Minute Verdict
n8n is a workflow automation platform with a free edition you host yourself and cloud plans from $24 a month, or $20 billed yearly.
Best for: a technical team that wants the workflow to be readable, versioned and owned, with the data on its own infrastructure.
Not for: an operations team without a developer, which will pay for the hosted route and hit the $800 Business tier early.
From: $24/mo billed monthly, checked November 8, 2026
What n8n does
n8n connects applications with workflows you build on a canvas: a trigger, then a chain of nodes that read, transform and send data. Every node is a step you can open, and every step runs in the order you see, which is the argument the company makes on its home page: build the agent, understand its workflow. The same canvas holds an AI agent node, a code step in JavaScript or Python, and a plain HTTP request, so a job that starts as a no-code flow can end as a script without moving to another tool.
The integration count is the part buyers ask about first. n8n advertises more than 500 native integrations, and anything missing goes through an HTTP request node with the credentials stored in n8n. The template library is separate from that count and carried 14,004 community workflows on November 8, 2026, which is the practical answer to the question of whether a specific job has already been built by someone else.
The AI side is built on LangChain, which n8n documents as the layer under its agent nodes. OpenAI, Anthropic and Google models connect with a key, and a model can also be used through n8n’s own gateway credits without a key on Starter. MCP appears twice: an MCP client node that lets an agent call external tools, and an MCP server trigger that exposes an n8n workflow as a tool to another assistant. Human approval can be required before a tool call runs, which matters more than the model choice for anyone wiring an agent into production.
The company is n8n GmbH, registered in Berlin, with Jan Oberhauser as managing director according to its imprint. The product is open source in the sense that the code is public and self-hostable, with a sustainable use licence rather than an OSI licence, and the repository carried more than 209,000 stars on GitHub when the pricing page was read.
On this page
What you get for the money
| Plan | Price | What is included | The limit that matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $24 monthly, $20 billed yearly | 2,500 executions a month, 1 shared project, 5 concurrent executions, agent and MCP nodes, 1,600 Assistant credits a month | 2,500 executions is roughly 80 a day |
| Pro | $60 monthly, $50 billed yearly | 10,000 executions, 3 shared projects, up to 50 concurrent executions, workflow history, metric-based evaluations | The concurrent limit is shared across the instance |
| Business | $800 monthly, self-hosted only | 40,000 executions, 6 projects, SSO and LDAP, queue mode, Git version control, 30 days of insights | Self-hosted only, and the annual view keeps the same figure |
| Enterprise | Quote only | Custom execution volume, 200 or more concurrent executions, 365 days of insights, external secret store, log streaming, support with an SLA | No published price |
| Community | Free, self-hosted | The same core product, no licence key, installed with Docker, npm or a one-line script | You run it, patch it and back it up |
Starter buys 2,500 finished executions a month for $24, and the yearly option turns that into $240, which is the price of ten months for twelve. Pro doubles nothing except the ceiling: $60 monthly or $600 a year for four times the executions and the workflow history that Starter does not include. Business multiplies the price by more than thirteen for four times the volume of Pro, and it is sold on your own infrastructure only, so $9,600 a year is the figure to budget for the hosted features it does not have.
Two details change the arithmetic. Executions are counted when a workflow runs from start to finish, so a 60-node flow and a 3-node flow cost the same, and every plan states unlimited steps. And a company under 20 employees can ask for the Startup plan, which halves Business, bringing the tier to a range that a small team can justify.
Where it falls short
- Business is not available on n8n’s servers. SSO, LDAP, queue mode, Git version control and multiple environments are listed on Business, and the plan is sold self-hosted only, with a waiting list for the hosted version. The features that make n8n acceptable to an IT department are therefore the ones that require you to run the server.
- The price curve is steep above Pro. Starter to Pro multiplies the volume by four and the price by two and a half. Pro to Business multiplies the volume by four and the price by more than thirteen, from $60 to $800 a month, which is the point where a growing team starts comparing the bill against Zapier.
- The annual saving does not show on Business. The page advertises 17 percent off for yearly billing, and the annual view keeps $800 a month for Business, the same figure as the monthly price.
