Tool
n8n
Free tier: Check pricing (opens in a new tab)
From: Check pricing (opens in a new tab)
Checked October 16, 2026
- Strength. Community Edition is a free self-host option for multi-step workflows across the apps you already use.
- Weakness. Cloud Starter was listed at 20 euros per month on annual billing, with a card-free trial rather than a permanent free cloud plan.
Checked October 15, 2026
Workflow automation you can self-host for free, or use n8n Cloud on a paid plan. Our local npm install failed.
n8n automates workflows across apps, including agent-style steps. Community Edition is the free self-host path. n8n Cloud’s Starter plan was listed at 20€/month on annual billing, with a card-free trial rather than a permanent free cloud tier. We tried npm install n8n@2.43.6 and it failed in this environment (node-gyp / distutils). Registry, docs, and pricing were still checked, so the status stays docs checked.
Best for
- Automations you can self-host
- Multi-step workflows across apps you already use
Not ideal for
- A one-import Python agent library
- A permanent free cloud plan — we did not find one
What we checked
Docs checked means we opened the official site and the pricing and docs URLs on this page. We did not run a successful local install, so this is not a smoke test.
npm install attempted and failed (node-gyp/distutils). Registry+docs+pricing verified.
Notes from this check
- Attempted local `npm install n8n@2.43.6` failed (node-gyp/isolated-vm needs distutils; ModuleNotFoundError: distutils). npm registry metadata OK (2.43.6).
Related tools
Make
Visual automation across apps. The pricing FAQ we fetched describes a free plan with 1,000 credits a month.
Docs checkedChecked October 15, 2026
Free tier: Check pricing (opens in a new tab)
From: Check pricing (opens in a new tab)
Checked October 16, 2026
- Strength. The official pricing FAQ describes a free plan with 1,000 credits per month for visual automations.
- Weakness. The pricing page itself returned HTTP 403, so the paid Core, Pro, and Teams amounts were not confirmed from that page.
Zapier
Connects the apps you already use. The free plan includes 100 tasks per month.
Docs checkedChecked October 15, 2026
Free tier: Yes · 100 tasks per month.
From: $19.99/mo
Checked October 16, 2026
- Strength. The free plan includes 100 tasks per month for connecting hosted apps without running a server.
- Weakness. Professional starts at $19.99 per month, and the workflows run on Zapier's cloud rather than a server you host.