Activepieces vs n8n

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors.

The short answer

Free plan: Both have one
Public API: Both have one
Higher Trust score: Activepieces — 89 vs 75 for n8n
Best fit: Activepieces: Teams that want Zapier-style flows without sending data to a vendor's cloud · n8n: Technical teams that want to self-host automation with Docker, on-prem or air-gapped
Platforms: Activepieces: Web · n8n: Web, Linux

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

ActivepiecesMIT-licensed workflow automation with around 700 connectors, runnable on your own servers

n8nWorkflow automation with AI-agent nodes that runs on n8n's cloud or self-hosted from GitHub

Side by side

Fact	Activepieces	n8n
Category	Workflow Automation Platforms	Workflow Automation Platforms
Pricing model	Freemium	Freemium
Starts at	$16/mo	—
Public API	Yes	Yes
Trust score	89 / 100	75 / 100
Platforms	Web, API	Web, Linux, API
Company	Activepieces Inc.	n8n GmbH
Launched	2022	—
Last verified	Sep 6, 2026	Sep 6, 2026

What our research says

Activepieces

The strongest reason to pick it over Zapier or Make is the MIT licence: if the pricing stops working for you, you move the same flows onto your own hardware. The connector count is real and the free cloud tier is genuinely usable. The catch is credit metering — AI steps cost 2 to 20 credits each, so agent-heavy flows burn the allowance far faster than plain integrations do.

Pros

MIT-licensed with self-hosting via Docker, Helm or any cloud
Around 700 connectors covering Gmail, Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce and Shopify
Free forever cloud tier with unlimited flows and daily credit refresh
SOC 2 Type II and GDPR attestation on the hosted version, plus API access on every tier

Cons

Everything is credit-metered, and AI steps cost up to 20 credits per call
The jump from Plus at $16 to Team at $166 a month is steep for small teams
Self-hosting means you own upgrades, scaling and uptime yourself

n8n

The automation tool to pick when you want agents and integrations on one canvas and the option to run it on your own hardware; self-hosting from GitHub is the escape hatch Zapier and Make do not offer. Cloud pricing is per execution rather than per task, which rewards long workflows, but the monthly figures hide behind a toggle and the Business tier is a self-hosted licence at a very different price point.

Pros

Self-hosted Community Edition on GitHub under a fair-code licence, with 207k stars
Agent, model, MCP and RAG nodes alongside 500+ app integrations
JavaScript or Python at any step, with a canvas that traces agent reasoning
Execution-based cloud billing with unlimited steps per execution
Public REST API on all self-hosted editions and on cloud Starter and above

Cons

Cloud prices were shown only in euros and only as annual-billing figures
Business tier (€667 a month) is self-hosted only, with cloud availability on a waitlist
Fair-code licence is not OSI open source, which matters for some corporate policies
Forum-only support below Enterprise

Which one fits

Choose Activepieces if you need

Teams that want Zapier-style flows without sending data to a vendor's cloud
Developers who need to write their own connector rather than wait for one
Embedding automation inside another product under a permissive licence

Choose n8n if you need

Technical teams that want to self-host automation with Docker, on-prem or air-gapped
Builders combining LLM agents, MCP tools and RAG with ordinary app integrations
Workflows with many steps, since billing counts executions rather than individual operations