Every source behind the read

48 sources in Leaders and teams rolling it out, with product documentation Showing all 97 sources

1. Mixed

   Husne Ozmen, SRE at Fairwinds

   How We Deployed, Maintained, and Migrated Production n8n on EKSCompany engineering blog post, Fairwinds

   Fairwinds ran n8n on EKS under real traffic for about a year on a community Helm chart, then cut over to the official chart when local patches became hard to justify. Ozmen reports that n8n is easy to try and harder to run in production, and multi-replica main pods need an Enterprise license.

   "We deployed n8n on Amazon EKS, ran it under real traffic, and later moved from a community Helm chart…"

   Published Sep 23, 2026self-described: Production n8n in queue mode on Amazon EKS with workers, webhook processors, PostgreSQL, Redis, and S3, moved from a community Helm chart to the official one

   Counts toward

   • Overall signal
   • Self-hosting upkeep: Raised as a concern
   • License & paid tiers: Raised as a concern

   Published on

   Business & engineering blogs

   Who

   Department

   Evidence

   Reported

   Applies to

   Current

   Observed on

   Self-hosted n8n in queue mode on Amazon EKS

2. Positive

   Alex Puzanov, Founder and Architect, ApexSmartCorp (X profile)

   Automate subtitle gaps with n8nX post

   A scheduled n8n pipeline lists videos without subtitle files, fetches them from a provider's API, and reports to Telegram; Puzanov estimates that it saves the media team up to 85% of that work.

   Published Sep 21, 2026self-described: Scheduled n8n pipeline that finds and downloads missing subtitles for the company's media team

   Counts toward

   • Overall signal
   • Self-hosting & data control: Positive
   • Fast internal automations

   Published on

   Practitioner communities

   Who

   IT & leadership

   Evidence

   Reported

   Applies to

   Current

   Observed on

   Self-hosted n8n on a small VPS

3. Negative

   brunoarueira, Hacker News commenter, former employee

   Comment on: I am retiring from fulltime writing (& pseudonymity) to launch Guardian AngelHacker News comment

   At a former workplace, n8n flows built by non-engineers started breaking after the last non-technical owner left, so dependent staff had to ask engineering to fix them.

   Published Aug 5, 2026self-described: Former employer, n8n flows built by non-technical staff

   Counts toward

   • Overall signal
   • Failed & silent runs: Raised as a concern
   • Maintainability at scale: Raised as a concern

   Published on

   Practitioner communities

   Who

   Department

   Evidence

   Reported

   Applies to

   Current

4. Mixed

   Malte Buttjer, Builder running a team's e-commerce automations in n8n

   Free your Code nodesPersonal blog post, buttjer.net

   Buttjer likes n8n for the boring half of the work, but says Code node source stored as a JSON string is unreviewable, so Buttjer moved it into git behind an MCP guard.

   Published Aug 5, 2026self-described: Unnamed e-commerce team: Amazon and eBay feeds built from Shopify GraphQL in n8n Code nodes, edited by coding agents through n8n's built-in MCP server

   Counts toward

   • Overall signal
   • AI agent workflows: Positive
   • Self-hosting & data control: Positive
   • Visual building & debugging: Positive
   • Maintainability at scale: Raised as a concern

   Published on

   Business & engineering blogs

   Who

   Small team

   Evidence

   Reported

   Applies to

   Current

   Observed on

   n8n built-in MCP server, Code nodes, drafts and publish

5. Positive

   Mirza Rahim Baig, Team Lead, Product Analytics at Zalando

   Real Case Study: How a Car Rental Business Automated Operations with n8nCustomer case study, YouTube

   Zalando product analytics lead Mirza Rahim Baig walks through an n8n case study that automates driving-license verification, data entry, logging, and customer onboarding for Pick n Drive.

   "Real Case Study: How a Car Rental Business Automated Operations with n8n | n8n Series | Part 5…"

   Published May 20, 2026A client car-rental business automating license verification and onboarding

   Counts toward

   • Overall signal
   • Code & flexibility: Positive
   • Fast internal automations

   Published on

   Videos & talks

   Who

   Department

   Evidence

   Reported

   Applies to

   Current

   Observed on

   n8n workflow for Pick n Drive

6. No opinion stated

   Katrin Lehmann, Chief Information Officer, Mercedes-Benz AG

   Post on LinkedIn by Katrin Lehmann on the global n8n rollout at Mercedes-BenzLinkedIn post

   Mercedes-Benz is rolling out self-hosted n8n as a global low-code platform for AI workflows across R&D, production, sales, HR, financial services and IT. The strongest use cases from a 1,500-employee hackathon move into implementation on it, and the CIO names self-hosting and data sovereignty as the reasons.

   Published May 12, 2026self-described: Mercedes-Benz IT, rolling out self-hosted n8n as a company-wide low-code platform for AI workflows

   Published on

   Practitioner communities

   Who

   Organization-wide

   Evidence

   Reported

   Applies to

   Current

   Observed on

   Self-hosted n8n

7. Mixed

   luka-mimi, Enterprise-license customer running n8n on Google Cloud Kubernetes

   Webhook upgrades to versions 2.16.0 and 2.17.0 have serious bugs and require urgent attention.GitHub issue

   After upgrading to 2.16.0 and 2.17.0, webhooks with a Wait node could become unresponsive; the paying enterprise customer reported no reply from support by email.

