Is n8n actually open source?

No, not in the OSI sense. n8n is fair-code, distributed under the Sustainable Use License and the n8n Enterprise License. The source is available and you can self-host it, but the licence limits you to your own internal business purposes or to non-commercial and personal use, and you may only pass the software on to others free of charge for non-commercial purposes. If you need a licence that permits resale or hosting the tool as a service for third parties, n8n is not it.

What is the best open source alternative to n8n?

It depends what you are building. Activepieces ships its Community Edition under the MIT license and is the closest visual match to n8n. Kestra and Node-RED are both Apache 2.0. Kestra suits declarative pipeline orchestration written in YAML, and Node-RED suits event-driven flows, including on small hardware. All three are genuine OSI-approved licences, which n8n is not.

What is the best n8n alternative for self-hosting?

Activepieces if you want the same drag-and-drop building experience under a permissive licence. Windmill or Kestra if your team would rather write scripts or YAML than click a canvas. Node-RED if you are wiring events, devices or MQTT and want the smallest possible footprint. Make, Zapier and Pipedream cannot be self-hosted at all.

Is there an n8n alternative with more integrations?

Zapier claims 9,000-plus apps on its Agents page, well ahead of the 1500-plus that the n8n GitHub readme claims, checked on 10 September 2026. Treat those counts as a rough signal rather than a decision. Any of these tools can call an undocumented API through a generic HTTP request step, so the count only matters for services where you want authentication and pagination handled for you.

What is the cheapest n8n alternative?

Self-hosting a permissively licensed tool such as Activepieces, Kestra or Node-RED costs you the server and nothing else, which is the same economics as self-hosted n8n Community edition. Among the hosted options, Make, Zapier, Activepieces Cloud and Pipedream all have free tiers, but they meter different things, so the cheapest one depends entirely on the shape of your workflows.

Should I switch from n8n to Make or Zapier?

Only if you want to stop running a server, or you need an integration they maintain and n8n does not. In exchange you give up data residency and self-hosting, and you start paying per unit of work: Zapier bills per task, and Make bills in credits where each module action counts as one credit. For high-volume workflows that arithmetic usually runs against you.

n8n Alternatives: 7 Real Options, Compared Honestly

Most posts about n8n alternatives are affiliate lists with a predetermined winner. This is not that. I run n8n on my own servers and I help other people do the same, so I have an obvious bias, and the useful thing I can do is name it up front and then be accurate anyway.

Everything below was checked on 10 September 2026 against vendor pricing pages, licence files and official documentation. Where I could not verify a claim I say so rather than filling the gap. These products change their plans and their marketing regularly, so read the current pricing page before you commit money.

Why People Look For n8n Alternatives

Five reasons come up over and over, and only one of them is really about n8n being bad.

The licence. n8n is fair-code, distributed under the Sustainable Use License and a separate Enterprise License. The source is visible, you can self-host it, and you can modify it. What you cannot do is use it beyond your own internal business purposes, or hand a modified copy to someone else on commercial terms. That is source available, not open source, and if your organisation has a policy requiring OSI-approved licences, n8n fails it. That is a real constraint, not a technicality.

You want a fully permissive tool. Related but distinct. Some teams simply want MIT or Apache 2.0 so the question never comes up again.

You do not want to run a server. Self-hosting n8n means Docker, a reverse proxy, a Postgres database, backups and upgrades. Some people genuinely should not be doing that.

You need an integration n8n does not have. The n8n GitHub readme claims 1500-plus integrations. Zapier claims over 9,000 apps. If the one you need sits in that gap, no amount of self-hosting virtue helps you.

You want code-first orchestration. A visual canvas is a poor fit for a team that already writes Python and wants workflows in version control as plain text.

What To Look For In An n8n Alternative

Four questions decide this, and feature checklists mostly do not.

Licence. Is it OSI-approved, source available, or closed? If you are switching because of the licence, check the actual LICENSE file rather than the marketing page. Several vendors say "open source" while shipping a core with proprietary parts bolted in.
Hosting model. Can you run it on your own hardware, is it hosted only, or both? This determines where your credentials and customer data live.
Cost model. What is the meter? Per task, per operation, per execution, per credit, per seat, or the flat cost of a server. Two tools with similar sticker prices can differ by an order of magnitude once your workflows have a lot of steps.
The shape of the work. Wiring SaaS apps together, orchestrating data pipelines, reacting to device events and running background jobs are four different jobs. Most tools here are good at one or two of them.

