n8n is best for technical freelancers, small agencies and teams wanting to self-host. Its clearest advantage: Free forever if you self-host.
- Avoid if
- complete beginners who want the easiest possible setup
- Cheapest useful plan
- €24.00/mo · Starter
- Free plan
- Yes
- Setup effort
- moderate: 1-2 hr
- Main limitation
- Self-hosting means you own the maintenance and uptime
- Free forever if you self-host
- Priced per execution, not per step
- Unlimited users and workflows on every paid plan
- complete beginners who want the easiest possible setup
- teams with nobody willing to maintain a server
What it actually does
Visual workflow builder, self-hostable community edition, AI agents and the n8n Assistant, execution-based pricing, unlimited users on all plans.
Before you pay
Self-hosted or cloud
n8n is free forever if you host it yourself, but then the maintenance and uptime are yours. The cloud plans remove that work. Pricing counts workflow executions, not steps or users: every plan includes unlimited users and workflows.
What a year costs
Starter is 24 € a month billed monthly, 288 € a year, for 2,500 executions, or 20 € billed yearly, 240 € a year. Pro is 60 € a month billed monthly, 720 € a year. Business is 800 € a month. Our first reading, on 6 August, took the yearly figure; the record holds the monthly price since 13 September, a correction rather than a price rise.
What we would check before paying
Whether someone on the team can run a server: if so, self-hosting removes the bill. The integration catalogue is smaller than Zapier's, so check the apps you need first.
What changed recently
n8n 2.45: the monday.com node V2 reaches full parity with V1 (39 operations) and becomes the default. Source ↗
n8n 2.44: Google Vertex AI credentials and a rebuilt command bar (Cmd+K). Source ↗
n8n 2.43: Browser Use is available to all users. Source ↗
Read on each vendor's official changelog, not tested by us.
The limits to know
- Self-hosting means you own the maintenance and uptime
- Steeper learning curve than the mainstream no-code tools
- Smaller integration catalogue than Zapier
Pricing & billing commitment
- Rate on record
- €24.00/mo · Starter
- What that figure is
- Month-to-month rate per account, read on the vendor's monthly view. The plan is capped by an allowance (credits, tasks or minutes) rather than by time.
- Commitment
- None: payable one month at a time
- The vendor's exact condition
- €24/month billed monthly; €20/month billed annually. The self-hosted community edition stays free
- Usage cap
- This plan is capped by an allowance (credits, tasks or minutes), not only by time. Going past it costs extra or stops the work, depending on the vendor.
The pricing page, as read
In practice
- Platforms
- Web, Self-hosted, Docker
- Integrations
- 400+ integrations, HTTP / webhook, Self-hosted databases
- Setup
- moderate: 1-2 hr
n8n in our comparisons
Alternatives to n8n
Compare side by side:n8n / Maken8n / Zapiern8n / Airtable
Frequently asked questions
What is n8n?
n8n is a tool from n8n GmbH, used mainly for client workflow automation, AI steps in flows, self-hosted data pipelines. Main features: visual workflow builder, self-hostable community edition, AI agents and the n8n Assistant. It has a permanent free plan; the paid entry point is €24.00/mo · Starter.
How much does n8n cost?
The paid entry point is €24.00/mo · Starter. Month-to-month rate per account, read on the vendor's monthly view. The plan is capped by an allowance (credits, tasks or minutes) rather than by time. The exact condition attached to that figure: €24/month billed monthly; €20/month billed annually. The self-hosted community edition stays free. Read on the official pricing page on 25.10.2026. Prices move quickly: confirm before subscribing.
Does n8n have a free plan?
Yes. n8n publishes a permanent free plan. Check this before settling on it: self-hosting means you own the maintenance and uptime.
What devices and tools does n8n work with?
According to the vendor's documentation, n8n runs on: Web, Self-hosted, Docker. Documented integrations: 400+ integrations, HTTP / webhook, Self-hosted databases. Listed from the official sources, not tested by us: check your own setup on the free plan.
How we checked this record
The evidence record
- Evidence level
- Vendor documented: Official documentation and pricing page reviewed and dated. No independent verification, no hands-on test recorded.
- Affiliate status
- No affiliate link on this record, no commission.
Hands-on test
No automated hands-on test has been completed for this review cycle. This record rests on the vendor's official documentation and pricing page, re-read and dated. We say so rather than imply otherwise.
The research record
Read on the vendor's monthly view, from France; screenshot kept
Read on the vendor's monthly view, from France
Corrected to the month-to-month figure already recorded in this record's own billing condition
Published by us from the vendor's annual view: our error, read on 2026-08-06
Sources
The official pages this record rests on. No tracking links here: these addresses name the vendor.
Evidence freshness
Each kind of check has its own clock and its own threshold. A price ages in weeks and a feature list in months; sharing one date between them would let an old review pass for a recent check.
| Check | When | State |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Checked 18 days ago | Fresh |
| Features | Checked 18 days ago | Fresh |
| Privacy & data | Never checked | Not independently checked |
| Hands-on test | Never checked | Not independently checked |
| Page review | Checked 98 days ago | Due soon |
What remains unverified
- No workflow was run inside the product. Everything here comes from the vendor's documentation and public pages.
- Data handling and the privacy policy were not independently verified during this research cycle. We therefore publish no conclusion about security or where data is stored.
- Export terms and the real cost of leaving are not on this record: we have not tested them.