   Published Apr 14, 2026self-described: Queue-mode deployment on GCP Kubernetes: 3 main servers, 15 workers, 1 webhook instance

   Counts toward, pending a recheck

   • Overall signal
   • Failed & silent runs: Raised as a concern

   Published on

   Practitioner communities

   Who

   Department

   Evidence

   Reported

   Applies to

   Needs a recheck

   Observed on

   Enterprise license, queue mode on GCP Kubernetes

8. Negative

   fabriciomoreirao, GitHub user reporting for a team running n8n in production

   High RAM usage, until it crashesGitHub issue on n8n-io/n8n

   Memory on a queue-mode deployment climbs through the day to 98 to 100%, forcing restarts after an upgrade to a 32 GB EC2 instance. The reporter says moving to Docker did not stop it.

   Published Mar 5, 2026self-described: Self-hosted queue mode (main and worker processes) on a 32 GB AWS EC2 instance with PostgreSQL on RDS

   Counts toward

   • Overall signal
   • Failed & silent runs: Raised as a concern
   • Self-hosting upkeep: Raised as a concern

   Published on

   Practitioner communities

   Who

   Small team

   Evidence

   Measured

   Applies to

   Current

   Observed on

   Self-hosted queue mode under PM2, then Docker

9. Mixed

   u/Exact-Muscle6821, Runs a small automation agency

   Most "AI agent" workflows are just glorified if-else chains with extra stepsReddit post

   Uses n8n's AI features constantly for bounded tasks such as PDF extraction and ticket routing, but says most published agent workflows are showpieces that break in production.

   Published Feb 13, 2026self-described: Builds n8n workflows for clients daily

   Counts toward

   • Overall signal
   • AI agent workflows: Mixed or negative
   • AI in bounded steps

   Published on

   Practitioner communities

   Who

   Small team

   Evidence

   Reported

   Applies to

   Current

   Observed on

   AI Agent and LLM nodes in client workflows

10. Mixed

    CJavierSaldana, Self-hosted n8n user calling an MCP server on Cloudflare Workers

    [MCP Client] Transport selection dropdown ignored - causes 95M failed requests retry stormGitHub issue

    The MCP Client node used SSE although HTTP Streamable was selected, creating a retry loop of about 47 requests per second and 95+ million failed requests over 8 days.

    Published Jan 28, 2026self-described: n8n self-hosted on Kubernetes, MCP Client Tool node calling a Cloudflare Worker MCP server

    Counts toward, pending a recheck

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Mixed or negative
    • Failed & silent runs: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Small team

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Needs a recheck

    Observed on

    Self-hosted on Kubernetes, MCP Client Tool node

11. Negative

    sergiotapia, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: RIP Low-Code 2014-2025Hacker News comment

    At work they tried Retool and n8n for months but found building internal tools with Claude Code faster and better, and the no-code AI features often failed.

    Published Jan 26, 2026self-described: Employer (healthcare-related internal tools: patient matcher, fax and referral tools)

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Mixed or negative
    • Outgrown into code
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Move it to code

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Small team

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

12. No opinion stated

    Alexander Menk, iMi digital GmbH (GitHub profile)

    Still need to Publish after Git Pull (Business Version)GitHub issue on n8n-io/n8n

    After the team upgraded from 1.x to 2.3.5, workflows pulled from Git into its locked production instance were never published. Production kept running the old version until each workflow was republished by hand.

    Published Jan 20, 2026self-described: Business edition with a locked production instance fed from staging through Git push and pull

    Counts toward

    • Failed & silent runs: Raised as a concern
    • Maintainability at scale: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Department

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    Self-hosted Business, n8n 2.3.5

13. Positive

    nkg, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: Ask HN: What are you working on? (January 2026)Hacker News comment

    Building n8n catalog workflows to sync company ERP data into Akeneo, which involves many departments who turned out helpful.

    Published Jan 13, 2026self-described: Company ERP to Akeneo PIM catalog synchronization

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Fast internal automations

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Department

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

14. Positive

    Matthias Laug, CTO and co-founder of Just Eat Takeaway and TIER Mobility

    n8n + Pinecone Assistant with Matthias LaugCTO podcast, YouTube

    Technology leader Matthias Laug discusses building a retrieval workflow with n8n and Pinecone, and weighs automations and modern language-model workflows from a CTO perspective.

    "…n8n + Pinecone Assistant with Matthias Laug CTO of Just Eat Takeaway and TIER Mobility…"

    Published Nov 17, 2025CTO discussion and a RAG workflow built with n8n and Pinecone

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Positive
    • Code & flexibility: Positive

    Published on

    Videos & talks

    Who

    IT & leadership

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    n8n workflow with Pinecone and document sources

15. Positive

    Erwin Buckers, co-founder and CEO of Chainels

    Scaling Secure AI Automation with n8n EnterpriseCustomer conference talk, YouTube

    Chainels CEO Erwin Buckers describes self-hosting n8n Enterprise on AWS with Kubernetes, custom nodes, and evaluations while supporting up to one million workflow executions per month.

    "Scaling Secure AI Automation with n8n Enterprise - n8n Builders Berlin…"

    Published Nov 6, 2025Chainels team running n8n Enterprise on AWS Kubernetes for a European platform

    Not counted

    Published on n8n's own YouTube channel from its Builders Berlin event. Kept in the record; it takes part in no figure.

    Published on

    Videos & talks

    Who

    IT & leadership

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    n8n Enterprise self-hosted on AWS with Kubernetes

16. Mixed

    u/the_aimonk, Reddit user tuning a client's n8n deployment

    N8n's Dirty Secret: When 8 Workers Perform WORSE Than 2Reddit post

    Spent three weeks finding why a client's queue-mode n8n slowed with 8 workers; 2 workers with higher concurrency gave 1,370 workflows per minute versus 840.

