n8n Pricing Explained: Real Plan Prices, Cloud vs Self-Hosted
Verified n8n prices for 2026: Cloud Starter €20/month, Pro €50/month, self-hosted free or Business €667/month. What an execution is, what self-hosting really costs, and how n8n compares with Zapier and Make.
How n8n Pricing Works
n8n has two ways to pay: n8n Cloud, where n8n hosts everything for a monthly fee, or self-hosting, where the Community Edition software is free and you pay only for your server.
The key difference from Zapier or Make is the billing unit. n8n Cloud counts executions — one full run of a workflow, regardless of how many steps it has. A 50-node workflow and a 2-node workflow each cost one execution, which is why n8n gets dramatically cheaper as automations grow.
All prices below were verified against the official n8n pricing page in September 2026. n8n bills in euros; annual billing saves about 17%. Confirm current numbers on n8n.io/pricing before budgeting.
n8n Cloud Plans and Prices
| Plan | Price (annual billing) | Monthly billing | Executions/month | Key features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | €20/mo | €24/mo | 2,500 | 1 shared project, 5 concurrent executions, unlimited users, forum support |
| Pro | €50/mo | €60/mo | 10,000 | 3 shared projects, 20 concurrent executions, admin roles, global variables, workflow history |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Unlimited projects, 200+ concurrent executions, log streaming, SLA support, invoice billing |
Every paid Cloud plan includes unlimited users, unlimited workflows and all integrations — you only pay for execution volume. Larger Pro sizes are available (for example 50,000 executions at roughly €121/month on annual billing).
Self-Hosted Plans: Free Community Edition and Business
| Plan | Price | Executions | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Community Edition | Free | Unlimited | All integrations and AI nodes, full workflow editor, runs on your own server |
| Business | €667/mo (annual billing) | ~40,000 | SSO/SAML/LDAP, Git version control, dev/staging/prod environments, 6 projects, 30-day insights |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | External secret stores, extended data retention, dedicated support with SLA |
The Community Edition is genuinely free for internal business use under the Sustainable Use License — the real cost is your server and the time to maintain it. The Business tier exists for companies that self-host but need governance features like SSO and version control.
The Real Cost of Self-Hosting n8n
| Setup | What it includes | Rough monthly hosting |
|---|---|---|
| Hobby | Single small VPS, SQLite | $5–$10 |
| Small business | VPS with Docker, PostgreSQL, HTTPS, backups | $10–$40 |
| Production at scale | Queue mode with Redis, multiple workers, managed database | $50+ |
The bigger hidden cost is people time: updates, monitoring, backups and security. If nobody on the team owns that, Cloud Starter at €20/month is often cheaper overall.
n8n vs Zapier vs Make: What the Same Workflow Costs
| Platform | Billing unit | A 10-step workflow run costs | Self-hosting |
|---|---|---|---|
| n8n Cloud | Execution (full run) | 1 execution | Also available free |
| Zapier | Task (each action step) | Up to 10 tasks | No |
| Make | Operation / credit (each module) | About 10 operations | No |
A workflow with 10 steps running 1,000 times a month uses 1,000 n8n executions (well inside the €50 Pro plan) but up to 10,000 Zapier tasks — a plan tier several times more expensive. This billing difference, plus free self-hosting, is the main reason teams switch to n8n.
How to Keep n8n Costs Low
- Combine related steps into one workflow instead of chaining many small ones.
- Use webhook triggers instead of frequent polling schedules — a Gmail poll every 5 minutes alone can burn through Starter's 2,500 executions in about 11 days.
- Filter out irrelevant items early so workflows stop before doing unnecessary work.
- Turn off saving successful execution data for high-volume workflows.
- Self-host the Community Edition once your Cloud bill would exceed the cost of a VPS plus maintenance time.
Which Option Should You Choose?
- Trying n8n or running a few light automations: Cloud Starter at €20/month.
- Production workloads without server maintenance: Cloud Pro at €50/month.
- Technical team, sensitive data or high volume: self-host the free Community Edition.
- Self-hosted company needing SSO, environments and Git: Business at €667/month.
- Strict compliance, audit and support requirements: talk to n8n about Enterprise.
Not sure? An n8n expert can estimate your execution volume and total cost before you commit.
Keep reading
Frequently Asked Questions
Is n8n free?
Yes, the self-hosted Community Edition is free under n8n's fair-code Sustainable Use License, with unlimited workflows and executions. You pay only for the server it runs on. n8n Cloud plans start at €20/month.
How much does n8n Cloud cost?
As of September 2026: Starter is €20/month billed annually (€24 monthly) for 2,500 executions, and Pro is €50/month billed annually (€60 monthly) for 10,000 executions. Annual billing saves about 17%.
What counts as an execution in n8n?
One execution is one complete run of a workflow from trigger to finish. A 20-step workflow that runs once is one execution — unlike Zapier or Make, which charge for every step.
How much does it cost to self-host n8n?
The software is free; the cost is hosting. A small VPS for light use runs about $5–$10/month, and a production setup with PostgreSQL, HTTPS and backups roughly $10–$40/month.
Is n8n cheaper than Zapier?
Usually, especially at volume. Zapier bills per task (each action step), while n8n Cloud bills per full workflow run and self-hosted n8n has no execution fee at all.
Can I use n8n commercially for free?
You can use the free self-hosted version for your own internal business automations. Offering n8n itself as a hosted service to others, or embedding it in a product you sell, needs a commercial agreement with n8n.
Which n8n plan should I choose?
Starter for trying n8n Cloud, Pro for production workloads on Cloud, Community Edition if you can run a server and want the lowest cost, and Business or Enterprise when you need SSO, environments or support guarantees.
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