Is n8n worth it in 2026?
Cloud plans by execution volume, what the free Community edition allows, and what 5,000 runs a month cost on Cloud and on a small server.
The quick answer
n8n Cloud Starter costs $20 a month billed yearly ($24 billed monthly) for 2,500 workflow executions on n8n’s US pricing view, read on 19 October 2026, and the self-hosted Community edition has no license fee. For 5,000 executions a month, the smallest Cloud plan that covers it is Pro at $50 a month billed yearly ($600 a year), while an example Hetzner server costs $253.08 a year before any upkeep hours. n8n’s strength is that a whole workflow run is one execution, however many steps it has. Its catches are that self-hosting needs technical skills, and that Business, the next paid step, costs $800 a month billed yearly and is self-hosted only.
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n8n is free to self-host and paid on Cloud. The Community edition has no license fee, but n8n’s license limits it to internal business, personal or non-commercial use. For 5,000 runs a month, Cloud’s Pro plan billed yearly costs $600 a year and an example server $253.08, before your own time.
Prices were read on n8n’s pricing page on 19 October 2026. It picks its currency from where you browse: US visitors see dollars, and visitors in France or Germany see euros at the same Starter and Pro amounts. Dollar figures here are the US view, and Business is the exception, at €667 a month billed yearly on the euro view. Amounts are before tax.
n8n plans at a glance
US view of n8n’s pricing page, before tax, read on 19 October 2026. The euro view shows the same Starter and Pro amounts, and Business at €667 a month billed yearly or €800 billed monthly. Pro and Business are shown at their smallest tiers.
| Feature | Starter | Pro | Business | Enterprise | Community |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on | n8n Cloud | n8n Cloud | Self-hosted only | Cloud or self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Price, billed yearly | $20 a month ($240 a year) | $50 a month ($600 a year) | $800 a month ($9,600 a year) | Contact sales | No license fee |
| Price, billed monthly | $24 a month | $60 a month | $960 a month | Contact sales | Not applicable |
| Workflow executions a month | 2,500 | 10,000 (50,000 on the larger tier) | 40,000 | Custom | No quota listed |
| Concurrent executions | 5 | 20 (50 on the larger tier) | Unlimited | 200+ on Cloud, unlimited self-hosted | Unlimited |
| Shared projects | 1 | 3 | 6 | Unlimited | Not included |
| Longest single run | 5 minutes | 40 minutes | You set the limit | 40 minutes on Cloud, you set it self-hosted | You set the limit |
| Workflow history | 1 day | 5 days | 30 days | 365+ days | 1 day |
| Free trial | 14 days, 1,000 executions, no card | Same Cloud trial | 14 days, card required | Contact sales to test | Not needed |
What you get
- ✓A whole workflow run is one execution: n8n says the step count does not change the bill.
- ✓No license fee to self-host: the Community edition is free for internal business use, with unlimited concurrent executions listed.
- ✓Unlimited users, workflows and integrations: the pricing page says every plan includes them.
- ✓A trial before you pay: 14 days of Pro features and 1,000 executions, with no card needed.
- ✓EU data location on Cloud: the page says hosted plans store data in Frankfurt, Germany.
The trade-offs
- ✕Starter’s 2,500 executions go fast: one workflow on a 5-minute schedule makes about 8,600 to 8,900 a month.
- ✕Self-hosting is on you: n8n says it takes technical knowledge, mistakes can cause data loss and downtime, and new minor versions arrive most weeks.
- ✕Business is a steep step: $800 a month billed yearly in the US view, self-hosted only, with a daily license check.
- ✕Community leaves out team features: no projects, sharing, SSO or Git version control, per n8n’s docs.
- ✕The license is not open source: use is limited to internal business, personal or non-commercial purposes, and letting customers build workflows needs a commercial agreement.
Worth it if…
- →A technical team that wants a workflow tool on its own server and will own the upkeep.
- →A team with long multi-step workflows that fits inside Pro’s 10,000 executions, since steps are not billed.