    Published Nov 1, 2025self-described: Client's queue-mode n8n on PostgreSQL, comparing 2 and 8 workers under load

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Self-hosting upkeep: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Small team

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Queue mode with PostgreSQL

17. Positive

    alluro2, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: N8n raises US$180MHacker News comment

    Their junior developer builds scheduled API-to-CSV-to-email workflows in about an hour, self-hosted on a small VM, without separate deployment or cron work.

    Published Oct 10, 2025self-described: Unnamed company, scheduled data workflows

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Visual building & debugging: Positive
    • Fast internal automations
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Keep it in n8n

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Small team

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Self-hosted on a small VM

18. Positive

    marktolson, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: N8n raises US$180MHacker News comment

    Uses n8n daily; their team processes millions of workflow runs a year on a very small server at no cost and would not build a new system without it.

    Published Oct 9, 2025self-described: Team use

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Cost at volume: Positive

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Small team

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Single small server

19. Negative

    seer, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: N8n raises US$180MHacker News comment

    Trialled n8n as their whole backend; even self-hosted they burned through licensed executions quickly, so they coded alternatives and dropped n8n.

    Published Oct 9, 2025self-described: Startup app backend, self-hosted with load balancers, KV store and database

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • License & paid tiers: Raised as a concern
    • Outgrown into code
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Move it to code

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Small team

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Self-hosted with paid license and execution allotment

20. Mixed

    leo_researchly, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: AI won't replace content creators (at least for now)Hacker News comment

    Spent 16 full hours building a basic n8n workflow that checks blog SEO issues; it is complex, only gives recommendations, and scratches the surface.

    Published Sep 17, 2025self-described: Company blog SEO (Researchly)

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Maintainability at scale: Discussed without concern
    • Learning curve: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Small team

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Still applicable

21. Positive

    resiros, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: NetBird Is Embracing the AGPLv3 LicenseHacker News comment

    The team self-hosts n8n and loves it, license and all, because it serves their work.

    Published Aug 6, 2025self-described: A team that self-hosts n8n

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Self-hosting & data control: Positive

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Small team

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

22. Negative

    JimDabell, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: N8n vs. node-redHacker News comment

    Wanted to embed n8n as a small part of their product for customers; n8n told them the free license forbids it and quoted a US$50k commercial license.

    Published Jul 21, 2025self-described: Software company product integration

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • License & paid tiers: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Small team

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Embedding n8n in a commercial product (not allowed under free license)

23. Negative

    kaht, n8n Community member evaluating Enterprise

    N8n Enterprise On-Prem License Limits (?)Community forum post

    Evaluating self-hosted Enterprise, questions why the license caps active workflows and yearly executions when the customer's own servers supply all the compute.

    Published Jun 23, 2025self-described: Evaluating self-hosted Enterprise

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • License & paid tiers: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Small team

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Enterprise, on-premises

24. Mixed

    jasongill, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: N8n - Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teamsHacker News comment

    Good but not great in their organization: a cheaper Zapier substitute non-technical users praise, but custom apps must be injected into the Docker container and AI features are thin.

    Published May 3, 2025self-described: Organization with developers and non-technical users; previously tried Windmill

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Mixed or negative
    • Code & flexibility: Mixed or negative
    • Cost at volume: Positive
    • Feature Gaps: Raised as a concern
    • License & paid tiers: Discussed without concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Department

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Self-hosted Docker with custom app modules

25. Mixed

    neoecos, Co-founder (Hacker News commenter)

    Comment on: N8n - Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teamsHacker News comment

    Their company runs billing, financial reconciliation and support automations in n8n across ops, finance and product, self-hosted on Kubernetes, but it needs care and breaking changes hurt.

    Published May 3, 2025self-described: Company-wide use across ops, finance and product teams; co-founder speaking

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Failed & silent runs: Raised as a concern
    • Self-hosting upkeep: Raised as a concern
    • Fast internal automations

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    IT & leadership

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Self-hosted on Kubernetes

26. Mixed

    photon_garden, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: N8n - Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teamsHacker News comment

    Ran n8n in production for months at their startup: good execution observability and integrations, but flaky parallelism, poor version control and pricey hosting; migrating to backend code.

    Published May 3, 2025self-described: Startup production workflows

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Cost at volume: Mixed or negative
    • Visual building & debugging: Positive
    • Failed & silent runs: Raised as a concern
    • Maintainability at scale: Raised as a concern
    • Outgrown into code
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Move it to code

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Small team

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

27. Negative

    Tadpole9181, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: N8n - Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teamsHacker News comment

    Wanted shared workspaces for a small team while self-hosting, but that requires the Enterprise tier at many times the cost, making n8n unusable for them.

    Published May 3, 2025self-described: Small team evaluating self-hosted options

    Counts toward, pending a recheck

    • Overall signal
    • License & paid tiers: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Small team

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Needs a recheck

28. Positive

    Gentleman9914, n8n Community member

    Installing Custom Nodes from a Private NPM Registry in n8n Using pnpm Inside a Custom Docker ImageCommunity forum post

    The company runs licensed, self-hosted n8n with Docker Compose, contributes PRs upstream, and builds a custom image to version its private nodes.

    Published Mar 24, 2025self-described: A company running licensed, self-hosted n8n with its own nodes

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Code & flexibility: Positive
    • Self-hosting & data control: Positive

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Department

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Paid license, self-hosted with Docker Compose

29. Mixed

    Pragadeesh Waran, Engineer evaluating n8n for an organization

    Feedback on Self-Hosting and Using n8nCommunity forum post

    A Jira ticket workflow took far less time than the estimated 4 to 5 hours by API. Handling a binary upload to S3 took about six hours, with thin docs and a data flow that was hard to follow.

