Head-to-head · checked October 2026

Activepieces vsn8n

Pricing, features, and which one fits your team — compared from each tool's own pricing and product pages.

Both can be self-hosted. Activepieces' Community Edition is MIT-licensed open source and its cloud starts free (1,000 credits), then $20/month. n8n is fair-code (Sustainable Use License) with a larger library (1,500+ integrations) and cloud from €20/month per 2,500 executions. Pick Activepieces for a permissive licence and simpler builder, n8n for depth and ecosystem.

Activepieces vs n8n at a glance

Activepiecesn8n
LicenceMIT (Community Edition)Sustainable Use License (fair-code)
Self-hostingYesYes
Cloud starting priceFree (1,000 credits); Plus $20/monthFrom €20/month (2,500 executions)
Integrations760+ pieces1,500+
AI agentsAgents and MCP on paid plansAI Agent node, MCP
Learning curveGentlerSteeper, more powerful

Which should you choose?

Choose Activepieces if…

  • You want a permissive MIT licence — for example, to embed or resell.
  • Non-technical teammates will build flows.
  • You want a free cloud tier to start.

Choose n8n if…

  • You need the larger integration library and community.
  • You want code nodes and fine control over data.
  • Your workflows run many steps per execution.

A third option

Where Ideople fits

If you are choosing between self-hosted builders to run AI agents, Ideople is the managed alternative: no servers, agents that plan their own steps, risk grading on every action, and approvals before anything high-risk runs. It does not offer a self-hosted version.

Activepieces vs n8n: questions people ask

Yes. The Community Edition is released under the MIT licence; paid editions add governance and team features.
n8n is source-available under its Sustainable Use License, which allows free internal self-hosting but restricts offering it as a service. It is not OSI-approved open source.
n8n: 1,500+ integrations against 760+ pieces on Activepieces' pricing page.

Sources

Prices and features as published on October 2026. Vendors change plans often; check their pages before you buy.