- →A consultant who builds automations for clients and keeps them out of the editor, which the license FAQ allows.
Skip it if…
- →Nobody can run, secure and update a server, and Starter’s 2,500 executions fall short.
- →You plan to let customers build their own workflows inside your product, which needs a commercial agreement.
- →You need SSO or Git environments (Business or Enterprise only), or more than 3 shared projects, and cannot budget for Business.
What does n8n Cloud cost, plan by plan?
n8n Cloud sells Starter at $20 a month billed yearly (or $24 billed monthly) for 2,500 executions, and Pro from $50 a month billed yearly (or $60 billed monthly) for 10,000. Enterprise has no published price. The page says every plan includes unlimited users and workflows and every integration, so the execution count is what you buy.
Pro also comes at 50,000 executions for $120 a month billed yearly (or $144 billed monthly), which lifts concurrency from 20 runs at once to 50. Limits differ beyond volume. Starter stops a single run at 5 minutes and keeps 1 day of workflow history, while Pro allows 40 minutes and 5 days.
The pricing page and the docs list a free trial for Cloud, not a free plan. The docs say a trial lasts 14 days, carries Pro features and caps at 1,000 executions, and the pricing page says no card is needed.
What counts as an n8n execution?
n8n’s pricing page defines an execution as one run of your entire workflow, whatever its step count or data size, and says it does not bill each step. A twelve-step workflow that runs 5,000 times is 5,000 executions.
The execution docs add that only production runs count. A schedule trigger counts each time it fires, a webhook trigger counts each inbound request, and a polling trigger counts when it finds new data. Manual test runs, sub-workflows and error workflows do not count.
Schedules use quota fast. n8n’s own example is a workflow firing every 5 minutes, about 8,600 to 8,900 executions a month, which is more than three times Starter’s 2,500 and most of Pro’s 10,000.
Is n8n free? What the Community edition allows
The self-hosted Community edition has no license fee. The license page says n8n uses the Sustainable Use License, a fair-code license. The license FAQ calls it the Community license and says it is free and applies to self-hosted n8n, while Cloud is a paid subscription. n8n says it does not call itself open source, because open source licenses cannot limit use.
The license lets you use, modify and redistribute n8n with three limits: use it for internal business, non-commercial or personal purposes, redistribute it only free of charge for non-commercial purposes, and keep the license notices. That is n8n’s wording summarised, not legal advice.
The FAQ allows building automations for clients who cannot create or edit them, charging for setup and training, and running several instances. It rules out hosting n8n as a service where clients build workflows, white-labelling it, and using license-key features without an Enterprise license.
Free is not complete. The docs say Community leaves out features such as environments, external secrets, log streaming, projects, SSO, sharing of workflows and credentials, and Git version control. Registering an email gives a free license key that adds folders, debug in editor and custom execution data.
What do 5,000 executions a month cost on Cloud and on a server?
Take a small team that runs 5,000 executions a month, an assumption for this example. Starter’s 2,500 covers half of it. Pro’s 10,000 covers it with half to spare, at $600 a year billed yearly or $720 a year billed monthly (12 months at $60).
Self-hosting has no n8n fee, so the cost is the server. n8n’s Hetzner guide says the CPX11 type is enough for most usage levels, so it is the example here, not a recommendation. Hetzner’s cloud page lists the CPX11 (2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe) at its US locations from $21.09 a month with an IPv4 address, which is $20.49 for the server plus $0.60 for the address, or $253.08 over 12 months (read 19 October 2026).
On those list prices the server costs $346.92 a year less than Pro billed yearly. Per 1,000 executions run, that is about $4.22 against $10.00 (computed over 60,000 executions a year). The gap is your upkeep budget. n8n’s guide says self-hosting takes technical knowledge, mistakes can cause data loss, security issues and downtime, and new minor versions arrive most weeks. Those hours are unpriced here, so divide the gap by your hourly cost.
If nobody can own the server, price Pro. If you need SSO or Git environments on your own server, the next paid step is Business.
