# n8n Alternatives 2027: 8 Paid, Free & Open-Source

Source: https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/n8n/
Prices checked: 2026-11-11 (Zekai Price Ledger)

The best n8n alternatives in 2027 are Zapier (best overall, $19.99/mo), Make (best free plan: 1,000 credits a month) and Activepieces (best open source, MIT). n8n itself starts at €20/mo billed yearly. Zekai checked these prices on vendor pages on 11 Nov 2026; 5 more are compared below, including 3 open source.

| Tool | Type | Starting price | Free plan limit | Licence | Best for | Price checked | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n8n (the tool being replaced) | — | €20/mo billed yearly | Self-hosted Community Edition; cloud trial only | — | — | 2026-11-11 | [pricing](https://n8n.io/pricing/) |
| Zapier | Free plan + paid | $19.99/mo | 100 tasks a month, 1 user | — | App-to-app automation for non-developers | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://zapier.com) [pricing](https://zapier.com/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/zapier/) |
| Make | Free | Free plan; paid price not published | 1,000 credits a month | — | Visual scenario builder with credit billing | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://www.make.com) [pricing](https://www.make.com/en/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/make/) |
| Power Automate | Paid | $15/user/mo billed yearly | No free plan | — | Microsoft-centred flows with desktop bots | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://powerautomate.microsoft.com) [pricing](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/products/power-automate/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/power-automate/) |
| Gumloop | Paid | $37/mo | No free plan | — | AI-agent workflows on a shared credit pool | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://www.gumloop.com) [pricing](https://www.gumloop.com/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/gumloop/) |
| Activepieces | Open source | $20/mo (hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | MIT | MIT-licensed no-code automation, self-hostable | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://www.activepieces.com) [pricing](https://www.activepieces.com/pricing) [code](https://github.com/activepieces/activepieces) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/activepieces/) |
| Windmill | Open source | $20/builder/mo (hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | AGPL-3.0 | Code-first workflows in Python, TypeScript, Go | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://www.windmill.dev) [pricing](https://www.windmill.dev/pricing) [code](https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/windmill/) |
| Sim | Open source | $25/user/mo (hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | Apache-2.0 | Open-source AI agent workflow builder | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://www.sim.ai) [pricing](https://www.sim.ai/pricing) [code](https://github.com/simstudioai/sim) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/sim/) |
| Langflow | Open source | Free (self-hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | MIT | Visual builder for multi-agent AI flows | 2026-11-11 | [site](https://www.langflow.org) [pricing](https://github.com/langflow-ai/langflow) [code](https://github.com/langflow-ai/langflow) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/langflow/) |

## How each alternative compares with n8n

- **Zapier** (Free plan + paid, $19.99/mo, checked 2026-11-11): Zapier's Free plan allows 100 tasks a month for one user and Professional starts at $19.99; n8n Cloud offers only a trial with 1,000 executions. Switch if you want a permanent free hosted tier and per-task billing with no servers to run. Stay with n8n if you want unlimited workflows and users on every paid plan.
- **Make** (Free, Free plan; paid price not published): Make's Free plan includes 1,000 credits a month, and most actions use 1 credit, while n8n counts a whole workflow run as one execution. Switch if you want a free hosted plan to test scenarios, with extra credits bought in 1,000 or 10,000 bundles. Stay with n8n if you want to be billed per whole workflow run, not per credit-consuming action.
- **Power Automate** (Paid, $15/user/mo billed yearly, checked 2026-11-11): Power Automate Premium is $15 per user a month billed yearly, with unattended desktop-flow bots at $150 a month; n8n Starter is a flat €20 a month. Switch if your workflows must drive desktop apps through unattended bots under per-user licensing. Stay with n8n if you want flat pricing with unlimited users instead of per-user and per-bot fees.
- **Gumloop** (Paid, $37/mo, checked 2026-11-11): Gumloop Pro starts at $37 a month with 20k credits and unlimited seats after a 14-day trial; n8n Starter gives 2.5K executions. Switch if you build AI-agent workflows and prefer a credit pool to counting executions. Stay with n8n if you want the option of running workflows on your own server.
- **Activepieces** (Open source, $20/mo (hosted), checked 2026-11-11): Activepieces' core is MIT-licensed, its Free plan has 1,000 credits a month for up to 5 users, and a run costs 1 credit regardless of steps. Switch if you need an OSI-approved MIT licence for your self-hosted automation core. Stay with n8n if you want n8n's Git version control, SSO and environments on the self-hosted Business plan.
- **Windmill** (Open source, $20/builder/mo (hosted), checked 2026-11-11): Windmill's Community Edition is AGPL-3.0 with unlimited executions and requires PostgreSQL; a paid builder seat is $20 a month plus compute workers at $50 each. Switch if your team writes workflows in Python, TypeScript or Go and accepts seat plus compute-worker pricing. Stay with n8n if you prefer n8n's visual node editor and execution-based plans over seat and worker pricing.
- **Sim** (Open source, $25/user/mo (hosted), checked 2026-11-11): Sim is Apache-2.0, sells Pro at $25 per user a month, and its Free plan is 1,000 one-time credits; n8n Starter is a flat €20 with unlimited users. Switch if you build AI-agent workflows and want Apache-2.0 code runnable with Docker Compose or Kubernetes. Stay with n8n if you automate general business apps rather than only AI-agent workflows.
- **Langflow** (Open source, Free (self-hosted)): Langflow is MIT-licensed, installs via uv on Python 3.10-3.14 or a Docker image, and targets multi-agent AI flows with no execution quota. Switch if you only prototype multi-agent AI flows locally and want a permissive MIT licence. Stay with n8n if you also need hosted, scheduled app-to-app automation on Starter cloud plans.

