Free Zapier Alternatives Compared: n8n, Activepieces, Node-RED

n8n is the most popular open automation tool and the most restrictive: its fair-code licence forbids reselling it. Activepieces (MIT) and Node-RED (Apache-2.0) are the only two here you can freely white-label and sell. If your plan is building a product on top of an automation platform, that difference decides everything.

Disclosure: some links below are affiliate links. If you sign up through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes our picks. See our affiliate disclosure.

Key takeaways

• Node-RED (Apache-2.0) and Activepieces Community Edition (MIT) are the only options you can resell.
• n8n is fair-code, not open source. Its licence permits internal use and consulting but forbids reselling.
• Automatisch is AGPL-3.0: you may resell, but you must publish your modifications.
• n8n has by far the most integrations of the open options at 2,116, against Activepieces' 200+.
• Both n8n and Automatisch use .ee. filenames for enterprise-licensed code inside their free repositories.

The four options

Verified via the GitHub API in September 2026.

The licence question, in plain terms

For most people self-hosting an automation tool for their own business, all four are fine. The differences only bite when you want to build something on top and sell it.

n8n's Sustainable Use License permits use "only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use," and distribution "only if you do so free of charge for non-commercial purposes."

That means: automating your own business, yes. Building client workflows as a consultant, yes, explicitly permitted. White-labelling n8n and selling it, no. Hosting it and charging for access, no.

Activepieces Community Edition is MIT, the most permissive common licence. Modify it, rebrand it, sell it closed-source, keep your changes private. Enterprise features sit under a separate commercial licence, but the core is genuinely yours.

Node-RED is Apache-2.0 under the OpenJS Foundation, which is the most institutionally solid option here. Apache-2.0 adds an express patent grant over MIT.

Automatisch is AGPL-3.0. You may resell it, but AGPL's network clause means if you modify it and offer it over a network, you must publish your modifications. Fine for internal use, a real constraint for a closed-source product.

One shared detail: n8n and Automatisch both use .ee. in filenames to mark enterprise-licensed code that sits inside the otherwise-free repository. Those files are not covered by the community licence.

What each is actually good at

n8n has the most integrations at 2,116 and the strongest AI workflow features, with agent nodes and LLM chaining. It bills per workflow execution rather than per step, which matters enormously for long workflows. Our n8n review covers it in full.

Activepieces offers 200+ pieces plus roughly 400 MCP servers for AI agents, which is a genuinely forward-looking angle as agentic tooling grows. Its MIT licence makes it the natural pick for anyone building a product.

Node-RED is different in character. It came from IoT and hardware automation, and it excels at event-driven flows, device integration and anything running on constrained hardware like a Raspberry Pi. It is less oriented toward SaaS app connections than the others.

Automatisch positions itself explicitly as "the open source Zapier alternative." Its integration count is not published, so we cannot give a figure, and that opacity is itself worth noting when comparing.

The honest comparison against paid tools

None of these beats Zapier on integration breadth. Zapier lists 10,045+ apps; Make offers 3,000+.

Where the open options win is billing model and control:

Zapier's free plan allows 100 tasks monthly, which a 10-step workflow exhausts in ten runs. Self-hosted automation has no such ceiling.

The tradeoff is that you now run a server. Our n8n versus Zapier and Make comparison covers the full cost maths.

What self-hosting actually costs

Not licence fees, but everything else.

You will handle Docker, a database choice, a reverse proxy, TLS certificates, backups, updates and security patching. n8n's own documentation marks technical expertise as "required for installation and configuration", against "none required" for its cloud offering.

Be sceptical of the setup-cost figures circulating online. Most come from companies selling managed hosting for these tools, which makes their break-even arithmetic marketing rather than analysis.

A realistic view: if you already run servers, adding one more service is genuinely cheap. If you do not, a managed pod or a cloud plan is usually the better trade once you count your own time and the cost of a broken automation at an awkward moment.

Getting started faster

For n8n specifically, awesome-n8n-templates on GitHub offers 280+ ready-made workflows across 18 categories, at 25,100 stars and CC-BY-4.0 licensed. Starting from a template removes most of the learning curve, though individual templates may need paid accounts or API keys for the services they touch.

Which should you choose?

Choose n8n if you want the most integrations and the strongest AI features, and you are only automating your own business or building workflows for clients.

Choose Activepieces if you plan to build a product on top, or want MIT licensing with modern agent tooling. This is the right pick for developers shipping something commercial.

Choose Node-RED if you are doing IoT, hardware or event-driven automation, or want the most institutionally stable licence.

Choose Automatisch if you want an explicit Zapier-style tool under AGPL and do not mind publishing modifications.

Stay with Zapier or Make if you need niche integrations or do not want to run infrastructure. Make's free tier of 1,000 credits monthly is the most generous hosted option.

Pick a different category entirely if what you actually want is an AI tool your customers use, not a workflow that runs in the background. Everything above automates steps between services. Pickaxe builds the front end instead: a hosted AI app with its own interface, sign-in and billing. Trying to force a customer-facing product out of an automation tool is a recognisable and expensive detour.

The verdict

The most popular tool here is the most restricted, and that inversion is worth internalising. n8n's 203,000 stars make it look like the obvious open choice, but its licence is the one that says no to reselling.

For self-hosting your own automations, pick on features and n8n usually wins. For building a business on top, pick on licence, and that means Activepieces or Node-RED. Check which question you are actually answering before you commit.

Related reading: n8n review and pricing and n8n versus Zapier and Make.