- 500 integrations is not 9,000. Zapier advertises more than 9,000 apps and n8n more than 500 native nodes. Anything outside that list is an HTTP request with hand-written authentication, which is fine for a developer and a blocker for an ops team.
- The free edition has no support. Forum support is listed on Starter, Pro and Business, and the Community edition is the same code without a contract. A company that runs it internally is its own support desk, including for upgrades that change a node’s behaviour.
n8n alternatives
- Zapier, from $19.99 a month billed yearly: more than 9,000 apps, no server to run, and per-task pricing that punishes long workflows, listed in the productivity hub.
- Microsoft Power Automate, $15 per user a month paid yearly: the choice when the data already lives in Microsoft 365 and Dataverse, with desktop flows for applications that have no API, listed in the tools directory.
- Node-RED, no licence fee at all: an open-source flow editor on Node.js for event-driven automation, worth weighing against the $24 n8n Starter month only if you are happy to install and maintain it, in the tools directory.
Who it is for: n8n
n8n fits a team with at least one person who can read a stack trace. The value shows up in the second month, when a workflow needs a code step, a retry or a diff before a change goes live, and when the database has to stay in a network the team controls. Agencies like it for the same reason: one licence, many client workflows, and an audit trail that shows what ran.
It is a poor fit for a solo operator who wants automation without infrastructure, because the honest version runs on a server that someone has to patch. It is also a poor fit for a company that needs SSO and audit logs on day one, since those sit on Business, which is self-hosted only, and for a team whose workflows are short and numerous, where Zapier’s task pricing is easier to forecast than an execution ceiling.
How we checked
This is a research review: nobody on this site has run n8n, which is why the label follows how we test and carries no score. We read the pricing page in both billing views on November 8, 2026, plus the home page, the template library, the self-hosting documentation, the AI documentation, the affiliate page and the imprint the same day. We did not install the Community edition, build a workflow, connect a credential or pay for a cloud plan, so execution speed, node reliability and support response are not measured here. A hands-on test would replace the plan reading with a measured cost per workflow, and the prices would be checked again at that point.
What to do next
Install the Community edition on a spare server before you look at the cloud plans, because the free version answers the question that matters: whether the canvas fits the way your team thinks. If it does and you do not want to run it, take Starter for one month at $24 rather than committing to $240 a year, and move to Pro only when the execution count, not the feature list, is what stops you. The tools directory lists the rest of what we have priced if you want the comparison against Zapier and Power Automate first.
FAQ
How much does n8n cost? Starter is $24 a month billed monthly, or $20 billed yearly for $240 a year. Pro is $60 monthly or $50 billed yearly, Business is $800 a month and self-hosted only, and Enterprise is quoted. The Community edition is free if you host it.
Is n8n free? The Community edition is free and runs without a licence key on your own server, with Docker, npm or a one-line script. The cloud plans are paid, and the free trial needs no card.
Does n8n count steps or workflows? Executions. Every plan states unlimited steps inside an execution, and an execution stops counting when it fails before it finishes.
Can I self-host a paid plan? Yes. Business and Enterprise can be licensed on your own infrastructure, and Business is sold that way only. The cloud version covers Starter, Pro and Enterprise.
Do the AI agent nodes cost extra? No. The agent node, the MCP server trigger and the MCP client are included from Starter, with 1,600 Assistant credits a month on Starter and up to 9,600 on Pro.
Is there an n8n affiliate program? Yes. n8n pays 30 percent on n8n Cloud subscriptions for twelve months, and anyone can apply.
Sources
Sources
- n8n.io/pricing (checked November 8, 2026), the five plans, both billing views, the execution volumes and the concurrency limits
- n8n.io (checked November 8, 2026), the positioning, the 500 native integrations, the AI governance blocks and the GitHub star count
- n8n.io/workflows (checked November 8, 2026), the 14,004 community workflow templates
- docs.n8n.io/hosting (checked November 8, 2026), the self-hosting routes and the Community edition running without a licence key
- docs.n8n.io/advanced-ai (checked November 8, 2026), the LangChain layer, the model providers and the MCP servers
- n8n.io/imprint (checked November 8, 2026), the company name, the Berlin address and the managing director
Update log
Published November 8, 2026 as a research review. Prices, execution volumes and billing views read on the same day.
