What Is n8n? What It's Used For, Pricing and Self-Hosting

n8n (pronounced "n-eight-n", short for "nodemation") is a tool for automating work between apps. You build a workflow on a visual canvas: when something happens — a form is submitted, an email arrives, a row is added to a spreadsheet — n8n runs a series of steps, like calling an API, asking an AI model to summarise something, and posting the result to Slack.

It's in the same family as Zapier and Make, with two big differences: you can host it yourself, and you can drop down to code whenever the visual blocks aren't enough.

What people use n8n for

Lead handling: new form submission → enrich it with an API → add to the CRM → notify sales.
Content pipelines: new blog post → summarise with an AI model → draft social posts → send for approval.
Internal tools: a daily report pulled from a database and emailed as a table.
AI agents: a chatbot that can look up orders in your database and create support tickets.
Glue between your own app and others: receive a webhook from Stripe, update your database, send a welcome email.

How it works

A workflow is a chain of nodes:

A trigger node starts the workflow: a schedule, a webhook, a new email, a form, a chat message.
Action nodes do the work: call an app's API (n8n has hundreds of built-in integrations), make a generic HTTP request, transform data, branch with if/else, loop.
Code nodes let you write JavaScript or Python when you need custom logic.

Data flows from node to node as JSON, and you can see exactly what each step received and produced — very handy for debugging.

n8n and AI

n8n has leaned hard into AI. It includes nodes for calling models from Anthropic, OpenAI and others, plus an AI Agent node that can use tools (other nodes) to complete a task, with memory and vector store nodes for building RAG setups. That's why "n8n AI agent" is one of the most common things people search alongside it. (What Is an AI Agent?)

Is n8n free and open source?

n8n is "fair-code": the source is public and you can self-host it for free, but it's under the Sustainable Use License, not a classic open-source licence. In plain terms, you can use and modify it for your own business, but you can't resell n8n itself as a hosted service. Some enterprise features (like SSO and advanced permissions) are paid. (Open Source Licences Explained)

Cloud vs self-hosted

	n8n Cloud	Self-hosted
Setup	Sign up and go	Run it on a server (usually Docker)
Cost	Monthly plan, priced by workflow executions	Free software; you pay for the server
Maintenance	n8n handles it	You handle updates, backups, HTTPS
Data location	n8n's infrastructure	Wherever your server is

Self-hosting lets you control where n8n stores workflow data and execution history. Workflows still send data to whichever external apps and AI providers you configure, and those services can charge their own usage fees. (How to Self-Host n8n)

n8n vs Zapier, briefly

Zapier is easier to start with and has more ready-made app integrations. n8n is more flexible, handles complex logic and code better, and can be far cheaper at volume when self-hosted. (n8n vs Zapier)

The summary

n8n connects apps and APIs with visual workflows: trigger → steps → result.
It has strong AI agent features and lets you write code when you need to.
It's fair-code: free to self-host for your own use, with a paid cloud option.

EasySpawn gives you a persistent server with HTTPS, Postgres and daily backups — and Claude Code on the same box to help you build the workflows and the app they connect to. See how it works or join the waitlist.

What Is n8n? Workflow Automation (and AI Agents) Explained Simply