n8n

Estimate executions and capacity

n8n pricing states its listed plans are priced by monthly workflow executions regardless of complexity. It lists unlimited steps and workflows, but different concurrent execution and shared project allowances. An execution is not directly comparable to a Zapier task or Make operation.

On the pricing page, n8n lists hosted Starter at €20 per month billed annually for 2,500 executions and hosted Pro at €50 per month billed annually for 10,000 executions. Business is listed as self-hosted. These are dated euro monthly equivalents with annual billing; verify current currency, taxes and contract before buying.

Model each form event, sub-workflow, retry and error workflow under the contract’s counting rules. Confirm which executions count, what happens at the allowance, and whether AI providers or infrastructure have separate costs.

n8n’s self-hosted concurrency guide says its concurrency control applies to production executions, not manual, sub-workflow or error executions. Queued executions cannot be retried while queued. Size for bursts and test the queue and monitoring on the edition you choose.

Choose hosting and license

n8n offers a free self-hosted Community edition and paid Business and Enterprise features. Self-hosting requires someone to operate the infrastructure, upgrades, backups, credentials and recovery. Confirm what the chosen edition includes before equating a free license with a fully managed service.

n8n’s license FAQ says the Sustainable Use License governs free self-hosted Community use; it is not an unrestricted open-source license. It permits charging for workflow creation and maintenance, including work on your instance where clients cannot create or edit workflows. The n8n use-case guide describes a commercial license for external users building or configuring workflows, including through a separate interface or API. Check the current terms for your arrangement.

Control publication and retries

n8n describes saving drafts and publishing a workflow for production. Use an owner-approved change and rollback process; publishing alone is not a substitute for testing integrations and permissions.

n8n’s execution guide describes retrying a failed workflow from saved execution state. n8n workflow settings describe saving node progress, which may increase latency. Verify the settings and version deployed; saved progress and retry scope affect which actions run again.

n8n supports error workflows for failed executions. Notify an owner, inspect destination writes after ambiguous failures, and use a stable source ID or idempotent upsert where supported before a retry. Reconcile form submissions against CRM records.

n8n says a retried failed node receives all its saved input again, including items already handled before failure. If the failed node invokes a sub-workflow, the entire sub-workflow starts again. Inspect destination records before retrying either case.

Scope credentials and handoff

n8n’s HubSpot node lists contact search and Create/Update operations. Its documentation does not specify the matching key in that listing; verify how the chosen version selects an existing record before relying on an upsert.

n8n separates instance roles from project roles. Its role guide says project access does not automatically grant access to another user’s personal credential. Verify available roles and credential-sharing features on the actual edition.

For a CRM handoff, test the real field mapping and permissions with authorized test records. Confirm CRM acceptance, ownership, consent and campaign fields, as well as rejected or duplicate submissions. Limit access to execution data and keep a documented recovery owner.

HubSpot says CRM API writes using its 2026-09 version enforce administrator-configured required and conditional properties. User-level OAuth association changes can also require permission. Confirm the connector’s API version and test validation errors; HubSpot says required associations remain enforced in the app UI, not public API writes.

n8n’s 2.2.0 release notes show a vendor screenshot of custom project-role permissions. The illustration is historical and describes Enterprise; verify the current interface and edition.

How to compare the alternatives

Compare the same form and CRM workflow with Zapier and Make. The Zapier vs Make comparison addresses their hosted meters and recovery. See the forms and CRM guides for the endpoints.

Common questions

Is self-hosted n8n automatically suitable for a client-facing product?

n8n’s license FAQ distinguishes permitted workflow services from uses requiring further licensing. Check the precise arrangement against the current terms.

Does n8n charge for each step?

n8n describes its listed plan pricing by workflow execution with unlimited steps. Confirm the execution counting rules and other costs for your contract.

Sources and scope

We read the linked vendor documentation on November 5, 2026. This is documentation-only research; we have not used these products, executed workflows or tested integrations.

Inclusion and corrections are free; sponsorship does not determine our conclusions. Confirm current terms and test your own configuration.

Sponsorship never changes this page. How we research.