What is n8n?
n8n is a workflow automation platform for building business processes, system integrations, and AI agents. Its visual editor lets teams arrange triggers, actions, logic, and code as connected workflow steps. Users can inspect individual steps, review previous runs, replay executions, mock data, and examine logs to understand how an automation behaved.
The platform supports both n8n-hosted cloud plans and self-hosted deployment. A Community Edition is also available for standard self-hosting. Workflows can connect to more than 500 native integrations, call other services through HTTP or GraphQL, and interact with agents or coding assistants through MCP.
Key Features
- Visual workflow builder: Teams can create readable, multi-step automations in a node-based editor while adding JavaScript or Python code where custom logic is required.
- AI agent tools: n8n includes AI Agent nodes, AI steps, MCP client and server capabilities, hosted chat, evaluations, and human approval for tool calls.
- Integration options: Workflows can use native integrations, webhooks, queues, APIs, imported cURL commands, and custom requests to connect business systems.
- Execution inspection: Users can watch active agents, open past runs, review logs, replay executions, and test workflows with mocked data.
- Deployment and governance: Depending on the plan, n8n offers cloud or self-hosted deployment, SSO, LDAP, role-based permissions, Git version control, separate environments, audit logs, and external secret stores.
- Developer controls: The platform provides API and CLI access, code steps, and self-hosted options for bash scripts, custom nodes, and tracing.
Use Cases
- Build AI agents with visible steps, approval checkpoints, and evaluation workflows.
- Automate employee onboarding across workplace and project management applications.
- Process operational tasks such as invoices, refund requests, and recurring reports.
- Connect internal tools and APIs to automate security, sales, IT, and DevOps processes.
Pricing
n8n uses a freemium model. Its self-hosted Community Edition is available through GitHub. Paid plans are based on completed monthly workflow executions and include unlimited users, workflows, steps, and integrations. When billed annually, Starter is €20 per month for 2,500 executions, Pro is €50 per month for 10,000 executions, and the self-hosted Business plan is €667 per month for 40,000 executions. Enterprise pricing is custom. Starter, Pro, and Business offer free trials without requiring a credit card.
Who Is It For?
n8n is designed for developers, technical operations teams, automation specialists, and businesses that need configurable workflows without giving up access to code. It also fits organizations that require self-hosting, controlled AI actions, detailed execution records, or enterprise governance features.