    Published Mar 13, 2025self-described: Automation use cases within the author's organization

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Self-hosting & data control: Positive
    • Learning curve: Raised as a concern
    • Fast internal automations

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Department

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

30. Negative

    John Walsh, Former Enterprise customer

    Feedback: self-hosted pricingCommunity forum post

    Walsh's last company paid US$13,000 for an Enterprise license with 50 workflows; a new quote came in at what Walsh calls IBM or Oracle levels.

    Published Feb 9, 2025self-described: Licensed n8n Enterprise at a previous company

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Cost at volume: Mixed or negative
    • License & paid tiers: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Department

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Self-hosted Enterprise license

31. No opinion stated

    Trond Eirik Haavarstein, Principal Endpoint Platform Engineer and Microsoft MVP (X profile)

    My AI CTO moved my n8n server to a smaller VMX post

    An AI agent moved Haavarstein's self-hosted n8n server, 97 workflows with credentials intact, to a smaller VM with about 6 minutes of downtime, cutting hosting from US$28.80 to US$14.40 a month.

    Published Oct 23, 2026Own self-hosted n8n server with 97 workflows, moved to a smaller VM by an AI agent

    Counts toward

    • Self-hosting upkeep: Discussed without concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    Self-hosted n8n

32. Mixed

    Qasim Parray, Freelance automation builder working for clients

    The n8n Workflow That Broke Silently for Six WeeksDeveloper blog post, dev.to

    A client lead-scoring workflow kept running but scored every lead zero for six weeks after a form payload changed; n8n logged no failure, though execution history made the fix quick.

    Published Sep 29, 2026self-described: Client lead-intake workflow (webhook, Function node scoring, Slack alerts); self-hosted on Docker with Postgres

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Cost at volume: Positive
    • Visual building & debugging: Positive
    • Failed & silent runs: Raised as a concern
    • Self-hosting upkeep: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Business & engineering blogs

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    Self-hosted n8n on Docker, image tag pinned

33. Positive

    Wolfgang Wagner, TYPO3 trainer, integrator, and consultant

    n8n always seemed too complicated to me. Until today.Personal blog post, wwagner.net

    Wagner had backed out of n8n several times as too cumbersome. He then moved 14 of 16 active Make scenarios to it in one day with Claude doing the setup, choosing n8n because it runs on his own server for less.

    Published Sep 23, 2026self-described: Moved his business's active Make scenarios (RSS imports, Zoom and Digistore24 webhooks) to n8n with Claude connected over MCP

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Cost at volume: Positive
    • Self-hosting & data control: Positive
    • Learning curve: Discussed without concern

    Published on

    Business & engineering blogs

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    n8n with Claude connected over MCP

34. Positive

    Austin Hutchison, Self-hoster running personal services on a Hetzner VM

    N8N as my Sys AdminPersonal blog post, blog.hutch.is

    Uses self-hosted n8n workflows to pull updates and patch other self-hosted services, including n8n itself, after MCP made building workflows by talking to an agent easy.

    Published Sep 21, 2026self-described: Self-hosted n8n that updates itself and other self-hosted services, with Telegram summaries; workflows built through an agent via MCP

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Positive
    • Self-hosting & data control: Positive
    • Self-hosting upkeep: Discussed without concern
    • Fast internal automations

    Published on

    Business & engineering blogs

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    Self-hosted n8n on Docker, MCP support used from Codex

35. Positive

    scrivna, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: Ask HN: Remember N8n? Anyone?Hacker News comment

    Runs a few client workflows on n8n Cloud at grandfathered pricing, finds it very reliable and simpler to reason about than LLM-generated code.

    Published Sep 20, 2026self-described: Freelance work, a few workflows for a client

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Cost at volume: Positive
    • Failed & silent runs: Discussed without concern
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Keep it in n8n

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    n8n Cloud (hosted), grandfathered pricing

36. Negative

    Alfred Nutile, Developer and author (LLMs and PHP), former n8n advocate who introduced n8n to client companies

    Why I No Longer Build With n8nNewsletter, Daily AI Studio (Substack)

    After a year building back ends in n8n, Nutile hit limits with large files, data volume, loops and testing, and now builds with code templates and AI coding tools instead.

    Published Sep 3, 2026self-described: Built back ends in n8n (APIs, background jobs, queue work, AI integration) for over a year

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Positive
    • Code & flexibility: Mixed or negative
    • Maintainability at scale: Raised as a concern
    • Feature Gaps: Raised as a concern
    • Outgrown into code
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Move it to code

    Published on

    Business & engineering blogs

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    n8n used as backend with LangChain AI nodes

37. Negative

    u/Far_Day3173, Reddit user

    Agentic coding has kind of made n8n obsoleteReddit post

    Shut down their n8n server because AI coding tools now write the scripts faster, and code in a repo is visible to others; still credits n8n for validating automation ideas.

    Published Sep 1, 2026self-described: Ran own n8n server; moved the automations to Python scripts on Vercel with Trigger.dev

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Maintainability at scale: Raised as a concern
    • Fast internal automations
    • Outgrown into code
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Move it to code

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    Self-hosted n8n server, decommissioned

38. Mixed

    achiya-automation, Automation consultant who builds WhatsApp bots for clients

    n8n's Error Trigger Is Opt-In. My Bot Gate Failed for 71 Hours and Alerted Nobody.Developer blog post, dev.to

    An unguarded workflow failed 24 times over 71 hours unnoticed; an audit showed error-workflow coverage on the instance had decayed because the Error Trigger must be attached per workflow.

    Published Aug 24, 2026self-described: Own production n8n instance running internal workflows (WhatsApp bot gate, lead intake, watchdogs)

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Failed & silent runs: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Business & engineering blogs

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    n8n 2.35.5, queue mode, Postgres

39. Positive

    tomaskafka, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: An update on leaving Gmail for FastmailHacker News comment

    Built a basic email classification workflow in n8n with a cheap LLM model; says it works very well and costs very little.

