Quick Answer
n8n is the most popular open automation platform with 203,000 GitHub stars, and it is not open source. Its fair-code Sustainable Use License permits internal business use and client consulting but forbids reselling n8n itself. Self-hosting is free in licence fees but not in setup time.
n8n is the most popular open automation platform with 203,000 GitHub stars, and it is not open source. It uses a "fair-code" Sustainable Use License that permits internal business use and client consulting but forbids reselling n8n itself. Self-hosting is free in licence fees, though not in setup time, and n8n's own documentation is candid that technical expertise is required.
Key takeaways
- n8n is fair-code, not open source. Its Sustainable Use License restricts what you may do commercially.
- Internal business use is explicitly permitted, and so is building client workflows as a consultant.
- Reselling n8n or hosting it for paying customers is not. That is the actual line.
- n8n bills per workflow execution, while Zapier bills per task, so a 10-step workflow is 1 execution but ~10 tasks.
- n8n Cloud starts at €20/month; self-hosting is free but n8n itself says technical expertise is "required."
What n8n actually is
n8n is a workflow automation platform: you connect apps and services into flows that run automatically. Its integration library covers 2,116 integrations by its own count, and it has moved heavily into AI, with agent nodes and LLM integrations.
It comes two ways. n8n Cloud is hosted, starting at €20 a month. Self-hosted n8n is free software you run yourself.
The self-hosted version is what draws people, and it comes with a licence question most articles get wrong in both directions.
The licence: fair-code, not open source
This is the fact worth knowing before you build a business on it.
n8n's own LICENSE.md states the software is under the Sustainable Use License, with three limitations, quoted directly:
- "You may use or modify the software only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use."
- "You may distribute the software or provide it to others only if you do so free of charge for non-commercial purposes."
- "You may not alter, remove, or obscure any licensing, copyright, or other notices."
Fair-code is not open source. The faircode.io site says so plainly: fair-code software is "commercially restricted by its authors." Other fair-code licences include the BSL, Elastic License 2.0 and SSPL.
What you can and cannot do
n8n defines "internal business purposes" as everything unless you are selling a product or service whose value derives entirely or substantially from n8n functionality.
| Scenario | Allowed |
|---|---|
| Self-host to automate your own business | Yes |
| Agency builds n8n workflows for clients as consulting | Yes, explicitly permitted |
| Build n8n nodes or integrations for your product | Yes |
| n8n as a backend where users supply their own credentials | Generally yes |
| White-label n8n and sell it | No |
| Host n8n and charge people for access | No |
A common myth corrected: many articles claim the licence "prohibits commercial use." That is wrong. Internal commercial use is expressly permitted, and consulting was explicitly unblocked in the March 2022 licence revision. The line is reselling n8n, not earning money while using n8n.
One detail worth noting: files with .ee. in the filename sit under a separate Enterprise License even inside the free repository. Automatisch uses the same convention.
Licensing questions go to n8n directly at their published licence address. This is not legal advice.
The pricing model nobody explains properly
Comparing n8n to Zapier on headline price misses the point. The billing unit differs, and that is where the real cost lives.
| Platform | Bills per | A 10-step workflow costs |
|---|---|---|
| Zapier | Task (one step) | ~10 tasks |
| Make | Credit (one module run) | ~10 credits |
| n8n | Workflow execution | 1 execution |
Zapier's free plan allows 100 tasks a month. A modest 10-step workflow exhausts that in ten runs. n8n self-hosted has no execution limit at all.
That is the genuine argument for n8n, and it is much stronger than any headline price comparison.
n8n Cloud pricing (annual billing, in euros):
| Plan | Price | Executions |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | €20/mo | 2,500, 5 concurrent |
| Pro | €50/mo | 10,000, 20 concurrent |
| Business | €667/mo | 40,000, self-hosted option, SSO |
| Enterprise | Custom | n/a |
How hard is self-hosting really?
n8n's own documentation is unusually honest here. For self-hosting, technical expertise is marked "Required for installation and configuration." For Cloud it is "None required."
What self-hosting actually means: Docker, choosing between SQLite and PostgreSQL, a reverse proxy, TLS certificates, backups, updates and security patching. All yours.
For a non-technical small business owner, the realistic entry point is either n8n Cloud or a managed pod from a hosting provider, which run a few dollars a month. Buying a VPS to save €20 is a false economy once you count your own time.
Note that cost estimates circulating for self-hosting mostly come from companies selling managed n8n hosting, so treat their break-even maths as marketing rather than analysis.
Getting started faster
One genuinely useful free resource: awesome-n8n-templates on GitHub, with 25,100 stars and 280+ ready-made workflow templates across 18 categories including Gmail, Telegram, Google Drive, WordPress, Slack, Notion, Airtable and OpenAI integrations.
It is CC-BY-4.0, so free to use with attribution. The caveat is that individual templates may require paid accounts or API keys for whichever services they touch.
Starting from a template rather than a blank canvas removes most of the learning curve.
The AI angle
n8n has invested heavily in AI workflows, with agent nodes, LLM chaining and vector store integrations. Its Cloud plans include AI credits, from 2,300 on Starter to 13,700 on Pro.
Self-hosted, you supply your own API keys and pay the model provider directly. That can be cheaper: our guide to open source LLM API pricing covers models at a fraction of frontier rates, and you can point n8n at a local model via Ollama for zero marginal cost.
Who should use n8n?
Self-host n8n if you run workflows with many steps where Zapier's per-task billing gets expensive, you are comfortable operating a server, or you need data to stay on your own infrastructure.
Use n8n Cloud if you want the execution-based pricing without running servers. At €20 a month it is competitive with Zapier's paid tiers while being far more generous on multi-step workflows.
Use Zapier if you need the widest integration coverage (10,045 apps against n8n's 2,116) and your workflows are short.
Look at alternatives if the licence matters: Activepieces is MIT and Node-RED is Apache-2.0, both of which permit reselling. Our comparison of free Zapier alternatives covers them.
The verdict
n8n is excellent software and the execution-based billing is a genuine advantage for anyone running multi-step automations. For most small businesses the licence restriction never comes up.
But it deserves to be described accurately. With 203,000 stars it is probably the most widely mislabelled tool in this category, and if you were planning to build a product on top of it and sell that, the licence says no. Read it before you plan around it.
Related reading: n8n versus Zapier and Make and best AI productivity tools.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is n8n open source?
No. n8n uses a fair-code Sustainable Use License, which the fair-code project itself describes as commercially restricted by its authors. The source is public and you may modify it, but it is not an OSI-approved open-source licence.
Can you use n8n commercially?
Yes for internal business purposes, and yes for building client workflows as a consultant, which n8n explicitly permits. What you cannot do is white-label n8n or host it and charge people for access. The line is reselling n8n itself, not earning money while using it.
How much does n8n cost?
n8n Cloud starts at €20 a month for 2,500 executions on annual billing, with Pro at €50 for 10,000 and Business at €667. Self-hosting is free in licence fees but you pay for a server and your own setup time.
Is n8n cheaper than Zapier?
Usually, for multi-step workflows. n8n bills per workflow execution while Zapier bills per task, so a 10-step workflow costs 1 n8n execution but around 10 Zapier tasks. Zapier's free plan of 100 tasks can be exhausted by ten runs of a modest workflow.
Is self-hosting n8n hard?
n8n's own documentation marks technical expertise as required for installation and configuration, against none required for Cloud. You handle Docker, database choice, reverse proxy, TLS, backups and updates. For non-technical users, Cloud or a managed pod is the realistic option.