How n8n works
n8n uses workflows made of nodes, with a visual editor and the option to add code when needed. It is available as a cloud service or as software you can host yourself, under a fair-code licence. Check the current licence and plans on the official site.
n8n, Make or Zapier?
| n8n | Make | Zapier | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-hosting | Yes | No | No |
| Learning curve | Medium | Medium | Easy |
| Code when needed | Easy | Limited | Limited |
| Best for | Technical teams, data control, high volumes | Visual complex scenarios | Simple, fast automations |
25 use cases
| # | Department | Use case |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sales | Qualify inbound leads with an AI step before the CRM |
| 2 | Sales | Daily list of prospects to follow up |
| 3 | Sales | Sync contacts between CRM and email tool |
| 4 | Sales | Generate a personalised proposal draft |
| 5 | Sales | Alert on large orders |
| 6 | Marketing | Monitor competitor websites for changes |
| 7 | Marketing | Summarise industry news every morning |
| 8 | Marketing | Repurpose a video transcript into articles |
| 9 | Marketing | Score and route newsletter replies |
| 10 | Marketing | Collect UTM results into a database |
| 11 | Support | AI assistant answering from internal documents |
| 12 | Support | Route messages by language and topic |
| 13 | Support | Escalate urgent tickets to a manager |
| 14 | Finance | Extract data from PDF invoices |
| 15 | Finance | Reconcile payments with orders |
| 16 | Finance | Weekly cash summary |
| 17 | HR | Answer policy questions from the handbook |
| 18 | HR | Create accounts for new employees |
| 19 | HR | Collect anonymous feedback |
| 20 | IT and data | Back up databases to storage |
| 21 | IT and data | Monitor website uptime |
| 22 | IT and data | Clean and deduplicate contact lists |
| 23 | IT and data | Move data between internal tools via API |
| 24 | Operations | Generate reports from several databases |
| 25 | Operations | Transcribe and file voice notes |
When self-hosting makes sense
- Sensitive data must stay on your servers.
- You run high volumes where per-operation pricing becomes expensive.
- You have someone able to maintain, update and secure a server.
When it does not
If nobody can maintain it, the cloud version or another tool is safer. An unpatched server is a bigger risk than a subscription.
Prices, budgets and timelines are indicative orders of magnitude for an international audience. Adjust them to your local market and check official sources before any decision. No income is promised.