    Published Aug 17, 2026self-described: Personal email account

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Positive
    • Cost at volume: Positive

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    n8n workflow with a cheap LLM model

40. Negative

    krmmalik, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: Show HN: Ballet - Workflow automation that writes integrations against any APIHacker News comment

    A non-coder tried hard with n8n but found it impossible to work with, then had Claude write Python scripts for spreadsheet and API work instead.

    Published Aug 13, 2026self-described: Non-coder automating own work spreadsheets and APIs

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Learning curve: Raised as a concern
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Move it to code

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

41. Mixed

    Rogério Maciel, Solo founder of CoreAutoCRM, an auto repair shop management SaaS run over WhatsApp

    From Visual Workflows to Native Code in Production: The Complete Journey of an n8n Backend That Couldn't Stop EvolvingDeveloper blog post, dev.to

    Built a SaaS backend in n8n for speed, then wrote a custom Git sync and CI/CD because workflows had no diff or history. Finally compiled workflows to TypeScript for latency and memory.

    Published Aug 9, 2026self-described: Entire product backend in n8n (74, later 126 workflows) on separate staging and production servers

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Visual building & debugging: Positive
    • Maintainability at scale: Raised as a concern
    • Fast internal automations
    • Outgrown into code

    Published on

    Business & engineering blogs

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    Two self-hosted n8n servers (staging and production), heavy use of subworkflows

42. Mixed

    zajasa, Integration consultant (founder of QuickFlo)

    Comment on: Show HN: QuickFlo - I got sick of exporting business workflows as a consultantHacker News comment

    Used n8n with self-run services for contact-center integrations; copying a workflow took minutes but rebuilding its surroundings took a week per customer, with config drift.

    Published Jul 26, 2026self-described: Integration consultant for contact-centre (CCaaS) platforms: Twilio, Cisco, Salesforce; later built own platform (QuickFlo)

    Not counted

    Its author founded QuickFlo, a competing workflow platform, and the post pitches it. Kept in the record; it takes part in no figure.

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    n8n plus custom services on own infrastructure

43. Positive

    garethsprice, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: How do you guys keep up with AI news?Hacker News comment

    Runs an n8n pipeline that scrapes industry sources daily, has an LLM score each story for relevance, and emails a weekly digest.

    Published Jul 17, 2026self-described: Personal news monitoring

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Positive
    • AI in bounded steps

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    Scheduled n8n pipeline with an LLM scoring step

44. Mixed

    u/LeMochileiro, Cloud engineer with 10+ years of experience

    My thoughts on N8N as a Cloud Engineer with 10+ years of experience.Reddit post

    Likes n8n's integrations, Python and JavaScript support and expressions over Step Functions and Airflow, but finds Kubernetes self-hosting docs weak and the business license price a blocker for work.

    Published May 3, 2026self-described: Personal 8-node Kubernetes cluster for automations (after Airflow and Argo Workflows); evaluating n8n for a team

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Code & flexibility: Positive
    • Self-hosting upkeep: Raised as a concern
    • License & paid tiers: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    Self-hosted on Kubernetes with task runners

45. Positive

    Aman Suryavanshi, Developer who built lead automation for a client (Aviators Training Centre)

    Why I Chose n8n Over Zapier for Production Lead Automation (₹0 vs US$828+/Year)Developer blog post, dev.to

    Chose self-hosted n8n over Zapier for a client's lead pipeline because execution-based cost stays flat and one JavaScript Code node replaced several Zapier formatter steps.

    Published Apr 23, 2026self-described: Aviation training school: 3 workflows, 28+ nodes, 50+ leads/month; self-hosted on a US$6/month VPS

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Code & flexibility: Positive
    • Cost at volume: Positive

    Published on

    Business & engineering blogs

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    Self-hosted Community edition on a DigitalOcean VPS

46. Mixed

    u/Ambitious-Garbage-73, Self-hoster running client invoice reminders

    n8n dropped every webhook at 3am for two weeks and I only noticed because a client asked where his invoice wasReddit post

    A logrotate hook sent SIGHUP to the n8n container nightly, killing it and dropping webhooks for fourteen nights while health checks stayed green; a client noticed first.

    Published Apr 18, 2026self-described: n8n on a mini PC (16GB, Debian 12, docker compose), up about 8 months

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Failed & silent runs: Raised as a concern
    • Self-hosting upkeep: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    Self-hosted on Docker Compose with Uptime Kuma monitoring

47. Positive

    Jay Nguyen (nguyenthieutoan), Forum member who self-hosts n8n, including for client work

    N8n vs Zapier - my honest cost breakdown after 1 year of self-hostingCommunity forum post

    After a year, self-hosting saved roughly US$320 to US$500 versus Zapier for about 1-2 hours a month of server upkeep; recommends Zapier for non-technical users.

    Published Apr 11, 2026self-described: 8 workflows moved from Zapier; n8n on a US$6/month Hetzner CX22 with Docker, Nginx and Cloudflare tunnel

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Code & flexibility: Positive
    • Cost at volume: Positive
    • Self-hosting upkeep: Discussed without concern
    • Learning curve: Discussed without concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    Self-hosted on Hetzner CX22, Docker

48. Positive

    u/Beach-Independent, Former owner of a device repair shop (16 years)

    I built a WhatsApp + voice AI agent in n8n that handles 90% of customer service. Sold the business, the buyer kept it running without meReddit post

    An n8n router with four sub-agents handled about 90% of the shop's customer interactions for under 200 euros a month and kept running after the business was sold.

