n8n (pronounced 'n-eight-n', short for nodemation) is a fair-code workflow automation platform aimed at technical teams. Users build workflows on a visual canvas by connecting hundreds of pre-built nodes that wrap APIs, databases, AI models, and custom JavaScript or Python code. Workflows can be triggered by webhooks, schedules, events, chat messages, or other workflows, and AI Agent nodes can be embedded as steps inside a larger automation.
The company was founded in 2019 in Berlin by Jan Oberhauser, a former VFX engineer who built the original tool after years of stitching together internal automations. Oberhauser remains CEO. n8n operates as a fully distributed team with the majority of staff across Europe, and it has scaled headcount aggressively post-Series B.
Funding history is now substantial. n8n closed a $1.5M seed led by Sequoia Capital in March 2020, a $12M Series A led by Felicis Ventures in 2021, a €55M (~$60M) Series B led by Highland Europe in March 2025, and a $180M Series C led by Accel in October 2025 with participation from Meritech, Redpoint, Evantic, and Visionaries Club. Total disclosed funding stands at approximately $254M.
The product is offered three ways. Self-hosted Community Edition is free under the Sustainable Use License, n8n Cloud starts around $20 per month for small teams, and Enterprise editions add SSO, RBAC, log streaming, and external secrets management. The fair-code license is a hard differentiator against Zapier and Make: customers can run n8n inside their own infrastructure with no usage-based pricing for tasks or zaps.
Traction has been driven heavily by the AI agent wave. n8n's AI Agent and LangChain integrations make it easy to compose multi-step agentic flows that call tools, query vector databases, and hand off to humans. The community on GitHub has crossed well over 60,000 stars, and the official YouTube tutorials and template gallery dominate organic search for 'AI workflow automation' and 'self-hosted Zapier'.
The key differentiator is the combination of fair-code self-hosting, a code-friendly node model that exposes raw JSON between steps, and first-class AI agent primitives. Zapier and Make are easier for non-technical users but are SaaS-only and lack the depth of execution that engineering teams need; n8n trades a slightly higher learning curve for full control and substantially better economics at scale.