Independent review · Pricing and billing checked 22 August 2026
n8n: free if you self-host, and it charges per workflow rather than per step
We have no affiliate relationship with n8n. No link on this page earns us anything. Make, which this page compares against throughout, does pay us a commission — and the billing comparison below still comes out in n8n's favour for long workflows. How this works
n8n is an open-source automation platform. You can run it on your own server for nothing, or pay for their cloud and skip the sysadmin work. Around 500 integrations, a visual node-based builder, and — unusually — the ability to drop into JavaScript when the visual tools run out.
It's become a common choice for people building AI agent workflows. It is also the only tool in this category you can run on your own server, which is what makes it free — and what makes it your responsibility — and the only one that doesn't charge you more as a workflow gets longer.
- Best for
- Technical users, and anyone building complex multi-step workflows
- Free plan
- Self-hosted community edition — genuinely free, forever. No free cloud tier, only a trial
- Cloud from
- Around €20/mo annual (€24 monthly)
- Billing unit
- Whole workflow executions, not steps
- Watch for
- Self-hosting is free in licence, not in effort. On cloud, polling burns executions fast
It charges per execution, not per step
This is the single biggest reason to consider n8n, and it's the opposite of how Make bills.
Make charges a credit for every module run, so a five-step scenario costs five times a one-step scenario. n8n charges for the whole workflow execution — a 100-step workflow costs exactly the same as a 5-step one.
If your automations are long or complex, the difference is enormous. It also means you can build properly — add error handling, logging, extra branches — without watching a meter. On credit-based tools, good practice costs money.
Worth stating plainly: Make pays us a commission and n8n pays us nothing, and this is still the strongest cost argument on the site against the tool we earn from.
Pricing
| Option | Cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted | Free | All 500+ integrations and core features. Unlimited executions. You provide the server and the maintenance. |
| Cloud Starter | ~€20–€24 | 2,500 executions/month. Unlimited workflows and users, 5 concurrent executions |
| Cloud Pro | ~€50–€60 | 10,000 executions/month. Unlimited workflows and users, 20 concurrent executions |
| Business | ~€667–€800 | 40,000 executions, SSO, advanced controls. Self-hosted only |
Cloud pricing is quoted in euros, not dollars — unusual in this set, and worth noting if you're budgeting in USD or AUD. Annual billing saves roughly 17%; the lower figure in each range is the annual rate. Cloud has a 14-day free trial with no card required, but no free cloud tier — the free option is self-hosting. Checked 22 August 2026.
n8n removed its active-workflow caps. Older guides — and, until recently, this page — said Starter allowed five workflows and Pro fifteen. Every cloud plan now includes unlimited workflows and unlimited users, so execution volume is the only thing that scales your bill. If you read a five-workflow limit somewhere, it's out of date.
The execution count is what binds — and polling eats it
With the workflow caps gone, the number to plan around is executions. It's easy to underestimate, because a polling trigger runs whether or not anything has changed.
A single workflow checking something every five minutes runs about 8,640 times a month — more than three times the entire Starter allowance, from one automation that may do nothing at all. Webhook-triggered workflows only run when there's something to handle, which is why they're dramatically cheaper on this model.
There's a second ceiling worth knowing: concurrent executions, five on Starter and twenty on Pro. If a lot of workflows fire at once, the surplus queues rather than failing — but bursty workloads can hit that before the monthly allowance is anywhere near spent.
Before choosing a tier, count how your triggers actually fire, not how many automations you plan to build.
"Free" self-hosting isn't free
The community edition costs nothing in licence fees and includes every integration. What it costs is your time and attention: a server to provision, updates to apply, backups to configure, and uptime that's now your problem.
If you're comfortable with Docker and a VPS, that's an evening and then occasional maintenance — an excellent trade. If you're not, you're one broken update away from silently stopped automations and no support to call. The honest question isn't whether you can self-host; it's whether you want to be responsible for it at 11pm.
Only enterprise extras — SSO, advanced permissions, log streaming, dedicated support — are gated to paid tiers. The automation itself is all there.