    Published Apr 4, 2026self-described: WhatsApp and voice customer-service agent: n8n router plus 4 sub-agents, Airtable, ElevenLabs; in production over a year

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Positive
    • Cost at volume: Positive
    • AI in bounded steps

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    AI Agent nodes with per-agent models, Airtable as data source

49. Positive

    chrisweekly, Hacker News commenter, self-described AI novice

    Comment on: Google releases Gemma 4 open modelsHacker News comment

    Spent a couple of hours setting up self-hosted n8n with Ollama and a small Gemma model for a fully local PDF extraction trial that works as intended.

    Published Apr 2, 2026self-described: Personal trial build on a laptop

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Positive
    • Self-hosting & data control: Positive
    • Fast internal automations

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    Self-hosted n8n with Ollama and gemma3:4b on a MacBook Air

50. Positive

    silversmith, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: OpenClaw surpasses React to become the most-starred software project on GitHubHacker News comment

    Argues n8n handles ambiguity through its LLM call node; their own automations run mostly deterministically with a few classify or summarize LLM steps.

    Published Mar 3, 2026self-described: Personal automations

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Positive
    • AI in bounded steps

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    Workflows with LLM call nodes

51. Positive

    windexh8er, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: OpenClaw - Moltbot Renamed AgainHacker News comment

    Comparing with OpenClaw, judges the agent implementation in n8n better built, with more safeguards and extensibility.

    Published Jan 30, 2026self-described: Personal assistant agents, home lab

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Positive

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    n8n agent implementation

52. Positive

    CountVonGuetzli, Hacker News commenter, self-described

    Comment on: RIP Low-Code 2014-2025Hacker News comment

    Used the n8n AI feature to write a Code node that parsed data well, and values not having to run, restart, log and alert on scripts themselves.

    Published Jan 27, 2026

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Code & flexibility: Positive
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Keep it in n8n

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    n8n AI assistant writing a Code node

53. Negative

    KissT (kisst), Self-hosted n8n user

    Working 2.x docker compose exampleCommunity forum post

    Upgrading a simple self-hosted Docker setup to n8n 2.x broke basic functions; after docs, forums and AI help gave varying errors, the user gave up and asked for a working example.

    Published Jan 24, 2026self-described: Single-container 1.x install with SQLite, bind mounts and Python Code nodes; upgrade to 2.x failed

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Self-hosting upkeep: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    Self-hosted Docker, SQLite, Python Code nodes

54. Negative

    Jason Shultz, author of the Second-Order Effects newsletter

    n8n Feels Fast Until You Need to Explain ItNewsletter post, Second-Order Effects (Substack)

    Shultz rewrote an n8n workflow as code after he could not say which step decided to retry without clicking through nodes. The service took longer to write and was easier to explain under pressure.

    Published Jan 14, 2026self-described: Rebuilt an n8n workflow as a small service after failing to explain its retry behavior

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Visual building & debugging: Mixed or negative
    • Maintainability at scale: Raised as a concern
    • Outgrown into code
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Move it to code

    Published on

    Business & engineering blogs

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Current

55. Positive

    Eric Wagoner, developer at Infinity Interactive (company blog byline)

    How I Automated My Morning Standup with n8n (And Got an Unexpected Morale Boost)Company blog post, Infinity Interactive

    Wagoner's n8n workflow gathers his GitHub and Jira activity each morning and has Claude Haiku write the standup update. It cuts 5 to 10 minutes of prep to none, on a droplet costing about US$12 a month.

    Published Jan 6, 2026Daily standup summary from GitHub and Jira through Claude Haiku to email or Slack, one workflow copy per client engagement

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Cost at volume: Positive
    • Self-hosting & data control: Positive
    • Fast internal automations
    • AI in bounded steps

    Published on

    Business & engineering blogs

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Current

    Observed on

    Self-hosted n8n on a DigitalOcean droplet

56. Negative

    Cameron Eagans, Developer who self-hosts n8n with a personal identity provider

    Announcing n8n-oidcPersonal blog post, cweagans.net

    Calls n8n's SSO pricing an SSO tax and released a hooks-based OIDC add-on so self-hosters can use their own identity provider without an enterprise license.

    Published Dec 29, 2025self-described: Self-hosted n8n for a few users; wrote n8n-oidc, an external-hooks add-on for OIDC login

    Counts toward, pending a recheck

    • Overall signal
    • License & paid tiers: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Business & engineering blogs

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Needs a recheck

    Observed on

    Self-hosted Community edition with external hooks

57. Positive

    Muhi, Founder building AKCACHE.io, a managed database service

    How I Automated News Discovery with n8n (439K Views, 0€ Spent)Developer blog post, dev.to

    Self-hosted n8n pipeline scores EU policy news with an LLM and emails the author picks; drafting Reddit posts stays a manual click, cutting daily scanning from 30+ minutes to 2.

    Published Dec 16, 2025self-described: RSS news discovery pipeline with keyword filter, GPT-4o-mini scoring, Postgres storage and email; on a personal server

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Cost at volume: Positive
    • Self-hosting & data control: Positive
    • AI in bounded steps

    Published on

    Business & engineering blogs

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Self-hosted n8n with PostgreSQL and OpenAI

58. Positive

    tombert, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (Nov 2025)Hacker News comment

    Installed n8n on their server and builds Discord bots; built-in connectors and OAuth speed iteration, and they drop into JavaScript for harder logic.

    Published Nov 9, 2025self-described: Personal Discord bots

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Fast internal automations
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Keep it in n8n

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Self-hosted instance on own server

59. Mixed

    Anthony Sidashin, Founder of ScrapeNinja (bootstrapped scraping API); built an n8n custom node and maintains Awesome n8n

    Time to move on: n8n vs code for SaaS buildersPersonal blog post, pixeljets.com

    Still likes n8n for internal automations and webhooks, but argues that once a project becomes a product needing UX, auth or payments, a small code app is easier to test and review.