## Open-source options in detail

- **Activepieces** (https://github.com/activepieces/activepieces): Licence: MIT
- **Windmill** (https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill): Licence: AGPL-3.0; Last release: 2026-10-30
- **Sim** (https://github.com/simstudioai/sim): Licence: Apache-2.0
- **Langflow** (https://github.com/langflow-ai/langflow): Licence: MIT

## Questions

### What is the best alternative to n8n in 2027?
Zapier is the best overall n8n alternative on this page ($19.99/mo). For no cost, Make has a free plan (1,000 credits a month). To self-host, Activepieces is open source (MIT).

### Is there a free version of n8n?
Yes. n8n has a free plan: Self-hosted Community Edition; cloud trial only. Paid plans start at €20/mo billed yearly, checked on 11 Nov 2026.

### Is there a 100% free alternative to n8n?
Yes. Activepieces, Windmill, Sim, Langflow are open source and free to self-host. Zapier, Make have a free plan with limits, shown in the table.

### What is cheaper than n8n?
Power Automate starts at $15/user/mo billed yearly, against €20/mo billed yearly for n8n, as listed on each vendor's pricing page on 11 Nov 2026.

### How much do n8n alternatives cost for a team of 5?
If each of 5 people buys the entry paid plan, at the prices Zekai checked on 11 Nov 2026, the monthly cost is Power Automate $75/mo, Zapier $99.95/mo, Activepieces $100/mo, against n8n $100/mo for n8n. Team and business plans can cost more per seat. The Zekai Cost Finder on this page recalculates for any team size.

### Which is better, Zapier or n8n?
Zapier's Free plan allows 100 tasks a month for one user and Professional starts at $19.99; n8n Cloud offers only a trial with 1,000 executions. Choose Zapier if you want a permanent free hosted tier and per-task billing with no servers to run. Stay with n8n if you want unlimited workflows and users on every paid plan.

### Why are people leaving n8n?
The documented reasons are: In August 2025 n8n removed active-workflow limits, moved Enterprise to execution-based pricing and added a self-hosted Business plan; community users reported Starter execution limits as too low (7 Aug 2025); n8n's pricing page lists no free cloud plan, and its docs list SSO, Git version control, projects, environments and external secrets as missing from the free Community Edition (11 Nov 2026). Each is sourced in the section above.

### What is better than n8n?
Zapier is easier to start with, Make is a visual alternative, and Activepieces offers an MIT-licensed core. Windmill suits teams that write code, as the comparison above shows.

## Related on Zekai

- [Zapier alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/zapier/)
- [Gumloop alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/gumloop/)
- [AI for Software Development](https://zekaiwork.com/professions/ai-software-development-code-automation/)

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Live table, team cost finder and price alerts: https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/n8n/