What is n8n?

Definition

What exactly is n8n and what is it used for?

n8n is an open-source platform that companies use to automate workflows between different apps and services – visually via drag and drop or with their own code. The software connects more than 400 integrations and is one of the most popular open-source automation tools worldwide.

Typical areas of use are data synchronisation between CRM and accounting, automated notifications for certain events, or workflow automation with AI in existing business processes.

Introducing n8n into existing processes is handled by an n8n agency with setup, workflow building and ongoing operation.

Name

Where does the name n8n come from?

n8n stands for “nodemation” – a combination of “node” and “automation”. The name describes the core principle of the platform: individual nodes are connected to form a workflow.

The spelling is a so-called numeronym: the number 8 replaces the eight letters between the first and last n – “odematio”. The principle is the same as with k8s (Kubernetes) or i18n (internationalization).

Pronunciation

How do you pronounce n8n?

n8n is officially pronounced “n-eight-n” – that is, letter by letter: en-eight-en. Alternatively, the long form “nodemation” is also correct.

In the community, the short form “Nathan” has also spread as an informal pronunciation – but it is not official.

Origin

Where does n8n come from and who is behind it?

n8n was founded in Berlin in 2019 by Jan Oberhauser and has developed in six years from a side project into one of the best-known open-source automation tools worldwide.

The founder: Jan Oberhauser

Jan Oberhauser comes from the Allgäu region in Germany and studied audiovisual media at the Stuttgart Media University. After his studies he worked as a VFX engineer on productions such as Disney's Maleficent.

As pipeline technical director, his job was to automate workflows for VFX artists. The idea for n8n grew out of this experience.

From Berlin to unicorn

n8n went online for the first time on 27 October 2019. The seed funding of $1.5 million was led by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital in 2020.

In 2025, n8n raised $180 million in a Series C round – led by Accel, with participation from NVentures (NVIDIA) and Sequoia. The valuation was more than $2.5 billion.

How it works

How does n8n work in practice?

n8n works with a visual editor in which individual building blocks – so-called nodes – are connected via drag and drop to form a workflow. Each node represents an action or a service, such as reading an email or writing to a database.

Trigger and action nodes

Every workflow begins with a trigger node. It defines when the workflow starts – for example when an email arrives, on a webhook request or at a set time.

This is followed by action nodes that process, transform or pass data on to other systems. A workflow can contain any number of action nodes.

Creating workflows visually

The canvas editor shows the entire data flow as a diagram. Branches, loops and error handling can be configured directly in the interface.

n8n provides more than 900 ready-made workflow templates. These cover common scenarios and can be used as a starting point for your own automations.

Custom code with JavaScript and Python

At any point in the workflow, a code node that runs JavaScript or Python can be inserted. This allows data to be transformed, APIs to be called or complex logic to be modelled.

This combination of visual builder and code flexibility distinguishes n8n from pure no-code tools such as Zapier.

AI integration

Which AI functions does n8n offer?

n8n offers more than 70 native AI nodes for large language models, embeddings, vector databases, speech and image recognition. Since version 2.0, the platform has positioned itself as one of the most powerful solutions for AI-supported automation.

AI nodes and LangChain

The LangChain integration is built directly into n8n. It allows LLMs such as GPT-4, Claude or Llama to be integrated into workflows – including prompt chains, tool calls and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).

Further AI nodes cover OCR, speech-to-text and image generation. Configuration is done visually in the editor, without additional code.

Building AI agents with n8n

n8n enables the construction of autonomous AI agents that make decisions on their own and combine several tools. An agent can, for example, classify incoming support tickets, retrieve relevant data from a knowledge base and formulate an answer.

The advantage over cloud platforms: with self-hosting, all data – including the prompts sent to AI models – stays under your own control.

Costs

How much does n8n cost?

n8n is free in the self-hosted Community Edition – with no limits on workflows or executions. The cloud version starts at $24 per month for 2,500 workflow executions.

