n8n vs Activepieces: which open-source agent builder should you pick?

n8n vs Activepieces comes down to pricing model and workspace shape: n8n charges per workflow execution and suits technical teams that want auditable, self-hosted agents, while Activepieces charges a flat monthly fee with credits and suits teams that want chat, agents, flows and tables in one open-source workspace. Both are active, open source and self-hostable, so the real question is how you want to pay and how your team likes to build. Our hands-on testing notes for both platforms are still pending, so this comparison sticks to what each vendor publishes.

How do n8n and Activepieces compare at a glance?

Both tools combine deterministic workflow automation with AI agents, and both let you self-host for free. The differences are in how they bill, what the free tier includes and what surrounds the agent builder.

Sources: n8n pricing, n8n AI agents, Activepieces pricing, Activepieces homepage.

How much does n8n cost compared to Activepieces?

n8n’s hosted plans start at €20/mo (Starter, billed annually) and Activepieces’ start at $20/mo flat for Plus — nearly identical entry prices with very different meters running underneath.

n8n’s pricing page lists four paid tiers: Starter at €20/mo (1 shared project, 5 concurrent executions, 1,600 Assistant credits/month), Pro at €50/mo (3 shared projects, up to 50 concurrent executions, up to 9,600 Assistant credits/month), Business at €667/mo (self-hosted, with SSO/LDAP, multiple environments, queue mode and Git version control) and Enterprise at contact-sales pricing. All plans include unlimited users, unlimited workflows and every integration — you pay for monthly workflow executions, where one full run of a workflow counts once no matter how many steps it has.

Activepieces’ pricing page lists Plus at $20/mo flat with 10,000 credits a month, Team at $200/mo flat with 50,000 credits, and Ultimate at custom pricing. Overage on Plus and Team costs $0.007 per credit, and annual billing saves 2 months. There’s also an Embed plan from $36k a year for white-labelling the builder inside your own product.

The practical difference: with n8n, a 20-step agent workflow costs the same as a 2-step one per run. With Activepieces, credit consumption depends on what your flows and agents do, so heavy AI usage can push you into overage — but the ceiling is predictable because you can watch credits rather than guess at execution counts.

Which has the better free option?

Activepieces has the better free option for most people, because its free plan runs on hosted cloud with no card required — while n8n’s free tier requires you to self-host.

Activepieces Free includes 1,000 credits a month (reset daily), unlimited flows, up to 5 users, and access to chat to automation, Flows, Agents, Tables, MCPs and API access. If you burn through the credits, you wait until the next month rather than paying.

n8n’s Community Edition is free and standard on GitHub, but you run it yourself. That’s a feature if you want control; it’s a barrier if you just want to try an agent this afternoon. For more no-cost options, see our guide to the best free AI agent builders.

Which is easier to build AI agents with?

Activepieces is easier for non-specialists because you can describe a job in plain words and an agent takes it end to end; n8n gives you more explicit control on a visual canvas.

On Activepieces, chat, agents, flows, tables and 770+ apps live in one workspace, and the company says you describe the job in plain words. Approval gates can sit on steps that touch money, customers or production.

On n8n, you drop an AI Agent node into a workflow, give it a model, memory and tools, and mix it with deterministic steps. n8n’s AI agents page says agents get 600+ native integrations and your own workflows as tools, that you can replay any run to see where it broke, and that you can set which actions require human approval. n8n also lists 7,500+ community-built templates, which shortens the learning curve considerably.

An illustrative example: a 5-person agency building a lead-enrichment agent that scrapes a form submission, enriches it, drafts a reply and waits for human sign-off. In n8n, you’d wire that as an explicit canvas with an approval node and replay any failed run step by step. In Activepieces, you’d describe the same job in chat and let the agent assemble the flow, then add an approval gate before the email sends. Neither approach is wrong — they suit different builders.

Which is better for self-hosting and data control?

It’s close, but Activepieces edges it for strict security environments because it offers a fully air-gapped deployment, while n8n edges it for EU data-residency on hosted plans.

n8n’s Community Edition is the standard self-hosted version on GitHub, and the Business plan (€667/mo) adds self-hosted SSO/LDAP, multiple environments, queue mode and Git version control. If you use n8n Cloud instead, hosted data is stored in the EU, on servers in Frankfurt, Germany — a real plus for EU-based companies.

Activepieces lists every plan, including Free, as “Cloud or on-prem”, and its enterprise tier can run on your own servers or fully air-gapped, with SSO and SCIM, custom RBAC, audit logs and secret managers. Its pricing FAQ even asks “Why would I pay if I can self-host for free?” — a sign the company expects self-hosters. Activepieces says its pieces are MIT-licensed open source, and the homepage shows 25.2k GitHub stars and 356 contributors.

For more options in this space, browse our open-source and self-hosted agent builders category or the best self-hosted AI agent builders shortlist.

Which is better for agencies and client work?

n8n is the better default for technical agencies reselling automation; Activepieces is better if you want to embed a white-labelled builder in your own product.

n8n’s execution-based pricing tends to make multi-step agent workflows cheaper to predict than per-step tools, and all plans include unlimited users — handy when clients and teammates pile into a project. Companies with fewer than 20 employees can apply for a Start-up Plan with 50% off Business, which helps small agencies reach SSO and Git version control sooner.

Activepieces counters with flat monthly pricing that’s trivial to quote to a client, plus the Embed plan from $36k a year: a white-label flow builder, AI agents and 770+ integrations inside your own product via one SDK. That’s a different business model — you’re not reselling automation, you’re shipping it as your own feature. Agencies weighing their options should also check our best no-code AI agent builders for agencies guide.

When should you pick n8n over Activepieces?

Pick n8n when you’re a technical operator who values control over convenience. Concretely:

1. You want to self-host and audit every run, with replay and human approval on tool calls.
2. Your workflows are long and multi-step, so per-execution pricing beats per-credit billing.
3. You’re EU-based and want hosted data stored in Frankfurt, Germany.
4. You want 7,500+ community templates to start from rather than a blank canvas.

n8n is not for complete beginners who want a chat-only “describe it and done” assistant — if that’s you, a tool like Lindy may fit better.

When should you pick Activepieces over n8n?

Pick Activepieces when you want one open-source workspace with predictable flat pricing. Concretely:

1. You want a genuine free cloud tier to prototype on before paying anything.
2. You prefer flat monthly bills with credits over counting workflow executions.
3. You need an air-gapped deployment for security or data-residency reasons.
4. You want chat, agents, flows and tables in a single workspace rather than a pure canvas.

Activepieces is not for teams that want a fully managed vendor to build and maintain agents for them, and it’s not aimed at voice-first or phone-call agent use cases — for those, see our AI voice agent platforms roundup instead.

Bottom line

For most technical teams comparing n8n vs Activepieces, n8n is the stronger general-purpose pick: execution-based pricing, replayable runs, human approval and EU-hosted cloud give you more control per euro. Activepieces wins if you want flat monthly pricing, a real free cloud plan, an all-in-one workspace or an air-gapped deployment. Both are credible open-source choices — the decision is about billing model and build style, not quality.

What to ask next:

• How does n8n compare to Make on pricing and self-hosting?
• How does n8n compare to Zapier Agents for non-technical teams?
• Which self-hosted AI agent builders are worth shortlisting?