n8nVSActivepieces
Published · Last updated
Visit n8n ↗Visit Activepieces ↗
| n8n | Activepieces | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | €20/mo (Starter, billed annually) | $20/mo flat (Plus) |
| Free plan | Self-hosted Community Edition free; Cloud has a free trial (1,000 executions, no card) | Yes, free forever (no card); self-host option |
| Integrations | All integrations on every plan (count not stated on pricing page) | 760+ integrations |
| Billing unit | Workflow executions (whole run, not per step) | Credits ($0.007/credit overage) |
| Best for | Technical builders who want control and self-hosting | Budget/open-source teams wanting n8n-style control |
| Key features | AI Agent node MCP server trigger + MCP client Human approval for tool calls Self-hosting Code steps (JS/Python) Git version control (Business+) | Flows, agents, tables MCPs and API access Bring your own AI keys Cloud or self-host Embeddable builder |
How we tested
Prices, free plans, and plan limits come from each vendor's official pricing and docs pages (linked on each builder profile), last checked 2026-11-10. Hands-on coverage: 3 of 10 builders. On Oct 16, 2026 we built one simple agent (summarize text into exactly 3 bullets) on the free tier or trial of n8n and Make, and ran only the AI step in Activepieces (not a full published flow). The other 7 builders have not been tested hands-on; their facts come from vendor pages only. This test shows signup friction and basic model execution. It does not measure reliability, integrations, error recovery, or ongoing cost. We don't accept payment for placement.
- n8n: Tested hands-on
- Make: Tested hands-on
- Zapier Agents: Not tested hands-on yet
- Lindy: Not tested hands-on yet
- Relevance AI: Not tested hands-on yet
- Gumloop: Not tested hands-on yet
- Activepieces: Tested hands-on (AI step only)
- Botpress: Not tested hands-on yet
- Dify: Not tested hands-on yet
- Voiceflow: Not tested hands-on yet
Build an agent that summarizes text into exactly 3 bullets, free tier/trial only.
- Setup time: ~7 min from signup start to a working run (~4 min after the instance was ready)
- Card / API key: No card, no API key
- Free AI credits: $2.00 of AI credits included with the trial
- Limits: 14-day trial, 1,000 executions
- What we built: Chat Trigger → AI Agent (gpt-5-mini via n8n gateway). Correct run: 4.5s, ~179 tokens, exactly 3 bullets.
- Friction: required 5-question survey; AI Agent node added unconnected (had to drag it in manually); first system-message edit silently didn't save; starts in AI Assistant view.
Build an agent that summarizes text into exactly 3 bullets, free tier/trial only.
- Setup time: ~5 min from signup start to a successful step test; worked on the first try
- Card / API key: No card, no API key
- Free AI credits: 1,000 AI credits/month shown on the free account
- Limits: Full flow must be published to run; we tested the AI step only
- What we built: Manual Trigger → Ask AI (built-in Activepieces provider, "Fast" model).
- Friction: email-code-only signup; builder slow to load (trigger disabled for ~1 min); search lists third-party AI pieces before the built-in AI.
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