Is n8n free? What it is, n8n pricing in 2026 and a tutorial

You have heard of n8n as the free alternative to Zapier, and you want to know what that "free" really covers. The answer comes down to one distinction: the software is free, the hosting is not always.

I start with the definition, then n8n pricing as it really is, the language question, a tutorial for your first workflow, the comparison with Make and Zapier, and the limits I see when I set the tool up for clients.

What is n8n?

n8n is a workflow automation platform: it connects your applications to each other and moves data from one to the next, without you having to write a program. You draw the sequence on a canvas, each step is a node, and n8n runs it for you, at a set time or on every event.

The name is pronounced "n-eight-n" and is short for "nodemation", automation through nodes. The tool was created by Jan Oberhauser and released in 2019; the company is based in Berlin.

How an n8n workflow works

Every workflow follows the same three-part logic:

• The trigger starts the workflow: a set time, a submitted form, an incoming email, a webhook call from another application.
• The processing steps filter, transform or sort the data, make a decision with a condition, or call an AI model.
• The actions write the result somewhere: a row in a spreadsheet, a record in the CRM, an email, a Slack message.

A concrete example: when a prospect fills in your contact form, n8n checks that the message is not empty, adds a row to Google Sheets, then sends you a summary email. Four nodes, not a single line of code. That is exactly the workflow in the tutorial below.

What sets n8n apart from Zapier and Make

• You can install it yourself. The code is published on GitHub and the Community edition runs on your server: your data goes through no third-party service.
• It bills per execution, not per step. n8n defines an execution as a complete run of the workflow, whatever the number of nodes or the amount of data processed. A twenty-node workflow counts as a single execution.
• It accepts code. The Code node runs JavaScript or Python when no node does exactly what you need, and the HTTP Request node calls any API.
• It is built for AI. AI Agent node, connections to language models, MCP client and trigger: n8n is often the foundation used to build an AI agent or to connect an MCP server to your tools.

Is n8n free?

Yes, on one condition: you host it yourself. n8n comes in two forms, and only one of them is free.

The Community edition: what is included, what is missing

The official documentation presents the Community edition as the free version that contains almost all of n8n's features. You get every node and every integration, the Code node, AI agents, and unlimited workflows and executions: the only limit is the power of your server.

What is missing mostly concerns teamwork and governance:

• sharing workflows and credentials between users (only the instance owner and the author can access them);
• projects, environments and version control with Git;
• single sign-on, SSO (SAML, LDAP);
• external secret vaults and log streaming to a monitoring tool.

By registering your instance for free with your email address (Registered Community edition), you also unlock folders, debugging in the editor and custom execution data.

The license: what "free" really allows

n8n is not free software in the strict open-source sense. It is distributed under its own license, the Sustainable Use License: the code is readable, but use is restricted. The official FAQ sums up the rule this way: if the workflows are only created or modified by you or by people in your organization, use is free.

What you can do for free:

• run n8n for your company, your personal projects or your own learning;
• build automations for your clients on your own instance, as long as they can neither create nor modify them;
• charge for building, maintenance, training and consulting around n8n.

What is forbidden without a commercial license:

• hosting n8n as a service where your clients build their own workflows;
• reselling n8n as a white-label product, or forking its code to launch your own automation tool;
• enabling features reserved for paid plans without the matching license key.

The real cost of the free version

Free does not mean costless. You need a server, a few euros a month for a small virtual server, and above all time: installing, backing up, updating. n8n says so itself in its documentation: self-hosting is recommended for expert users, because a mistake can lead to data loss, a security breach or downtime.

This is not theoretical. In January 2026, a vulnerability rated 10 out of 10 (CVE-2026-21858) made it possible to attack self-hosted instances that had not been updated and exposed certain public forms. Up-to-date instances were not affected. If nobody on your team keeps up with updates, the paid cloud will cost you less than an incident.

n8n pricing: the cloud plans in 2026

If you do not want to install anything, n8n Cloud hosts and maintains the tool for you. Every plan includes unlimited users and workflows, and every integration: the price depends only on the number of executions per month. Here is the price list I checked on n8n.io on October 7, 2026.

Companies with fewer than 20 employees can apply for the Start-up Plan, which gives 50% off the Business plan under certain conditions. Prices change: always check the official n8n pricing page before you subscribe.

What the free trial includes

The n8n Cloud trial does not ask for a credit card. It gives access to Pro-level features with a cap of 1,000 executions, 5 concurrent executions and 180 seconds max per execution. The Business plan trial lasts 14 days and does require a credit card.

How many executions do you need?

An execution is one complete run of the workflow. So the math is simple: a workflow scheduled once a day uses 30 executions per month. The same one run every five minutes uses about 8,700, more than the whole Starter plan on its own. A workflow triggered by a form uses one execution per submission.

The calculator below adds it all up for your own workflows, tells you which n8n plan fits and gives the equivalent at Make and Zapier.

n8n interface language: is it translated?

No. The n8n editor is officially available in English only, and so is its documentation. An environment variable, N8N_DEFAULT_LOCALE, lets you display another language on a self-hosted instance, but no official French pack is provided and untranslated text falls back to English. In May 2026, a thread on the official forum still confirmed that only the English version was available.

In practice, it is not a blocker, even for non-English teams. Your workflows handle content in any language without difficulty (emails, forms, AI-generated text), and about ten terms are enough to read the interface:

n8n tutorial: your first workflow, step by step

The goal: a contact form that saves every request in Google Sheets and notifies you by email. It is the most common use case, and it covers the four basic moves: trigger, read a piece of data, decide, act.

