Activepieces vs n8n
A side-by-side comparison of Activepieces and n8n, drawn from Ignaite's continuously-verified listings.
Compared from listings verified as of
Activepieces
AutomationOpen-source, AI-first workflow automation — a self-hostable Zapier alternative.
View ActivepiecesAt a glance
| Attribute | Activepieces | n8n |
|---|---|---|
| Category (differs) | Automation | Orchestration |
| Pricing | FREEMIUM | FREEMIUM |
| License (differs) | Open core | Proprietary |
| Deployment | Hybrid | Hybrid |
| Platforms (differs) | Web | Web, API |
| Model support (differs) | Multi-model | Model-agnostic |
| Vendor (differs) | Activepieces | n8n |
| Capabilities (differs) |
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The honest brief
Activepieces
MIT-licensed (true OSI open source, unlike n8n's fair-code) and exposes its 400+ pieces as MCP tools for agents.
- Fully self-hostable
- Native AI steps in the visual builder
- Visual drag-and-drop workflow builder
- Smaller integration library than Zapier
- Self-hosting adds ops overhead
- Younger ecosystem and community
n8n
The self-hostable Zapier alternative with first-class AI/LangChain nodes and per-execution (not per-task) pricing.
- Free Community Edition
- 500+ integrations
- Visual builder bridging APIs and databases
- Per-execution pricing, not per-task
- Code nodes for full control
- Fair-code license, not OSI open-source
- Self-host carries ops overhead
- Steeper than Zapier for non-technical users
When to pick which
Both cover Workflow orchestration and Agent framework.
Pick Activepieces if you need MCP server and AI app builder.
- MCP server (secondary capability)
- AI app builder (secondary capability)
Pick n8n if you need Tool / function calling and RAG pipeline.
- Tool / function calling (secondary capability)
- RAG pipeline (secondary capability)
They also differ on:
- License
- Open core · Proprietary
- Platforms
- Web · Web, API