Pricing Comparison
While both platforms offer some of the fairest pricing models on the market, Latenode’s credit-based pricing has more flexibility and lower costs than n8n’s execution-based model.
N8N’s Pricing
N8n Cloud charges per workflow execution. Their Starter plan costs $24 for 2,500 executions monthly, which is 0.0096$ per execution. The Pro plan costs $61 for 10K executions, or 0.0061$ per execution. It also has a second version at $150 for 50K executions, which is $0.00375 per execution.
All of this is much more expensive compared to an execution credit on Latenode, which costs $0.0019. See detailed calculations below.
Moreover, not everything is so simple on n8n – their pricing model can lead to unpredictable costs. Some users complain that the 2,500 executions limit in the Starter plan is not always clear, especially when the number of workflows increases. Other n8n users are unhappy with the tight limit on active workflows.
The Pro plan, at $51 monthly, includes 15 active workflows. This might not fit the case of those needing more automated processes. In contrast, Latenode’s Medium Plan offers unlimited active scenarios at $47 monthly.
N8n "Community Edition" (Self-hosted plan) is free for internal business, non-commercial, or personal use. However, this plan is not for non-tech people with limited funds: running it on your server needs renting a server, setting it up, monthly maintenance, and daily security updates, not to mention massive investment in time and effort. OAuth authorizations like Google Sheets, multi-user access, and more than 1 day of workflow history won't be available as well (unlike all Latenode plans).
N8n official self-hosting warning - only for expert 👆
Based on a basic VPS server cost from DigitalOcean.com and the average rate for 1 hour of sysadmin work, the total cost is: Server ($12+/monthly) + Monthly maintenance ($74+/hourly).
If you opt for 10K workflow executions with 5 nodes inside, the price on n8n self-hosted version would be $86, including the price for server renting and the hourly rate of a sysadmin. At the same time, on Latenode, which charges per credit, the price for 10K executions would be just $17, which is 5x cheaper.
N8N Cloud may be less flexible and cost-effective for companies with a large number of repetitive workflows. If you opt for the self-hosted plan, you should be either a sys-admin or ready to hire one for an average rate of $74/hourly.