Who it suits
- Anyone comfortable running their own infrastructure, who wants unlimited automation at zero licence cost
- People building long or complex workflows, where per-execution billing saves the most
- Developers who want to write JavaScript when the visual builder isn't enough — n8n allows it, most competitors don't
- Teams with data they'd rather not route through someone else's cloud
- Anyone building AI agent workflows, where n8n is now a common default
- Anyone whose triggers are mostly webhooks rather than scheduled checks — that's the shape this billing model rewards
Where it's weaker
- Around 500 integrations — the smallest set of the automation tools we cover, against Pabbly's roughly 2,000 and Zapier's roughly 9,000. Check your apps first
- The free path means running and maintaining the server yourself, and the cloud path that removes it starts above both Make's and Pabbly's entry prices
- Self-hosting shifts real operational burden onto you
- On cloud, polling triggers consume the execution allowance whether or not anything happens — one five-minute check can exhaust the Starter tier by itself
- Bursty workloads can hit the concurrent-execution ceiling before the monthly allowance runs out
- AI steps draw on a separate credit allowance, so AI-heavy workflows have two meters to watch rather than one
- Euro pricing adds currency conversion for most of the world
- Community support is good but it isn't a support desk
Probably not for you if
- You want your first automation running this afternoon — the free path starts with provisioning a server
- You don't want to manage a server, and the cloud price is above what the job is worth
- You depend on a specific niche integration that only the bigger libraries carry
- You're at step one of building a business — automation between tools solves a problem you don't have yet
Questions
Is self-hosted really free?
The licence is, and it includes all 500+ integrations with unlimited executions. You pay in server costs (a small VPS is a few dollars a month) and in your own time for setup, updates and backups. It's an excellent deal if you're technical and a poor one if you're not.
How does the billing compare to Make?
Very differently. Make charges per module run, so complexity costs money. n8n charges per whole workflow execution, so a 100-step workflow costs the same as a 5-step one. If your automations are long, n8n is far cheaper. If they're short and numerous, the gap narrows. Disclosure: Make pays us a commission and n8n doesn't — the billing mechanics are documented on both vendors' own pricing pages, so check rather than trust.
What's the catch with the cloud plans?
The execution allowance, and specifically how fast polling triggers spend it. A workflow that checks every five minutes runs roughly 8,640 times a month, which is more than three times what the Starter tier includes — from a single automation that might never find anything to do. Webhook triggers only fire when there's real work, so the same set of automations can cost wildly different amounts depending on how they're built. Count how your triggers fire before choosing a tier. Note that the old active-workflow limits are gone: workflows and users are unlimited on every cloud plan now, whatever older guides say.
Are there other limits I should know about?
Two. Concurrent executions are capped — five on Starter, twenty on Pro — so simultaneous bursts queue rather than running at once. And AI steps draw on a separate monthly credit allowance rather than the execution count, which means AI-heavy workflows have two meters. n8n publishes the current credit figures on its own pricing page, and third-party guides get them badly wrong, so read them at the source.
Why is it priced in euros?
n8n is a German company and prices its cloud in euros. If you're budgeting in dollars, factor in conversion and your bank's rate — it makes direct price comparisons with the US tools slightly awkward.
Do I need to be a developer?
Not strictly — the visual builder handles a lot without code. Two things do set n8n apart from the hosted tools: the free path means you run the server, and the builder lets you drop into JavaScript when the nodes run out. If those read as burdens rather than features, a fully hosted tool will serve you better. We don't rate how hard these tools are to learn, because nobody here has built in them — how we choose explains why.
If it fits, start here
Try the 14-day cloud trial first even if you plan to self-host — it lets you learn the builder without also debugging a server. Build one real workflow, then decide whether the cloud price or the maintenance burden is the better trade for you. Both are legitimate answers.
This link earns us nothing. We have no affiliate relationship with n8n.
Read next: n8n vs Make — per-execution against per-module billing, and the point where one becomes obviously cheaper than the other. Make pays us a commission; n8n doesn't.