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Side-by-side comparison · Automation & Workflows

Activepieces vs Browse AI vs n8n

Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.

Activepieces

4.0

From $20/mo flat

Browse AI

3.9

From $19/mo

Best overall

n8n

4.5

From €20/mo

Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.

At a glance

Pick it if: Small teams who like how Zapier works but want to own their automations or avoid per-task pricing.

Easiest to use

Pick it if: Ecommerce, marketing and sales teams that need data from other websites without writing code.

n8n4.5
Best overallBest value

Pick it if: Teams that want full control of their data and automations, or anyone building AI agents on a budget who doesn't mind getting a bit technical.

Overview

AttributeActivepiecesBrowse AIn8n
In one lineA Zapier-style automation builder that's open source and charges per run, not per step.Scrape data from websites and track changes, set up by pointing and clicking.Build automations and AI agents on a visual canvas, then host them yourself for free.
Pricing modelOpen sourceFreemiumOpen source
Starting price$20/mo flat$19/mo€20/mo
Free plan Yes Yes Yes
Works with Claude Code Yes Yes Yes

Rating breakdown

Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.

AttributeActivepiecesBrowse AIn8n
Overall rating4.03.94.5Winner
Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it.
4.0
4.5
3.5
FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together.
3.5
4.0
5.0
Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them.
4.0
4.0
4.5
Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan.
4.5
3.5
5.0
Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over.
4.0
3.5
4.5

Feature comparison

A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.

AttributeActivepiecesBrowse AIn8n
Access & platform
Free plan Yes Yes Yes
Mobile app No– No
Desktop app No– No
Browser extension No Yes No
API access Yes Yes Yes
Teams & business
Team workspace Yes Yes Yes
Enterprise plan or SSO Yes Yes Yes
Connects to other apps Yes Yes Yes
Open source or self-hosted Yes No Yes
AI abilities
Works with your files Yes– Yes
Understands images–– Yes
Makes images No No No
Makes video No No No
Writes code Yes No Yes
Runs agents or automations Yes Yes Yes
Learns your brand or style No– No
Works in many languages Yes––
Capabilities score10/ 177/ 1710/ 17

Pricing

Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.

AttributeActivepiecesBrowse AIn8n
Plans

Free

Free

Small teams getting started, or anyone who will self-host.

Free

Free

Testing a robot or two.

Community Edition

Free (self-hosted)

Anyone comfortable running software on a server.

PlusOur pick

$20/mo flat

A small business running automations every day.

Personal

$19/mo billed yearly, or $48 monthly

One person monitoring a few sites.

StarterOur pick

€20/mo billed yearly

A small business that wants n8n hosted for them.

Team

$200/mo flat

A larger team that needs SSO and roles.

ProfessionalOur pick

$69/mo billed yearly, or $87 monthly

Teams scraping several sites regularly.

Pro

€50/mo billed yearly

Teams running several business-critical workflows.

Ultimate

Custom

Companies with heavy volume or strict security needs.

Premium

From $500/mo billed yearly

High-volume or protected sites.

Business

€667/mo billed yearly

Larger teams that need SSO and version control, self-hosted.

Enterprise

Custom

Companies that need an SLA and dedicated support.

Which plan to pickThe Free plan is unusually generous, so start there. Move to Plus when you want monthly credits instead of a daily cap and the option to use your own AI keys. Self-host only if someone on the team is happy running a server.Test on Free first to make sure your target sites work. Professional suits most business use because of the site and user limits; pay yearly if you are sure, as monthly costs much more.If you have anyone technical on hand, self-host the Community Edition on a small server and pay nothing. Otherwise Starter on the cloud is the right place to begin, and 2,500 executions covers a lot when each run of a long workflow counts as one.

Key features

AttributeActivepiecesBrowse AIn8n
Standout features
  • Zapier-style builder
  • Flat per-run pricing
  • Self-host or cloud
  • MCP for AI assistants
  • Agents and Tables
  • Bring your own AI keys
  • Point-and-click robots
  • Monitoring and alerts
  • Pre-built robots
  • Send data anywhere
  • API
  • AI agent nodes
  • Self-host for free
  • Code when you need it
  • Per-execution pricing
  • Thousands of templates
  • MCP support

Pros and cons

AttributeActivepiecesBrowse AIn8n
Pros
  • Easiest open-source automation tool to learn
  • Flat pricing, with one credit per run however long the flow
  • Generous free plan and free self-hosting
  • MCP makes every connected app available to Claude
  • Open source, so you can inspect or extend it
  • Very easy to set up without code
  • Scheduled monitoring with change alerts
  • Free plan to test on your own target sites
  • Connects to Sheets, Airtable and automation tools
  • Free to self-host with no execution limits
  • The best tool here for AI agents and multi-step reasoning
  • Per-execution pricing on cloud is kind to long workflows
  • Huge template library and an active community
  • Code steps and the HTTP node mean you are rarely stuck
Cons
  • Far fewer apps than Zapier, and some pieces are thin
  • Smaller community and fewer templates than n8n
  • No canvas, so complex branching is harder to follow
  • AI steps cost extra credits on top of the run
  • Robots can break when a site changes layout
  • Sites with bot protection may fail or use extra credits
  • Credits run down faster than expected on multi-page jobs
  • Some users report billing issues after cancelling
  • Steeper learning curve than Zapier or Make, with JSON everywhere
  • Self-hosting is a real job: updates, backups and security are on you
  • No free cloud plan, only a trial
  • The fair-code licence limits reselling it as a service
  • Business plan is self-hosted only and priced for larger companies

Who each one is for

AttributeActivepiecesBrowse AIn8n
Best for
  • Zapier-style automations on a budget
  • Giving AI assistants access to your apps
  • Long multi-step workflows
  • Self-hosted automation for teams
  • Competitor price monitoring
  • Pulling listings into a spreadsheet
  • Alerts when a web page changes
  • Building lead lists from directories
  • AI agents that act on email or chat
  • Self-hosted automation
  • Unlimited runs on your own server
  • Custom code steps when you need them
You'll find it used by
  • Small teams
  • Ops teams
  • Developers
  • Agencies
  • Ecommerce teams
  • Marketers
  • Sales teams
  • Researchers
  • Recruiters
  • Developers
  • Ops teams
  • Agencies
  • Technical founders

Questions people ask

Which is better, Activepieces, Browse AI or n8n?

n8n scores highest overall in our ratings (Activepieces 4.0/5, Browse AI 3.9/5 and n8n 4.5/5). Activepieces is best for zapier-style automations on a budget and Giving AI assistants access to your apps. Browse AI is best for competitor price monitoring and pulling listings into a spreadsheet. n8n is best for AI agents that act on email or chat and self-hosted automation.

Which is cheaper, Activepieces, Browse AI or n8n?

Activepieces: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $20/mo flat. Browse AI: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $19/mo. n8n: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at €20/mo.

Which is easier to use, Activepieces, Browse AI or n8n?

Browse AI rates highest for ease of use in our scores. Ecommerce, marketing and sales teams that need data from other websites without writing code.

How we compare

Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability.

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