n8n

n8n is what we reach for whenever a Zapier flow either needs to live on a client's own infrastructure or needs orchestration logic that Zapier can't express cleanly. Open-source, self-hostable, with first-class LangChain and vector-DB nodes — it's genuinely a production tool for AI-heavy workflows. The trade-off is that someone has to own the runtime: deploying, upgrading, and observing it. For our Custom Deployments engagements, n8n is the default low-code orchestrator.

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What it's good for

1
Self-hosted automations where data privacy or compliance rules out a hosted Zapier
2
AI agent workflows with retrieval (vector DB), tool calls, and conditional branching
3
High-volume tasks where Zapier's per-task pricing becomes painful
4
Internal-tool integrations behind a VPN where SaaS connectors aren't reachable
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Engineer-operated automation stacks where someone owns the Docker image and the upgrades

How to use it

Self-host n8n on a small VM or use n8n Cloud for hands-off operation. Build workflows on the visual canvas — triggers, AI nodes (OpenAI, Anthropic, local models via Ollama), vector-DB queries, conditional logic. For agent-style work, use the Agent or LangChain nodes with tool definitions. Version-control your workflow JSON in Git so changes are reviewable. The community edition is free; the Enterprise tier adds SSO, RBAC, and SLA support.

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What it's good for

How to use it

Alternatives to n8n

Want help putting n8n to work?

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