Comparison Table

Tool	Licence	Hosting	Cost model	Best for
n8n	Fair-code: Sustainable Use + Enterprise License	Self-host or cloud	Server cost when self-hosted; cloud billed per execution	Self-hosters who want a visual canvas
Make	Proprietary	Hosted only	Credits, one per module action	Visual builders who want zero ops
Zapier	Proprietary	Hosted only	Per task	Widest app coverage, non-technical teams
Activepieces	MIT (Community Edition), commercial for enterprise	Self-host or cloud	Credits, one per run regardless of steps	The permissive-licence version of n8n
Windmill	AGPLv3 core, with proprietary parts in the CE build	Self-host or cloud	Free self-hosted within quotas; seat-based on paid tiers	Teams who would rather write scripts
Pipedream	Proprietary platform, public component registry	Hosted only	Credits by compute time, not by step count	Developers who want code steps without ops
Node-RED	Apache 2.0	Self-host only	Your server, nothing else	Event-driven flows, devices, MQTT
Kestra	Apache 2.0 (open source edition)	Self-host or cloud	Free open source edition; Cloud and Enterprise priced separately	Declarative data and infrastructure pipelines

The Seven, In Detail

Make

Make is the closest like-for-like swap for n8n if the only thing you want to lose is the server. It is a hosted visual builder with a Free plan that its pricing page says has no time limit, then Core, Pro, Teams and Enterprise tiers. Its AI assistant is Maia by Make.

The thing to understand before you switch is the meter. Make's pricing page states that each module action in a scenario counts as one credit, so a scenario with twelve steps costs twelve credits every time it runs. That arithmetic is the single most common reason people end up back at self-hosting. Check the current terms on the Make pricing page and multiply by your real step count, not your workflow count. We go deeper on this in n8n vs Make and the Make tool page.

Better than n8n when: you want a polished visual builder and refuse to own infrastructure.

Zapier

Zapier now positions itself as AI orchestration rather than app connection, and its agent product is called Zapier Agents. It claims over 9,000 apps, which is the largest number in this comparison by a wide margin. Plans run Free, Professional, Team and Enterprise, billed per task.

Zapier is genuinely better than n8n at one thing: breadth of maintained connectors, especially for the long tail of business software no open source project will ever prioritise. It is also the easiest for a non-technical colleague to pick up unaided. What you give up is self-hosting, data residency and any control over the cost curve. Details on the Zapier pricing page, and our take in Zapier vs n8n and Zapier vs Make.

Better than n8n when: you need an integration nobody else maintains, or the person building the workflow is not technical.

Activepieces

If your only problem with n8n is the licence, start here. Activepieces ships its Community Edition under the MIT license, with enterprise features under a separate commercial licence. It is a visual builder, it self-hosts, and its cloud offering runs the same core.

Its cost model is the most builder-friendly of the hosted options: one credit covers a whole run however many steps it contains, so adding steps to a workflow does not multiply the bill. AI steps consume more. Whether it can replace n8n for you comes down to connector coverage for your specific stack, which you should test rather than assume. See the Activepieces pricing page.

Better than n8n when: you need an OSI-approved licence and want to keep a visual canvas.

Windmill

Windmill describes itself as a developer platform for APIs, background jobs, workflows and UIs. You write TypeScript, Python, Go, Bash or SQL scripts, and Windmill handles scheduling, retries, permissions and generated UIs around them.

The licence needs care. The README says Windmill is fully open-sourced under AGPLv3, but the licence section is more precise: the Community Edition images distributed on ghcr.io contain the AGPLv3 and Apache 2 sources plus proprietary, non-public code, and you may not sell it, resell it, or serve it as a managed service without an agreement. Self-hosting for your own use is free, with quotas on workspaces and users. Read the Windmill pricing page and the LICENSE file before you assume it is fully permissive.

Better than n8n when: your team writes code and finds a visual canvas slower than an editor.

Pipedream

Pipedream is a hosted developer platform where workflows are sequences of steps, and any step can be arbitrary Node.js or Python. There is a large public registry of prebuilt components, and a free plan with a daily credit allowance.

Its meter is the most interesting one here. Pipedream's docs state that it charges one credit per 30 seconds of compute time at the default 256MB of memory per workflow segment, and explicitly that it does not bill by number of steps. Building and testing in the workflow builder costs nothing. That model rewards short, efficient workflows and punishes long-running ones, which is the opposite of the per-step models. Details in the Pipedream pricing docs.

Better than n8n when: you want to write real code in a step but have no interest in running a server.

Node-RED

Node-RED is an OpenJS Foundation project under Apache 2.0. It describes itself as "low-code programming for event-driven applications", and that framing is accurate: it was built for wiring together hardware, APIs and message brokers, and it is still the default choice in the IoT and home-automation world.

