Alternative to n8n
Lunnoa vs. n8n: a governed platform vs. a workflow canvas
n8n is a strong, general-purpose workflow automation tool with a huge integration library. Lunnoa is a different kind of product: a self-hosted, governed AI agent platform built for regulated enterprise teams. Here is how the two actually compare, criterion by criterion.
Why teams look for an n8n alternative
n8n's Community Edition is free to self-host and covers a huge range of integrations, which is exactly why so many teams start there. The gap usually shows up later: governance, access control, and support are gated behind a separate paid license, and the tool itself is built for general workflow automation, not for business users designing and governing AI agents in a regulated environment. Lunnoa starts from the opposite end: self-hosted, flat-licensed, and governed from day one.
- Self-hosted on your own infrastructure from day one, under a single flat licence, not metered by execution
- SSO, SCIM, and RBAC included on every deployment, with a full audit trail for every agent action
- Business users describe the process in plain language; Solution Designer plans and builds the agent
- Purpose-built for governed AI agent orchestration in regulated industries, not general-purpose integration glue
Side by side
Lunnoa vs. n8n, side by side
| Criterion | Lunnoa | n8n |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting model | Self-hosted on your infrastructure, every plan, from day one | Cloud-first; self-hosting available via the free Community Edition or a paid Business/Enterprise license |
| Pricing model | Single flat licence, unmetered, no per-execution charges | Cloud plans metered by monthly workflow executions (Starter to Enterprise); self-hosted Business/Enterprise still requires a paid license key |
| Access control & governance | SSO, SCIM, and RBAC included on every deployment, with a full audit trail for every agent action | SSO/SAML/LDAP and advanced permissions are restricted to paid Business and Enterprise tiers |
| Who builds | Business users describe the outcome; Solution Designer plans and assembles the agent | Technical users build on a node-based visual workflow canvas |
| Primary design goal | Governed AI agent orchestration for regulated enterprise workflows | General-purpose workflow and integration automation |
| License | Commercial, single flat licence | Fair-code / Sustainable Use License: free for internal, non-commercial use; commercial self-hosting or resale requires a paid license |
| Self-hosted support & maintenance | Vendor-supported deployment, updates, and onboarding included in the licence | Community Edition is self-managed: you own updates, scaling, and patching unless you buy a licensed plan |
Hosting model
Lunnoa
Self-hosted on your infrastructure, every plan, from day one
n8n
Cloud-first; self-hosting available via the free Community Edition or a paid Business/Enterprise license
Pricing model
Lunnoa
Single flat licence, unmetered, no per-execution charges
n8n
Cloud plans metered by monthly workflow executions (Starter to Enterprise); self-hosted Business/Enterprise still requires a paid license key
Access control & governance
Lunnoa
SSO, SCIM, and RBAC included on every deployment, with a full audit trail for every agent action
n8n
SSO/SAML/LDAP and advanced permissions are restricted to paid Business and Enterprise tiers
Who builds
Lunnoa
Business users describe the outcome; Solution Designer plans and assembles the agent
n8n
Technical users build on a node-based visual workflow canvas
Primary design goal
Lunnoa
Governed AI agent orchestration for regulated enterprise workflows
n8n
General-purpose workflow and integration automation
License
Lunnoa
Commercial, single flat licence
n8n
Fair-code / Sustainable Use License: free for internal, non-commercial use; commercial self-hosting or resale requires a paid license
Self-hosted support & maintenance
Lunnoa
Vendor-supported deployment, updates, and onboarding included in the licence
n8n
Community Edition is self-managed: you own updates, scaling, and patching unless you buy a licensed plan
When n8n is the better fit
Lunnoa is not the right tool for every team, and a comparison page that pretends otherwise is not useful to anyone. n8n's free Community Edition is a reasonable starting point if your situation looks like this.
- You are a solo founder or small team with no customer, regulatory, or investor pressure to keep data inside your own infrastructure
- The workflows you are automating do not touch sensitive customer, financial, or deal data, so where that data runs is not a real concern yet
- You want to start building today, for free, without a procurement process or a licensing conversation
Frequently asked
Lunnoa vs. n8n, answered
The questions teams evaluating a self-hosted alternative to n8n ask most.
Lunnoa is a self-hosted alternative to n8n built specifically for governed AI agent orchestration rather than general-purpose workflow automation. Unlike n8n's Community Edition, Lunnoa includes SSO, SCIM, and RBAC on every deployment under a single flat licence, so governance is not a separate paid add-on. Other self-hosted workflow tools exist (Activepieces, Windmill, Temporal, Node-RED among them), but they share n8n's general-automation focus rather than Lunnoa's regulated-enterprise, agent-governance focus.
n8n's Community Edition is free to self-host under its Sustainable Use (fair-code) License, with no execution limits. That license covers internal and non-commercial use; self-hosting the Business or Enterprise feature set (SSO, advanced permissions, Git-based environments) requires a separate paid license key, and you are responsible for your own infrastructure, scaling, and patching either way.
n8n is a general-purpose, node-based workflow automation tool built primarily for technical users. Lunnoa is a self-hosted AI agent platform built for business users to describe a process in plain language and have Solution Designer plan and build it, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and a full audit trail included on every deployment rather than gated behind a separate license.
No. SSO/SAML/LDAP and advanced role-based permissions in n8n are part of the paid Business and Enterprise tiers, whether cloud or self-hosted. Lunnoa includes SSO, SCIM, and RBAC on every deployment under one flat licence, so governance does not require an upgrade path.
Lunnoa is built specifically for regulated industries: self-hosted from day one, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and a full audit trail included on every deployment, so data never leaves your infrastructure and every agent action is reviewable. n8n can be self-hosted too, but its governance and compliance features are opt-in, paid additions on top of a tool designed for general workflow automation rather than regulated-enterprise agent orchestration.
Built for teams that already take infrastructure seriously.
- CTOs and platform teams evaluating fit with your reference architecture
- Security and compliance reviewing data residency and access control
- Operations teams that need attributable runs, not black-box automation
- Builders who want unlimited usage under a flat licence