With the recent artificial intelligence (AI) boom, many enterprises have shown increased interest in applying AI tools to automate tasks and improve productivity.
One software often mentioned during discussions about AI automation is N8N. It’s an advanced tool that helps companies plug AI into their existing systems and automate specific tasks.
N8N is known for its flexibility and ease of use. Its low-code visual interface enables people with limited programming experience to use it effectively. It also has a code-based interface that lets users customize and integrate it into their existing apps.
What else does N8N offer? You’ve arrived at the right place to learn about it. This guide describes N8N, how it works, and why it matters for AI automation.
What is N8N?
N8N is a workflow automation tool that lets you connect different apps to automate tasks. Think of it as a link between different apps in your enterprise toolkit.
Let’s provide a clear example to help you understand better. A hypothetical company uses Gmail as its workspace email provider. That same company operates a digital banking app where any downtime means lost revenue and customer inconvenience.
With N8N, the above company can create a link between its app monitoring tool and its Gmail tool. Whenever the monitoring tool detects downtime, it’ll automatically send an email notification to the IT team.
This automation can be configured such that every IT team member receives the notification.
You may wonder why the company wouldn’t just choose an app monitoring tool with a built-in email notification tool. The answer is that these tools cost money, which the company can save by choosing a free, open-source app monitoring tool and creating an automation to deliver the same feature for much less.
Many workflow automation tools exist, but N8N stands out in several ways. It's both a low-code and a high-code platform.
Users with limited coding experience can utilize the drag-and-drop interface to create automations. Hardcore programmers can use Python and JavaScript to create detailed automation workflows.
N8N is a popular choice because it’s suitable for both tech-savvy and non-tech-savvy employees.
Why does N8N matter for AI automation?
The idea of integrating AI into your company’s existing workflow can seem complex. Where do I begin? Do I need to hire skilled programmers to create custom integrations from scratch?
These are common questions from business owners and IT administrators. The good news is that N8N provides an easier way to automate tasks than hiring in-house programmers.
N8N provides the foundational infrastructure for companies to create helpful AI automations. It has built the most complex parts of the system required to integrate your apps and automate digital tasks. As an N8N user, you’re left with the easier aspects of linking these apps and issuing automation instructions.
If your company already uses large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and DeepSeek, N8N works seamlessly with them.
With N8N, you can integrate your preferred LLM with other software tools your employees use. For example, you can use DeepSeek as a writing assistant when working with Google Docs. You can use ChatGPT to scrape and summarize external web pages. The possibilities are endless when using N8N.
Notable N8N features
1. Self-hosting
N8N supports self-hosting, i.e., you can host the platform on your own servers instead of relying on N8N’s cloud infrastructure.
This feature is valuable for enterprises that want to control their crucial digital systems instead of relying on third parties. Self-hosting can also be more cost-effective for companies with heavy usage.
N8N provides a Docker image that contains its application code, libraries, and other relevant files necessary to run N8N. You can simply upload this image to your server’s Docker software and run N8N just as you would on the cloud.
Docker isn’t the only option for self-hosting N8N. You can also run it on external cloud services, such as Railway and Render. That is, if your company already uses a cloud service like Railway and doesn’t want to add yet another, you can run N8N directly as an instance on Railway. These self-hosting options make N8N a great choice for large enterprises.
2. Scalability
N8N is a tool that scales easily, whether for personal or large-scale enterprise use. The cloud-based platform is easy to set up– pricing depends on the number of active workflows or workflow executions.
If you hit the usage limits of your pricing tier, you can quickly upgrade to a higher one to run more automations. Similarly, if you’re a large enterprise running the self-hosted version, you can quickly upgrade your server infrastructure to accommodate increasing workflows.
The cloud-based version has standard pricing tiers. The Starter plan costs $24 per month and allows 2,500 workflow executions and 5 active workflows. The Pro plan costs $60 per month and allows 10,000 workflow executions and 15 active workflows.
The Enterprise (self-hosted) version allows an unlimited number of active workflows, and you can choose a custom number of workflow executions. However, this plan does not have standard pricing, so you’ll need to contact N8N’s sales team for a custom arrangement.
You can estimate the number of workflows and workflow executions you’ll need and select a suitable plan. However, the good thing is that you can easily upgrade if you surpass your original usage estimates.
3. Numerous integrations
N8N is integrated with over 1,000 apps, including Google Drive, Slack, Airtable, GitHub, HubSpot, and many other tools commonly used by enterprises.
Hence, you can link these apps together to automate tasks, e.g., receiving Slack notifications about files accessed on Google Drive or getting Slack notifications about every change made to your GitHub repository.
The above examples about Slack, Google Drive, and GitHub are simple automations you can create via N8N, but you can make even more complex ones with the drag-and-drop interface or by writing code.
The drag-and-drop interface feels fun to use. Imagine dragging data from one path to another, with switches and nodes to connect different data types. That's how N8N works, similar to playing a game of connecting one app to another.
If you’re a skilled programmer who feels limited by the drag-and-drop interface, you can proceed to the next level and write custom Python and JavaScript code. N8N isn’t one of those boring automation tools– it feels very fun to use.
4. Templates
N8N has templates that make creating your custom integrations easier. Examples include a template to create an AI-based chatbot, extract social media insights to Google Docs, track your website's SEO rankings, and many more.
These templates, created by other developers, give you a good idea of valuable automations to build on N8N.
You can use them as the baseline for your automations, making just a few tweaks to get what you want. The templates significantly reduce the time your development team would have otherwise spent creating some integrations from scratch.
5. Security
Security is a core consideration when integrating different apps. Malicious actors can exploit integrations to steal sensitive data, so you wouldn’t want to give them a chance. N8N provides sophisticated security features to prevent third parties from tampering with your automations.
You can enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all developer accounts, requiring at least two identification modes before granting access.
Whenever a developer inputs their username and password, they’ll also need an external PIN sent via email, SMS, or an authenticator app to gain access. MFA prevents unauthorized access even if a malicious actor obtains your developer’s credentials.
N8N supports role-based access, letting you choose who can perform specific actions related to your integrations. For example, some accounts can be permitted only to view integrations and monitor metrics, but not make any changes. In this case, only developer accounts will be allowed to modify integrations on N8N. These security features help keep your workflow secure.
How to get started with N8N
N8N is an intuitive platform that’s easy to use. You can create an account on the official website to get started. There’s no free tier, which we consider a drawback; however, users can take advantage of a 14-day free trial without needing to input their card details.
The standardized pricing plans, which we highlighted earlier, make N8N easy to set up. You can choose the plan (Starter or Pro) that suits you best and pay a monthly or annual fee.
An annual payment is typically discounted compared to month-to-month payments, for example, $240 annually for the Starter plan versus $24 per month ($288 over 12 months).
If you need the self-hosted version, you can contact N8N’s sales team to negotiate a custom deal. Pricing varies, but large-scale users can secure significant discounts compared to the regular Pro and Starter plans.
The self-hosted plan is suitable for enterprises that already operate in-house servers and want strict control over their digital infrastructure.
Otherwise, for small to medium-sized businesses or personal users, the cloud-based version is the best choice. N8N is a versatile automation tool that helps your business or personal technology projects run smoothly.