It runs happily on a Raspberry Pi. There is no vendor, no plan and no meter, so your total cost is whatever you were already paying for the machine. What it is not is a business-app connector: there is no maintained catalogue of a thousand SaaS integrations, and you will be building more of the plumbing yourself.

Better than n8n when: you are reacting to MQTT, serial or device events, or running on hardware too small for a Docker stack with Postgres.

Kestra

Kestra is an open-source, event-driven orchestration platform for data, AI and infrastructure workflows, licensed Apache 2.0. Workflows are declarative YAML, so they diff cleanly, review well in pull requests and belong in your existing repository rather than in a database. There are Open Source, Cloud and Enterprise editions, and upgrading is a matter of adding a licence key.

This is a different category from n8n rather than a replacement for it. If your workload is scheduled and event-driven pipelines with real dependency management, Kestra is built for that and n8n is not. If your workload is "when a form is submitted, update the CRM and send a Slack message", Kestra is overkill.

Better than n8n when: you are orchestrating data or infrastructure pipelines and want workflows as reviewable text.

If You Are Leaving n8n Because Of X, Consider Y

The licence is not OSI approved. Activepieces for a visual builder, Kestra or Node-RED for Apache 2.0. Do not assume Windmill solves this; its Community Edition build is not purely open source.
The self-hosted bill is server maintenance you did not sign up for. Activepieces Cloud keeps the permissive licence. Make or Zapier if you will trade licence and data control for genuinely zero ops.
Cloud execution pricing surprised you. Compare meters honestly. Per-run pricing at Activepieces, compute-time pricing at Pipedream, and per-module-action pricing at Make behave very differently as your workflows grow. Also check whether self-hosting n8n Community edition solves it, because it is free and covers almost the complete feature set.
A connector you need does not exist. Zapier has the widest catalogue. Before switching, try n8n's generic HTTP Request node against the vendor's API, which handles most cases.
Your engineers refuse to build in a canvas. Windmill, Kestra or Pipedream. This is a legitimate preference, not stubbornness.
The visual editor is slow with big workflows. Splitting into sub-workflows usually fixes this without a migration. Our performance guide covers it.

Recommendation By Use Case

Solo builder or small agency, self-hosting, wants a permissive licence: Activepieces. It is the honest answer to "n8n but MIT".

Non-technical team, no infrastructure, maximum app coverage: Zapier. It costs more per unit of work and that is the trade you are making.

Business team that wants a visual builder without owning a server: Make, with the credit arithmetic done in advance.

Engineering team orchestrating data or infrastructure: Kestra for pipelines, Windmill for background jobs and internal tooling.

Developer who wants code steps and zero ops: Pipedream.

Hardware, MQTT or edge deployments: Node-RED.

Everyone else: stay on n8n. If your objection was cost rather than licence, self-hosted Community edition is free and gets you almost the complete feature set, and our pricing breakdown explains exactly where the paid line sits.

When n8n Is Still The Better Choice

I said I would not let n8n win every row, and it does not. But it wins two specific ones.

It is the only tool here that combines a mature visual canvas, a large maintained connector catalogue, first-class AI agent nodes and the ability to run entirely on hardware you control. Activepieces gets closest and is behind on catalogue depth. Zapier and Make have the catalogue and cannot be self-hosted at all. Kestra and Windmill are excellent and are not really doing the same job.

The self-hosted economics are also hard to beat. There is no meter. A workflow that fires ten thousand times a day costs the same as one that fires ten times, and every hosted alternative in this list will charge you for that difference in some currency.

What I Could Not Verify

Any pricing figure. I read every pricing page listed above and deliberately did not reproduce a single number. They change, and a stale number in a blog post is worse than no number.
Connector counts as a like-for-like measure. The 1500-plus and 9,000-plus figures come from each vendor's own marketing and are not counted the same way.
Windmill's paid tier metering beyond seats. The pricing page is structured around Cloud, Self-hosted and White Label with seat counts, and I could not confirm the detail of worker-based charges. verify: check the Windmill pricing page directly if worker count drives your cost.
Reliability, uptime and performance comparisons. I have no benchmark across these eight tools that I would defend, so I make no claim.

If something here has gone stale, it probably has. Tell me and I will fix it.

If you land on self-hosting after all this, the Docker Compose guide and the getting started walkthrough are the next stops, and the tool directory has the current version notes. Bring your compose file and your actual error output to the free community and you will get a real answer rather than a guess.

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