Where the price jumps: Business and the start-up plan
Business is the steepest published step: $800 a month billed yearly ($9,600 a year, or $960 billed monthly) in the US view, and €667 a month billed yearly in the euro view, for 40,000 executions. The page tags it “Self-hosted only”, with 6 shared projects, SSO and LDAP, Git version control, multiple environments and 30 days of insights. Its license key contacts n8n’s license server daily, and the ping includes your production execution count.
Companies with fewer than 20 employees and under €5M in total funding may qualify for the start-up plan, which n8n describes as 50% off Business: $333 a month billed yearly ($4,000 a year) in the US view for the same 40,000 executions. The 50% matches the euro prices, €4,000 against €8,000 a year. The discount runs for a year, or longer while you qualify.
Past quota, the page says Business and Enterprise workflows keep running but overage may be charged, with Business overage listed at 4,000 EUR per extra 300,000 executions. It does not say what happens when Starter or Pro runs out.
What the Academy has on n8n
Academy data: our n8n tool page lists 4 tutorials (2 Intermediate, 2 Advanced), the newest published on 15 October 2025, and our prompt library holds 5 automation packs with 141 prompts but none for n8n itself. Every n8n price here comes from n8n’s pricing and start-up plan pages (US dollar view, with euro amounts named where they differ), and the server price from Hetzner’s own page.
See also the no-code AI automation collection, 30 Claude prompts to build automations and our Lindy review.
The verdict
n8n is worth it for a team that can run its own server, or that fits inside Pro. At 5,000 executions a month, the example server costs less than half of Pro billed yearly on list prices, but only if someone owns the upkeep. If nobody does, price Pro, because Starter’s 2,500 executions fall short.
Two warnings. The license limits the free edition to internal business, personal or non-commercial use, so a product that lets customers build workflows needs a commercial agreement. And SSO and Git environments start at Business, which is self-hosted only; on Cloud they need an Enterprise quote.
Better alternatives?
If it is not the right fit, these are worth a look.
Zapier
A workflow automation tool you can price against n8n. Not priced here, see <a href="https://zapier.com/pricing" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="text-indigo-600 underline decoration-indigo-300 hover:decoration-indigo-600">Zapier’s pricing page</a>.
Make
Another workflow automation tool to price against n8n. Not priced here, see <a href="https://www.make.com/en/pricing" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="text-indigo-600 underline decoration-indigo-300 hover:decoration-indigo-600">Make’s pricing page</a>.
Lindy
An AI-agent builder that lists n8n in its comparison table. Our review covers its plans, and no Lindy price is repeated here.
Frequently asked questions
Is n8n free?▾
The self-hosted Community edition has no license fee. n8n’s docs say the Community license is free, applies to self-hosted n8n, and covers your own internal business use or non-commercial or personal use. n8n Cloud is paid, after a 14-day free trial.
How much does n8n Cloud cost?▾
On n8n’s US pricing view, read on 19 October 2026, Starter is $20 a month billed yearly ($24 billed monthly) for 2,500 executions, and Pro is $50 a month billed yearly ($60 billed monthly) for 10,000. Pro also has a 50,000-execution tier at $120 a month billed yearly. Enterprise is quote only.
How much does it cost to self-host n8n?▾
The Community edition has no license fee, so you pay for a server and upkeep. As an example, Hetzner lists a CPX11 server at its US locations at $20.49 a month plus $0.60 for an IPv4 address, or $253.08 over 12 months, before backups or the hours it takes to run.
What counts as an n8n execution?▾
One run of an entire workflow is one execution, however many steps it has. Only production runs count against the quota: schedule triggers count each time they fire, webhook triggers count each inbound request, and polling triggers count when they find new data. Manual runs, sub-workflows and error workflows do not.
Is n8n open source, and what does the license allow?▾
n8n says it is not open source, because open source licenses cannot limit use. Its Sustainable Use License is fair-code: free for internal business, personal or non-commercial use, with the source available. Building automations for clients is allowed if they cannot create or edit them; hosting n8n so customers build workflows needs a commercial agreement.