n8n
Fair-code workflow automation platform with native AI capabilities — visual canvas plus code, self-hosted or cloud.
About
n8n is a node-based workflow automation platform (created 2019) that added native AI agent capabilities in 2024–2025: AI Agent nodes, LangChain integration, MCP client/server nodes, and 70+ AI-specific nodes alongside 1500+ integrations.
It is fair-code, not OSI open source: the source is visible and self-hosting is free, but the Sustainable Use License forbids reselling it as a hosted service.
What it can do
- Build AI agents and multi-step workflows on one visual canvas with JavaScript/Python code nodes
- 1500+ integrations plus 9,000+ community workflow templates
- Native MCP client and MCP server trigger nodes for agent interoperability (verified in official docs)
- Human-in-the-loop approvals, retries, error handling, scheduling and webhooks
- Self-hostable with RBAC, SSO, audit logs and encrypted secret stores (enterprise tiers)
- Full REST API and webhook triggers for external integration
Setup
- Install Docker (or use n8n Cloud).
- Run
curl -fsSL https://get.n8n.io | sh, or manually:docker run -it --rm --name n8n -p 5678:5678 -v n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n - Open
http://localhost:5678and create an owner account. - Add credentials for your LLM provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, …) in the Credentials panel.
- Add an AI Agent node to a workflow and attach model, memory, and tool sub-nodes.
Prerequisites
Docker (or Node.js ≥18); LLM API keys; more RAM for production instances.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 9/10
The most-starred entry here (207k), actively maintained with commits as of Oct 2026, excellent docs, and a genuinely self-hostable architecture with encrypted credential storage. Docked for: (1) the fair-code license is not OSI open source and restricts commercial hosting; (2) self-hosted security is entirely the user's responsibility, and workflows hold powerful API credentials — a misconfigured instance is high-risk. Enterprise case studies and G2 badges are vendor marketing — provider-claimed.
★ 207,121 GitHub stars
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 9.7/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 9.8/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 7.2/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 8.0/10
- · 207,121 GitHub stars (log-scaled vs catalog peers)
- · last push 0d ago; 100 releases/12mo; 1171 open issues
- · manual review: mature docs; fair-code caveat + credential-risk note
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.