n8n
Open-source, self-hostable workflow automation platform for connecting different services
Free tier availablen8n.io
Highlights
- Out-of-the-box connectivity to 400+ apps via pre-built nodes, supports custom JS/Python code nodes
- Open-source and self-hostable, keeps data within your internal network, ideal for private deployment
- Visual canvas to orchestrate branches and loops, makes complex logic easy to visualize
- Built-in AI Agent node for large model invocation, lets you embed agents into business workflows
Typical use cases
- Automatically sync new CRM leads to spreadsheets and notify your sales team group chat
- Regularly pull API data, aggregate it into daily reports, and send it to your team IM
- AI summarization pipeline: read documents → summarize with LLM → write back to knowledge base → notify person in charge
Who it suits
- Technical teams with self-hosting requirements
- Developers and IT teams building automation for internal systems
- Operations and data staff looking to automate manual on-call tasks
Things to check before you commit
- Self-hosted deployments require you to maintain servers and handle upgrades; use the cloud version if you don't have in-house ops resources
- The node system has a learning curve; use IFTTT for simple two-step automations instead
Pricing
Cloud version is tiered by workflow execution volume; self-hosted community edition is free to use; enterprise edition includes SSO and audit logging.