Step 1: install n8n or open a cloud account

Two options. Without installing anything: start a free trial on n8n.io and you land straight in the editor. Locally and for free: install Docker Desktop, then run the official install command in a terminal.

curl -fsSL https://get.n8n.io | sh

The script checks that Docker is running, creates an n8n folder with its configuration, downloads the tool and starts it. Then open http://localhost:5678 and create the instance owner account. If you would rather start the container yourself (replace Europe/Paris with your own time zone):

docker volume create n8n_data

docker run -it --rm \
 --name n8n \
 -p 5678:5678 \
 -e GENERIC_TIMEZONE="Europe/Paris" \
 -e TZ="Europe/Paris" \
 -e N8N_ENFORCE_SETTINGS_FILE_PERMISSIONS=true \
 -v n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n \
 n8nio/n8n

Step 2: create the workflow and its trigger

1. Click Create Workflow (or Start from Scratch), then Add first step.
2. Search for "Form" and choose the n8n Form Trigger. Rename the node "Form" by double-clicking its title.
3. Give the form a title and add three fields: Name, Email and Message.
4. Click Execute step: n8n opens the test form. Fill it in once, and the node's output shows your data.

Step 3: add a condition

Add an If node after the form to filter out empty submissions. Drag the Message field from the left panel and choose the comparison String > is not empty. Only the true branch continues to the next steps.

Step 4: save the request in Google Sheets

1. Prepare a Google Sheets spreadsheet with three columns: Name, Email, Message.
2. On the true branch, add a Google Sheets node with the Append Row operation.
3. Under Credential, choose Create new credential. On n8n Cloud, you connect to Google by signing in directly. When self-hosting, you first need to create OAuth credentials in the Google Cloud console.
4. Select the file and the sheet, then drag each form field to the matching column.

Step 5: get notified by email

After Google Sheets, add a Gmail node (Send operation) or Send Email if you use an SMTP server. In the message body, expressions pull in the form answers:

New request from {{ $('Form').item.json.Name }}
Address: {{ $('Form').item.json.Email }}
Message: {{ $('Form').item.json.Message }}

Step 6: test, then publish

1. Click Execute workflow, fill in the test form and check each node: a row in the spreadsheet, an email received.
2. Use Pin data on the trigger to replay the same data without filling in the form on every test.
3. Click Publish: the form moves to its production address (Production URL), ready to embed on your site or share. In older versions of n8n, this button is called Active.
4. Keep an eye on the Executions tab for the first few days: every failure is detailed there, node by node. It is the part everyone neglects, and the one that costs the most later.

To go further, the official library offers more than 10,000 workflow templates ready to import. Start from a template close to your need rather than from a blank page.

n8n vs Make vs Zapier: which one should you choose?

All three connect applications without code. They differ on three points that decide the bill: where your data runs, what gets counted, and the technical level required.

Prices checked on October 7, 2026 on n8n.io, make.com and zapier.com.

n8n vs Make: the differences that matter

Make is the closest competitor: same visual logic, same audience. The difference is in how usage is counted. Make uses one credit per module executed: an 8-module scenario run 1,000 times uses about 8,000 credits. The same workflow in n8n uses 1,000 executions. The longer your scenarios, the better value n8n becomes.

Make keeps two advantages: a hosted free plan, handy for testing without a server, and a very visual interface that non-technical people pick up quickly. n8n wins as soon as data privacy matters, volumes grow, or you want code in the middle of the workflow.

My verdict for your situation

• Personal or sensitive data: self-hosted n8n, the only one of the three that keeps everything in-house.
• Long scenarios or high volumes: n8n, cloud or self-hosted, thanks to per-execution counting.
• Non-technical team, small volumes, want to start in ten minutes: Zapier, then Make if the bill grows.
• Test for free without a server: Make's Free plan or the n8n Cloud trial.

The limits of n8n

• English everywhere. Interface, documentation, error messages: your team has to be fine with working in English.
• Self-hosting is a job in itself. Backups, updates, security: you pay for "free" in time, and the January 2026 vulnerability showed what a forgotten instance can cost.
• Readability beyond 30 or 40 nodes. A ten-node workflow is clearer than a script. A fifty-node workflow with nested branches becomes hard to read, even for its author.
• Version control reserved for higher plans. Git-based version control and test environments are included in Business and Enterprise, not in Starter, Pro or Community.
• A license that restricts reselling. You cannot offer n8n as a service to your clients without a commercial license.
• The real cost is time. The subscription is rarely the biggest expense: designing workflows, fixing them when an application changes its API and training users costs more.

When I recommend n8n, and when I write code instead

I have set up n8n for clients and it does real work. Today, though, I deliver most of my automations as programs written with Claude Code: describing a need in plain language and getting a version-controlled, tested and readable program has become accessible (see how to install Claude Code). The main argument for no-code, doing without technical skills, has weakened.

I recommend n8n without hesitation in four cases:

• A non-technical team that wants to stay in control. Anyone can edit a visual workflow; not everyone can edit a script.
• A pure integration need. Connecting a form, a CRM and a messaging tool does not justify custom development.
• A strong privacy constraint. Self-hosting is an argument neither Make nor Zapier can offer.
• A prototype. Prove that an automated process adds value before investing in a custom build.

A mixed approach often works best: prototype in n8n, measure the real gain, then rewrite in code whatever becomes critical. That is the approach I follow in my custom AI automation engagements, and that I detail in my guide to business process automation.

Written by

Anthony Courtin

SEO, GEO & AI automation consultant

I help SMBs and independent professionals with their visibility (Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity) and with the real-world use of AI at work. I work with companies on site to train teams and rethink processes. Everything I write here, I use in client work.

Follow me on LinkedIn My YouTube channel (in French)