Windmill vs n8n

Mixed and non-technical teams. Marketers, ops, sales and analysts build automations on a drag-and-drop canvas with pre-built nodes, with developers stepping in for edge cases via Code nodes or custom node development.

Non-developers author directly on the visual canvas, wiring nodes together without writing code. This is n8n's strongest design axis.

Build workflows on a drag-and-drop canvas by wiring pre-built nodes together. Each node is a configured integration (HTTP Request, Gmail, Slack, OpenAI, etc.) with its parameters filled in through forms. For custom logic, a Code node embeds a JavaScript or Python snippet, but the code must conform to n8n's data model (items as arrays with item linking between input and output) and use n8n's built-in helpers rather than plain language idioms.

Primary authoring happens in the hosted canvas, not a local IDE. A CLI exists for exporting and importing workflow JSON, and custom nodes can be built in TypeScript with a local toolchain, but day-to-day workflow development is web-first.

A Data Table node handles tabular data inside a workflow, with row and table operations. S3 goes through the AWS S3 node. Binary data and file nodes cover large payloads. No SQL-queryable persistent data-table primitive outside the node.

Code node runs JavaScript on Node.js (npm modules allowlisted by the admin) and native Python via task runners, stable in v2 (replacing the legacy Pyodide runtime). Self-hosted Python packages must be explicitly allowlisted in the n8nio/runnersimage; on n8n cloud, Python library imports are disallowed entirely.

Credentials are encrypted per-instance and attached to nodes. External secret backends (Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, Infisical, etc.) are Enterprise only.

Source control and environments (Git push/pull, staging/production branches) is Enterprise only. The community edition has no built-in Git sync; workflows are exported and imported as JSON files.

1,600+ pre-built nodes across communication, sales, marketing, dev, AI, data and storage (Slack, Gmail, Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Stripe, OpenAI, Airtable, Postgres, MongoDB and many more). Built-in credential wizards handle OAuth flows and typed parameter forms expose each endpoint's options. Action nodes for operations, Trigger nodes for incoming events, Core nodes for routing and transforms, AI Agent nodes for tool-calling LLM steps. The fastest path when the automation is a chain of mainstream SaaS calls.

Trigger nodes for webhooks, cron, polling, Kafka, MQTT and app-specific events (Gmail new email, Stripe event, GitHub push, Notion page updated, etc.). App triggers either subscribe to the vendor's webhook or poll the API on a configurable cadence, transparently to the workflow author. The webhook trigger generates a URL per workflow with optional auth, response shaping and binary payload handling.

Two ways to build a custom node: declarative (config-driven, lighter, covers most REST APIs) or programmatic (full TypeScript, for richer logic). Either is shipped as an npm package and installed as a community node on the n8n instance. Inline escape hatches: an HTTP Request node calls any vendor API directly with manual credential wiring, and a Code node runs JavaScript or Python in the same process for one-off logic.

Drag nodes onto the canvas, fill in credential and parameter forms, wire them together. Very fast for workflows that are mostly SaaS calls because the credential and request shapes are already modelled. Slower when the logic is custom, since it lives inside Code nodes.

The heavier you lean on pre-built nodes, the more you rewrite on exit. Each node (e.g. n8n-nodes-base.slack, n8n-nodes-base.openAi) has to be reimplemented against the vendor SDK. Code node bodies port cleanly since they're just JavaScript or Python. Expression syntax ({{ $json.field }}) and connection topology also need reimplementing on the new platform.

Execution history with per-node inputs and outputs in the UI. Log streaming to external systems (Datadog, Splunk, etc.) is Enterprise only. Insights dashboard (365-day retention) is Enterprise only.

Audit logging of user activity and workflow changes is Enterprise only.

SOC 2 Type II compliant on Cloud. Basic user management in the community edition. SSO (SAML, LDAP, OIDC), custom roles, external secrets and advanced security settings are Enterprise only.

Projects organize workflows and credentials, but the self-hosted community edition has a single shared project. Multi-environment support (separate dev/staging/prod environments) and multiple shared projects are Enterprise only.

Single Node.js process by default. Queue mode adds Redis and worker scaling for higher throughput. Per-execution overhead from node resolution, credential decryption and expression evaluation adds up on short, high-volume workflows.

Sustainable Use License: source-available, not OSI-approved. Permits internal use and limited customisation but restricts offering n8n as a commercial service. Enterprise features ship under a separate proprietary license. Managed cloud available.

Cloud tiers start at 20 euros per month (Starter, 2,500 executions) and 50 euros per month (Pro, 20 concurrent). Self-hosted Business is 667 euros per month for 40,000 executions and 30 concurrent. Enterprise (SSO, external secrets, log streaming, advanced RBAC, multi-environment) is custom-quoted.