n8n vs ActivePieces: Which Tool Fits Your Workflow Automation

Oct 12, 2025

Categories: AI Automation

Tags: activepieces n8n no-code open-source workflow-automation

1. Intro

This time i scratched the surface of two great automation platforms: n8n and ActivePieces

Both promise to simplify workflow automation without requiring extensive coding knowledge.

2. Local Run

2.1. n8n

Create a local folder called n8n_data and follow this guide and you will eventually get to run this docker command:

docker run -it --rm \
 --name n8n \
 -p 5678:5678 \
 -e GENERIC_TIMEZONE="Europe/Amsterdam" \
 -e TZ="Europe/Amsterdam" \
 -e N8N_ENFORCE_SETTINGS_FILE_PERMISSIONS=true \
 -e N8N_RUNNERS_ENABLED=true \
 -v n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n \
 docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n

Now open http://localhost:5678

2.2. ActivePieces

Clone the activepieces git repo

git clone https://github.com/activepieces/activepieces.git

Follow this guide and you'll get to run this docker compose command:

docker compose -p activepieces up

Now open http://localhost:8080

3. Core Differences

3.1. Triggers

n8n permits multiple triggers within a single workflow, allowing complex conditional logic from various starting points.

ActivePieces restricts users to one trigger per workflow. This single constraint shapes how you structure your automation projects.

This becomes annoying if you want to test your flow with either a schedule or manual run.

3.2. Flow Display

The way the flows are displayed as you see is different.

n8n goes horizontal, while activepieces goes vertical. My personal preference is horizontal because i can see more of the flow i am building.

3.3. AI Models

n8n has the latest models available as of today

ActivePieces is lagging a bit on this one

3.4. License

n8n has a sustainable-license . What is that i hear you say? Well from what i can gather in from their definition is that you can use it for personal or your business as long as you don't have a product you charge for that is based on n8n?

Anyway, seems to be ok to use it to automate even your business processes as long as you don't charge others for it.

ActivePieces core is MIT license, while cloud and enterprise versions are under Commercial License

4. Conclusion

Choose n8n when you need powerful, flexible automation with complete control over deployment and customization.
Select ActivePieces for rapid implementation of simple to moderate automation tasks, particularly if your team lacks dedicated technical resources.
Personally i use n8n for some simple automations related to gmail labeling, news feed aggregator and blog related things.