    Published Nov 3, 2025self-described: Internal tools, SaaS prototypes and custom nodes built with self-hosted n8n

    Not counted

    Its author builds and maintains an n8n custom node and the Awesome n8n list. Kept in the record; it takes part in no figure.

    Published on

    Business & engineering blogs

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Self-hosted n8n with custom community node

60. Mixed

    Stephanie Nyarko, AI tools creator (thisaitooldoesthat.com)

    Self-Hosted n8n or n8n Cloud? The Real Costs, Tradeoffs & What's Worth ItYouTube video

    Per the video description, Nyarko moved from n8n Cloud to self-hosting and found it neither as simple nor as free as it looks, then compares the two options.

    "…automate without heavy coding recently someone asked me what plan I use for n8n and since I'm currently self hosting I thought this was the perfect opportunity to talk about whether you should self host or you should go cloud hosted n8n…"

    Published Oct 31, 2025self-described: Used n8n Cloud, then ran n8n on a personal server

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Self-hosting & data control: Mixed or negative
    • Self-hosting upkeep: Discussed without concern

    Published on

    Videos & talks

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    n8n Cloud, then self-hosted

61. Mixed

    KronisLV, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: EuroLLM: LLM made in Europe built to support all 24 official EU languagesHacker News comment

    Chaining a reasoning model and EuroLLM for Latvian text made their n8n workflow messy and meant running two local models for on-prem use.

    Published Oct 28, 2025self-described: On-prem Latvian text processing

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Mixed or negative
    • Maintainability at scale: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Local models (EuroLLM, Qwen3) in an n8n workflow

62. Positive

    Kai Walter, Developer who also builds agent implementations for enterprise scenarios

    Challenging n8n AI Agent with a personal productivity flowDeveloper blog post, dev.to

    Kept a personal n8n voice-to-task flow running while trying Dapr Agents and Microsoft Agent Framework, then collapsed its branches into one AI Agent node, which Walter found faster to build.

    Published Oct 12, 2025self-described: Personal voice-note flow: OneDrive recording, transcription, intent handling into tasks or email; moved from n8n Cloud to own machine

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Positive
    • Code & flexibility: Positive
    • Cost at volume: Positive
    • Visual building & debugging: Positive
    • Fast internal automations
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Keep it in n8n

    Published on

    Business & engineering blogs

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Moved from n8n Cloud to self-hosted on own machine; AI Agent node with Mistral

63. Positive

    hirako2000, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: N8n raises US$180MHacker News comment

    Prototyped a product backend in n8n, then migrated critical workflows to a Node.js API; most other workflows stayed in n8n, saving days each.

    Published Oct 11, 2025self-described: Solo product (applycreatures.com)

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Fast internal automations
    • Outgrown into code
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Keep it in n8n

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

64. Negative

    edoceo, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: N8n raises US$180MHacker News comment

    Tried n8n but found it not flexible enough; now has an LLM write small automations, each packaged in its own container with a git repo.

    Published Oct 9, 2025self-described: Personal small automations

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Code & flexibility: Mixed or negative
    • Feature Gaps: Raised as a concern
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Move it to code

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

65. Mixed

    tomwhipple, Software engineer (Hacker News commenter)

    Comment on: N8n raises US$180MHacker News comment

    Finds n8n cumbersome as an engineer with hard-to-trace errors, but analysts and PMs build quick prototypes; notes Python node cannot use C-compiled libraries.

    Published Oct 9, 2025self-described: Workplace with analysts and PMs building POCs

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Code & flexibility: Mixed or negative
    • Failed & silent runs: Raised as a concern
    • Maintainability at scale: Discussed without concern
    • Feature Gaps: Raised as a concern
    • Fast internal automations

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Python Code node

66. Positive

    93n, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: N8n added native persistent storage with DataTablesHacker News comment

    Self-hosts n8n for personal use and relies heavily on webhook triggers to spin up endpoints, storing state as JSON blobs on disk; dislikes the get-rich-quick subreddit vibe.

    Published Oct 3, 2025self-described: Personal self-hosted stack

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Self-hosting & data control: Positive
    • Fast internal automations

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Self-hosted, webhook triggers

67. Negative

    melvinmelih, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: N8n added native persistent storage with DataTablesHacker News comment

    A production workflow became spaghetti of custom Code and HTTP Request nodes because no connector fit, leaving them wondering if plain code would be easier.

    Published Oct 2, 2025self-described: Production workflow

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Code & flexibility: Mixed or negative
    • Maintainability at scale: Raised as a concern
    • Feature Gaps: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

68. Mixed

    Oleg Luganskiy, author of the arcbjorn engineering blog

    n8n vs Windmill vs Temporal for Self-HostingIndependent evaluation, personal engineering blog (arcbjorn)

    On a 4 GB server, n8n idled near 516 MB with Redis and Postgres and its execution table reached 18 GB in 30 days. Luganskiy warns complex workflows can push one process past 2 GB and flags the license's SaaS limit.

    Published Sep 28, 2025self-described: Ran n8n, Windmill, and Temporal for 30 days on one Hetzner CPX21 (3 vCPU, 4 GB) with production-like workloads

    Counts toward, pending a recheck

    • Overall signal
    • Failed & silent runs: Raised as a concern
    • Self-hosting upkeep: Raised as a concern
    • License & paid tiers: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Business & engineering blogs

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Needs a recheck

    Observed on

    Self-hosted n8n with Redis queue mode and PostgreSQL

69. Negative

    Brian Christner, Author of BrianChristner.io building personal automations

    Why Zapier Won My Time Back from n8nPersonal blog post, BrianChristner.io

    Went back to Zapier after self-hosting n8n turned into a second job of updates and security, citing the fair-code license, a smaller integration catalog and the learning curve.