Community Edition (self-hosted)

The Community Edition is available under the Sustainable Use License and is free to use. The only costs are for your own server – typically between €5 and €20 per month with providers such as Hetzner.

Workflows, users and executions are unlimited. The only restriction: enterprise features such as SSO and audit logs are not included.

Cloud plans at a glance

• Starter: $24/month – 2,500 executions, unlimited workflows and users
• Pro: $60/month – 10,000 executions, advanced features
• Business: $800/month – 40,000 executions, SSO, Git version control
• Enterprise: custom – unlimited executions, audit logs, dedicated support

An execution in n8n corresponds to one complete workflow run, regardless of the number of steps. That makes billing more transparent than with tools that charge per individual action.

n8n vs. Zapier vs. Make – cost comparison

At high volume, the price advantage of n8n becomes clear. For 10,000 daily records, n8n Cloud costs around $24 per month, while Zapier charges several hundred dollars for a comparable scope.

Zapier offers more than 6,000 integrations and is suitable for teams without a technical background. Make (formerly Integromat) sits between the two in price and offers EU servers.

Data protection

How GDPR-compliant is n8n?

Anyone who self-hosts n8n retains full control over all processed data – no data is transferred to n8n GmbH or third parties. The self-hosted variant thus meets the strictest GDPR requirements.

Self-hosting on EU servers

The most common solution for GDPR compliance is hosting on an EU server, for example with Hetzner or Netcup. The data does not leave the European legal area.

The n8n Cloud also offers EU hosting via Microsoft Azure in Frankfurt. In this case, data processing by n8n GmbH applies.

Data processing agreements and responsibilities

With the self-hosted variant, the company is the controller within the meaning of the GDPR – not a processor. That considerably reduces the legal complexity.

As soon as external services are connected in a workflow, a data processing agreement (DPA) with the respective provider is mandatory. That applies especially when connecting AI models via US providers.

Practice

What concrete use cases are there for n8n?

n8n is used by everyone from start-ups to corporations such as Stepstone and Delivery Hero – wherever data flows between systems and manual steps should be eliminated.

Lead qualification in sales

New contacts from a CRM such as HubSpot or Pipedrive are enriched automatically: n8n checks the lead's website, adds missing company data and rates the contact against defined criteria.

Qualified leads are forwarded directly to the sales team; unqualified ones are moved into a nurturing sequence.

Onboarding new employees

When a new team member joins, n8n automatically creates tasks in Asana or Jira, sets up accounts in internal systems and informs the relevant departments via Slack.

Due dates are calculated based on the start date – without HR having to trigger every step manually.

Preparing product data for e-commerce

Technical specifications and mandatory attributes can be automatically read from supplier sheets or APIs, normalised and transferred to shop systems such as Shopify or WooCommerce.

For large catalogues with hundreds of products, that saves hours of manual data maintenance per week.

Data synchronisation between CRM and accounting

Changes to customer master data in the CRM are propagated in real time to the accounting software – and vice versa. New contacts, updated addresses or status changes stay in sync in both systems.

Without n8n, these reconciliations would have to be done manually via CSV export or run through expensive middleware solutions.

Application

Which workflows can be automated with n8n?

n8n is suitable for any automation in which data flows between different systems – from simple notifications to complex, multi-step business processes with AI components.

Marketing and social media

A typical workflow monitors Google Sheets for new entries, generates a social media text with an LLM and publishes it automatically on LinkedIn or X.

Further scenarios: lead scoring from form inputs, automated newsletter segmentation or reporting dashboards that merge data from several sources.

IT monitoring and incidents

n8n can connect monitoring systems such as Grafana or Datadog and automatically create tickets in Jira or trigger Slack alerts when thresholds are exceeded.

With AI nodes, incidents can be classified automatically and forwarded to the right team – without manual triage.

Invoices and data reconciliation

Incoming invoices by email can be read with OCR nodes, matched against order data and transferred to the accounting software.

Through the database connection (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB), n8n can also carry out regular reconciliations between systems and report discrepancies.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about n8n