Pricing · 2026
n8n pricing (2026): Community vs Cloud Starter vs Pro — executions, not tasks
Community is free software plus your ops. Cloud Starter is €20 a month billed annually. Pro is €50. The expensive mistake is buying Business because Starter felt small — or calling n8n a free Zapier.
Gregory Greenstein, Aiacent
- Published
- Updated
- Pricing verified
- 14 min read
- How we rank
n8n
7.9/10Best self-host automation
The workflow you can host — AI nodes included, ops required.
n8n is the automation tool we would start a technical team on when Zapier's task meter or data-residency story is the actual objection. Node-based workflows, self-host or Cloud, AI nodes that are still nodes. That is the product. It is not a Zapier-but-free for a marketer who will not SSH.
- Best for
- Technical teams that want the graph in their VPC, or fair-code cloud, and will treat workflows like code.
- Skip if
- You needed a zap this week and have nobody to run a server, or the leak is GTM research.
Why it ranks
- You can put the graph next to the rest of your stack
- AI nodes, LangChain-style chains, and HTTP without waiting on a vendor connector
- Fair-code model that technical teams actually finish
Watch-outs
- Self-host is an ops job. Cloud is still not Zapier-simple
- The catalog is thinner than Zapier's for long-tail SaaS — you will write HTTP
- Easy to confuse 'we can host it' with 'we have a workflow program'
Product look · figure pending
n8n
Best for. Technical teams that want the graph in their VPC, or fair-code cloud, and will treat workflows like code.
Skip if. You needed a zap this week and have nobody to run a server, or the leak is GTM research.
No vendor screenshot until a rights-cleared file exists at public/figures/n8n.png. We do not hotlink app UIs.
People search 'n8n pricing' because they want the euro number, or because finance asked why a 'free' workflow tool has a Business row in the hundreds. Those are different tickets. If you do not name whether you needed a box, a hosted taste, or SSO, you will treat Business as a darker Pro — or stay on Community until the pager is folklore.
This is a cost page, not a node tutorial. Public list prices below are the ladder we already cite from n8n.io/pricing, checked 19 September 2026, and reused on n8n vs Zapier. We did not re-fetch the cart on 22 September 2026. Execution buckets and AI-credit bands move. Confirm checkout. We do not invent a dollar sticker, an agency SKU, or a partner URL. The full review is /tools/n8n. Is n8n worth it is the subscription. The automation ranking is the scored table.
n8n cost in 2026, at a glance
| Plan | Annual price we cite | What you are actually buying |
|---|---|---|
| Community | Software $0 | Self-host. You pay the machine and the on-call. Fair-code, not a hosted SLA. |
| Cloud Starter | €20/mo | 2,500 executions, 2,300 AI credits, one shared project, forum support. |
| Cloud Pro | €50/mo | 25,000 executions, up to 13,700 AI credits, admin roles, workflow history, execution search. |
| Cloud Business | €667/mo | SSO/SAML/LDAP, git version control, environments. A security project. |
| Enterprise | Quote | Not a self-serve darker Business. Sales. |
- A Cloud trial on that pass was Pro-level features, 1,000 executions, no card. Business trial was 14 days.
- Cloud data was described as hosted in Frankfurt. That is the residency story. Confirm the current region before you promise a customer.
- Zapier Professional, for contrast, commonly starts at $19.99/mo billed annually for 750 tasks. A task is a successful step. Do not divide €20 by 2,500 and call it a Zapier discount.
- Make Core is the other bill people open in the same tab — about $9/mo yearly at 10,000 credits on our 19 September pass. Different unit again.
Which n8n plan is worth paying for
Community when the box is the product
Buy Community — which is to say, spend the ops time — when the workflow has to live in your VPC and someone already knows how to run a server. The software is $0. The pager is not. Skip Community if the first workflow is a form-to-Slack and the only engineer is borrowed. That team wants Zapier, and is Zapier worth it is the honest seat.
Cloud Starter when you wanted n8n without the box
Starter at €20 a month billed annually is the hosted taste: 2,500 executions, one shared project. Buy it when you will ship a real workflow this month and you do not want a server. Skip it if 2,500 full runs is already a joke — count a week of traffic before you screenshot the €20. Skip it if you will not open the canvas after onboarding.
Pro when history and roles are named
Pro at €50 a month billed annually is the solo-builder production row on the ladder we cite: 25,000 executions, admin roles, history. Buy it when Starter's bucket or the missing history is the wall. Do not buy Pro so Starter felt lonely. Do not buy Pro as a Make Teams costume.
Business when security asked
Business at €667 a month billed annually is SSO, git, and environments. That is a different meeting than 'we like the nodes.' Skip it if Pro's features already cover the program and nobody asked for SAML. Enterprise is a quote. We will not invent a sticker between them.
What n8n pricing is not
- A Zapier price. Professional is a task meter in dollars. n8n Cloud is an execution meter in euros.
- A Make price. Core is a credit canvas. Make pricing is that page.
- A Clay price. The row is still an account. Clay pricing is that page.
- A partner discount. We do not have an n8n affiliate ID. The button goes to the vendor until a real program URL exists.
Most 'what does n8n cost' tickets are a Community ticket, a Starter ticket, or a Zapier ticket. The pricing page is doing too much work if you have not named the runtime.— Aiacent, 2026
Verdict
Community if you will page the box. Cloud Starter at €20/mo annual if you wanted n8n hosted and 2,500 runs is honest. Pro at €50 when history and admin roles are named. Business at €667 when SSO and git are named. Zapier if nobody will treat this like software. Make if you wanted a canvas. Then read is n8n worth it if the fight is the subscription, and n8n vs Zapier if the fight is where the graph lives.