    Published Aug 12, 2025self-described: Self-hosted n8n (server, security, user access), considered n8n Cloud, moved back to Zapier

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Self-hosting & data control: Mixed or negative
    • Self-hosting upkeep: Raised as a concern
    • Learning curve: Raised as a concern
    • License & paid tiers: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Business & engineering blogs

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Self-hosted n8n; n8n Cloud considered

70. Mixed

    dalibenothmen, Developer, author of the linked post

    Comment on: Every visual workflow tool is just Excel for developers who gave upHacker News comment

    Still uses Zapier and n8n for quick jobs, but complex workflows needing custom scripts and 3-5 second executions pushed them to build a code-first engine.

    Published Aug 5, 2025self-described: Developer automations

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Fast internal automations
    • Outgrown into code
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Move it to code

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

71. Mixed

    rcarmo, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: N8n vs. node-redHacker News comment

    Has used n8n and Node-RED for years; sees n8n as a citizen-developer tool with clever AI integrations but prefers Node-RED for control, and would run neither in an enterprise.

    Published Jul 18, 2025self-described: Personal home automation and AI news summarizer

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Positive
    • Code & flexibility: Mixed or negative
    • Failed & silent runs: Discussed without concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

72. Negative

    laurentiurad, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: Building Effective AI AgentsHacker News comment

    Built an n8n agent workflow following the article; it cost US$3 and at least 3 minutes per simple question, so they returned to normal search.

    Published Jun 18, 2025self-described: Personal research agent

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Mixed or negative
    • Cost at volume: Mixed or negative

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Measured

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    n8n AI agent workflow

73. Negative

    SansGuidon, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: N8n - Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teamsHacker News comment

    A former user converted most n8n use cases into shell and Python scripts on cron and CI/CD jobs, gaining flexibility and easier debugging.

    Published May 4, 2025self-described: Personal automations

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Learning curve: Raised as a concern
    • Outgrown into code
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Move it to code

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

74. Positive

    simple10, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: N8n - Flexible AI workflow automation for technical teamsHacker News comment

    Switched from Make.com to n8n for its self-hosting without limits and JavaScript and Python Code nodes; rates its AI nodes first rate but notes polling triggers add latency.

    Published May 3, 2025self-described: Personal automations and AI agent tasks

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Positive
    • Self-hosting & data control: Positive
    • Should a growing automation stay in n8n or move to code?: Keep it in n8n

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    Self-hosted locally via Docker; AI nodes and custom LangChain nodes

75. Positive

    nullwarp, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: A hackable AI assistant using a single SQLite table and a handful of cron jobsHacker News comment

    Built an n8n AI agent driven by email that parses shopping receipts into a spreadsheet and uploads them to paperless-ngx; it works great.

    Published Apr 14, 2025self-described: Personal assistant

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Positive

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

    Observed on

    AI Agent with email trigger, spreadsheet and paperless-ngx

76. Mixed

    fjrdomingues, n8n AI Agent user who maintains a fork with a proposed fix

    AI Agent doesn't store the Tool usages in memoryGitHub issue

    Memory nodes saved only user and AI messages and dropped tool calls, so agents learned to claim tool actions without calling tools; the author proposed a fix in a fork.

    Published Apr 2, 2025self-described: AI Agent with Simple Memory and Postgres memory, n8n 1.83.2, PostgreSQL

    Counts toward, pending a recheck

    • Overall signal
    • AI agent workflows: Mixed or negative
    • Failed & silent runs: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Needs a recheck

    Observed on

    n8n 1.83.2, AI Agent node with Simple and Postgres Chat Memory

77. Mixed

    Rob, Make.com power user of nearly 8 years who builds automations for clients

    My perspective as new user from Make.comCommunity forum post

    Enjoys n8n's power after years on Make, but chose self-hosting because cloud active-workflow limits made Cloud too expensive, and sees missing app nodes and the learning curve as barriers.

    Published Mar 26, 2025self-described: Moving from Make.com to self-hosted n8n

    Counts toward, pending a recheck

    • Overall signal
    • Code & flexibility: Positive
    • Learning curve: Raised as a concern
    • Feature Gaps: Raised as a concern
    • License & paid tiers: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Needs a recheck

    Observed on

    Self-hosted Community edition

78. Negative

    spikej, Hacker News commenter

    Comment on: Show HN: Mashups - Resurrecting Yahoo Pipes, my side projectHacker News comment

    Tried Node-RED and n8n over the years but found them a big letdown for manipulating multiple RSS feeds and scraping, so kept using Huginn.

    Published Jan 12, 2025self-described: Personal RSS and scraping automations

    Counts toward

    • Overall signal
    • Code & flexibility: Mixed or negative
    • Feature Gaps: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Still applicable

79. Negative

    u/Bagican, Reddit user (r/selfhosted)

    anyone using n8n self-hosted ? I tried it and I'm disappointed.Reddit post

    Tried self-hosted n8n and went back to Node-RED because too many features sit behind the paid version.

    Published Jan 9, 2025self-described: Tried self-hosted n8n, returning to Node-RED, considering Windmill

    Counts toward, pending a recheck

    • Overall signal
    • License & paid tiers: Raised as a concern

    Published on

    Practitioner communities

    Who

    Individual user

    Evidence

    Reported

    Applies to

    Needs a recheck

    Observed on

    Self-hosted Community edition