n8n vs Temporal
| Tagline | Fair-code workflow automation with 400+ integrations and native AI nodes | Durable execution engine for resilient long-running business workflows |
| Category | Automation & iPaaS | Automation & iPaaS |
| Replaces | Zapier, Make, Workato | Zapier, Workato |
| GitHub stars | 194k | 12k |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| License | Sustainable Use License | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 4/5 Involved |
| Deploy options | One-Click Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes Manual | Docker Compose Kubernetes Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 5 days ago | 1 month ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
n8n
- Source-available (Sustainable Use License), not true OSI open source; some enterprise features (SSO, log streaming, external secrets) are gated behind paid tiers.
- Self-hosted instances require you to manage your own queue/Redis and Postgres for scaling and reliability.
- Far fewer pre-built app connectors than Zapier's 6,000+ catalog.
- Concurrency and execution throughput on the free self-hosted tier require manual queue-mode tuning.
Temporal
- No visual no-code editor; all workflows must be written by developers in a supported SDK language
- Production deployment requires Cassandra or PostgreSQL plus Elasticsearch — significant infrastructure
- Self-hosted Web UI has limited analytics compared to Temporal Cloud
Bottom line
Choose n8n if you want the lower-effort setup; choose n8n for the larger community and ecosystem. n8n has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.