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Lindy vs n8n
A plain-English comparison to help you choose between them.
These two automate from opposite ends of the technical spectrum: Lindy asks for a job description, n8n asks for a server. Pick Lindy when the goal is delegation without construction, inbox triage, scheduling and CRM upkeep described in plain language, assembled from templates and run on triggers with judgement inside your rules. Pick n8n when the constraint is where data may live and what volume costs, self-hosted workflows on infrastructure you control, execution-based pricing that keeps heavy pipelines economical, and visual nodes that accept real code when the logic demands it. The person who has stalled in a flowchart builder belongs with Lindy; the engineer who refuses to rent automations belongs with n8n.
Side by side
- Summary
Lindy is a platform for building AI agents that do real work across your existing tools.
- Best for
- Delegating whole jobs such as inbox triage or meeting scheduling to an agent
- Building agents in plain language without code or flowcharts
- Keeping CRM records current from email and meeting activity
- Cost
- Freemium (Free tier + paid plans)
- Ease
- Openness
- Hosted service
- Data
- Agents hold live access to email, calendar and connected tools; grant scopes per agent, per job.
- Summary
n8n is the engineer's automation platform: open source and self-hostable, with execution-based pricing that keeps high-volume workflows economical, visual nodes that accept real code when logic demands it, and first-class support for AI and agentic flows.
- Best for
- Self-hosted automation with data residency
- Execution-based pricing at high volume
- Visual flows with real code where needed
- Cost
- Freemium (Free tier + paid plans)
- Ease
- Openness
- Runs privately (self-hostable)
- Data
- Execution-based pricing (whole workflow = one execution) is usually cheaper than per-task, but AI Workflow Builder credits (50 Starter / 150 Pro) and any LLM API calls you wire in are metered separately, and Business overage is roughly €4,000 per 300,000 extra executions. The sticker price is not the whole bill. Self-hosting shifts cost to your own infrastructure/maintenance.
Common questions
What does self-hosting n8n actually buy?
Structural answers to residency and compliance questions no hosted platform can give, plus escape from per-task metering at volume. The costs are equally structural: someone owns the server, the updates and the uptime, and self-hosted automation holding credentials to every connected system is a concentrated attack surface to secure like the keys-to-everything system it becomes.
Can a non-technical team run either?
Lindy, yes, deliberately: describing a job in sentences is the whole setup, and templates mean a first agent is assembled rather than designed. n8n punishes casual users by its own admission, with a steeper curve than the consumer platforms and operational effort that must be owned. A business without engineering capacity gets simple automations running faster almost anywhere else.
How does judgement figure in each?
Lindy makes it the feature: agents act with discretion inside rules you set, which suits work where variation is acceptable and needs a probation period while trust builds. n8n treats judgement as a component, AI and agentic flows running as first-class steps under the same ownership as everything else, inside workflows whose logic you drew and can inspect.
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Tool facts last checked July 2026