is free; cloud-hosted tier for those who don't want to manage infrastructure.
Pricing
Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 11 Jul 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.
- 2,500 executions/mo
- 1 shared project
- 2,300 AI credits/mo
- 10,000 executions/mo
- 3 shared projects
- Up to 13,700 AI credits/mo
- 40,000 executions/mo
- 6 shared projects
- SSO/SAML/LDAP
- Unlimited shared projects
- 365-day insight retention
- SLA support
Use cases
What you can produce with n8n
- Build a multi-step AI agent that calls an LLM, queries a vector store, and writes results to a Google Sheet — all without leaving the visual canvas.
- Automate lead enrichment: trigger on a new HubSpot contact, fetch company data from Clearbit, run a GPT or Claude summarisation node, and post a Slack alert to the sales team.
- Create a self-hosted RSS-to-newsletter pipeline that fetches articles, rewrites them via an LLM node, deduplicates against a Postgres table, and sends a daily digest via SMTP.
- Set up a customer-support ticket triage workflow: ingest emails via IMAP, classify intent with an AI node, route to the correct Zendesk queue, and log SLA timestamps to a database.
- Deploy a document-processing pipeline that extracts text from PDF uploads via webhook, summarises each section using Claude or GPT, and stores structured JSON in Airtable or Notion.
- Orchestrate a CI/CD notification bot: watch a GitHub Actions webhook, parse build status, post rich formatted messages to Discord channels, and page an on-call engineer via PagerDuty on failure.
- Build a price-monitoring agent that scrapes competitor pages on a cron schedule, detects price changes with a code node, updates a Google Sheet, and emails an alert only when the delta exceeds a configurable threshold.
ASEAN Perspective
n8n in Southeast Asia
ASEAN-region availability and pricing notes coming soon. Drop the editorial team a note via /contact/ if you can supply local context (Singapore/Malaysia/Indonesia/Thailand/Vietnam).
n8n is a source-available workflow automation platform that connects hundreds of apps via a visual node editor, with the rare ability to self-host for full data control and add custom code where the UI runs out. Its native AI and LangChain nodes have made it a favorite for building practical LLM agents and automations, and self-hosting can make it dramatically cheaper than per-task SaaS rivals at volume.
It suits developers, technical teams, and ops people who want power and ownership over their automations. Caveats: it is more technical than Zapier or Make, the learning curve is real, and the cloud tier plus enterprise licensing terms need scrutiny. Self-hosting is the big ASEAN win: you can keep data in-region, though support is community-led for the open edition.
What people say
A $2.5 billion valuation on about $40 million of revenue tells you how hot agent-plumbing is right now. n8n's $180 million Series C closed in October 2025, led by Accel with NVIDIA's NVentures joining and Sequoia among the follow-ons, taking total funding to $240 million; Vodafone and Delivery Hero sit on the customer list. For a fair-code project that started life as a Zapier alternative, that's quite a run.
The developer affection is real and specific. The thing reviewers keep naming is the ability to drop JavaScript or Python straight into a node when the visual editor runs out — the exact move Zapier and Make don't allow — and the self-hosted Community Edition stays free with unlimited executions, which is why it's become the default automation layer for LLM agents and AI-heavy workflows running on a cheap VPS.
The complaints are equally consistent. Debugging tops every forum thread: errors surface as empty output from a downstream node with no obvious cause, and silent failures demand real data-structure fluency. The cloud pricing has a canyon in it — Pro at roughly $65/month jumps 13x to Business at $864/month just to get SSO and Git integration, with nothing in between — and hitting a monthly execution cap stops workflows cold rather than throttling them, a genuine continuity risk for schedule-heavy setups. Euro-denominated pricing (Starter from €20/month billed annually) still catches USD budgeters off guard. One real improvement: the active-workflow limits are gone across all cloud tiers. Self-hosting remains the ASEAN win — data stays in-region, though support for the free edition stays community-led.
Summary of public user & expert reviews, compiled by RECATOOLS.
Notable facts
- n8n's founder Jan Oberhauser built the first version in 2 weeks as a side project, frustrated by the per-execution pricing model of commercial automation tools.
- The platform has over 400 pre-built integrations and can connect to any REST API or webhook, making it theoretically capable of automating any digital workflow.
- n8n's AI Agent feature can automatically decide which tools to use from a defined toolkit to complete a goal — enabling autonomous automation without explicit programming of each decision.
Frequently asked questions
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including n8n's official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with n8n unless explicitly stated.
Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
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