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Alternatives to n8n

n8n

Platform for AI agents and workflows you can see and control, built visually or with code

Summary

n8n describes itself as a platform for AI agents and workflows you can see and control, built visually or with code.⁠Source 1 It runs on n8n Cloud or self-hosted.⁠Source 2 Its AI nodes implement LangChain’s JavaScript framework, and its Agents feature is in preview.⁠Source 3, Source 4

By Blocks.ai teamLast checked

Where n8n sits

Six layers of running AI agents at a company, and what n8n’s own public sources say it covers. Each alternative below gets the same six layers as a strip.

Public sources · checked 2 October 2026
  • Offered
  • Preview
  • Not publicly documented

n8n

  • Build agents: OfferedLangChain-based AI Agent node⁠Source 3
  • Host and run agents: OfferedYour infrastructure or n8n’s⁠Source 1
  • Identity and access: Not publicly documented
  • Registry and governance: PreviewAgents stored in projects⁠Source 4
  • Traffic between agents, tools, and models: OfferedMCP client for external tools⁠Source 5
  • Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented

How to read the strips

  1. 01Build agents
  2. 02Host and run agents
  3. 03Identity and access
  4. 04Registry and governance
  5. 05Traffic between agents, tools, and models
  6. 06Agents across organizations
  • Offered
  • Preview
  • You build it
  • Not included
  • Not publicly documented

Platforms to build and run agents

5 alternatives

The group n8n sits in, so listed first.

  • Amazon Bedrock AgentCore

    AWS platform for building, deploying, and operating AI agents

    Where it sits⁠Source 6, Source 7, Source 8, Source 9, Source 10

    1. Build agents: Offered, Harness managed agent loop
    2. Host and run agents: Offered, AgentCore Runtime
    3. Identity and access: Offered, AgentCore Identity workload identities
    4. Registry and governance: Offered, AWS Agent Registry with approvals
    5. Traffic between agents, tools, and models: Offered, AgentCore Gateway
    6. Agents across organizations: Offered, Registry shared through AWS RAM

    AWS’s managed platform to build, deploy, and operate agents with any framework; developers can write agents in Python and deploy them to AgentCore Runtime.⁠Source 6, Source 11 Its registry can also list agents hosted outside AWS.⁠Source 6

    Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs n8n

  • CrewAI AMP

    Platform for deploying, monitoring, and scaling CrewAI crews and agents

    Where it sits⁠Source 12, Source 13, Source 14, Source 15, Source 16, Source 17

    1. Build agents: Offered, Crew Studio visual editor
    2. Host and run agents: Offered, Managed infrastructure for crews
    3. Identity and access: Offered, Per-deployment allow lists
    4. Registry and governance: Offered, Agent Repositories
    5. Traffic between agents, tools, and models: Offered, Custom MCP server connections
    6. Agents across organizations: Preview, Public A2A agents

    A platform to deploy, monitor, and scale crews and agents; crews are built in code or in Crew Studio.⁠Source 13 CrewAI agents can delegate to remote A2A agents.⁠Source 18 n8n’s first-party A2A support is not publicly documented.

    CrewAI AMP vs n8n

  • Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform

    Google Cloud platform to build, deploy, govern, and optimize AI agents

    Where it sits⁠Source 19, Source 20, Source 21, Source 22

    1. Build agents: Offered, Agent Studio low-code canvas
    2. Host and run agents: Offered, Agent Runtime
    3. Identity and access: Offered, SPIFFE-based Agent Identity
    4. Registry and governance: Offered, Agent Registry
    5. Traffic between agents, tools, and models: Offered, Agent Gateway
    6. Agents across organizations: Offered, Gateway calls to outside agents

    Google Cloud’s platform to build, deploy, govern, and optimize agents.⁠Source 19, Source 23 Its registry can list agents hosted outside Google Cloud, by manual registration, and agents on supported services can have their own identity.⁠Source 21, Source 22, Source 24

    Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform vs n8n

  • IBM watsonx Orchestrate

    Agent management platform to build, deploy, orchestrate, and govern AI agents

    Where it sits⁠Source 25, Source 26, Source 27, Source 28, Source 29

    1. Build agents: Offered, Visual builder and ADK
    2. Host and run agents: Offered, Agents run on watsonx Orchestrate
    3. Identity and access: Preview, Agent identity
    4. Registry and governance: Offered, Agentic Control Plane
    5. Traffic between agents, tools, and models: Offered, A2A calls to agent endpoints
    6. Agents across organizations: Offered, Partner A2A agents in catalog

    IBM calls it an agent management platform to build, deploy, orchestrate, and govern agents wherever they are built or run.⁠Source 30 External agents can be integrated from platforms such as Salesforce Agentforce.⁠Source 31

    IBM watsonx Orchestrate vs n8n

  • LangSmith

    Platform for observing, evaluating, and deploying agents

    Where it sits⁠Source 32, Source 33, Source 34, Source 35, Source 36

    1. Build agents: Offered, Fleet agent builder
    2. Host and run agents: Offered, LangSmith Deployment runtime
    3. Identity and access: Offered, Fleet per-agent permissions
    4. Registry and governance: Offered, Centralized registry in Deployment
    5. Traffic between agents, tools, and models: Offered, Fleet forwards MCP tool calls
    6. Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented

    LangChain describes it as a framework-agnostic platform for observing, evaluating, and deploying agents, and agents running elsewhere can send it traces.⁠Source 37, Source 38 LangSmith tracing is available on self-hosted n8n, not n8n Cloud.⁠Source 3

    LangSmith vs n8n

Agent control planes

5 alternatives

  • Blocks.ai

    Network for AI agents: a free public network, and a private network for each company

    Where it sits⁠Source 39, Source 40, Source 41, Source 42, Source 43

    1. Build agents: Not included, Use LangChain or CrewAI
    2. Host and run agents: Not included, You run your agent
    3. Identity and access: Offered, Machine identity per agent
    4. Registry and governance: Offered, Private registry and Admin Console
    5. Traffic between agents, tools, and models: Offered, Private network for every agent
    6. Agents across organizations: Offered, Partners share only chosen agents

    Blocks.ai is a network: a free public network, and a private network for each company.⁠Source 42, Source 44 Blocks.ai doesn’t host or run your agent; it runs on your infrastructure.⁠Source 40

    Blocks.ai vs n8n

  • Microsoft Agent 365

    Microsoft 365 control plane to discover, manage, govern, and secure AI agents

    Where it sits⁠Source 45, Source 46, Source 47, Source 48, Source 49

    1. Build agents: Not included, Use your chosen framework
    2. Host and run agents: Not included, You host your agent
    3. Identity and access: Offered, Entra Agent ID
    4. Registry and governance: Offered, Agent registry in admin center
    5. Traffic between agents, tools, and models: Preview, Tooling Gateway for MCP servers
    6. Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented

    A Microsoft 365 control plane for agents, with agent identities in Microsoft Entra Agent ID.⁠Source 47, Source 50 In an early preview needing Microsoft’s Frontier program, n8n can be the backend for Agent 365 agents.⁠Source 51

    Microsoft Agent 365 vs n8n

  • MuleSoft Agent Fabric

    Control plane for agents, MCP servers, and APIs across platforms

    Where it sits⁠Source 52

    1. Build agents: Offered, Agent brokers in Agent Script
    2. Host and run agents: Offered, Agent brokers on CloudHub 2.0
    3. Identity and access: Offered, Omni Gateway authentication and authorization
    4. Registry and governance: Offered, Agent Registry in Anypoint Exchange
    5. Traffic between agents, tools, and models: Offered, Omni Gateway in request path
    6. Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented

    A control plane for agents, MCP servers, and APIs across platforms; its scanners register agents found on supported platforms.⁠Source 52, Source 53 MuleSoft says Salesforce’s separate Agentforce is for building end-to-end agents within Salesforce.⁠Source 54

    MuleSoft Agent Fabric vs n8n

  • ServiceNow AI Control Tower

    What ServiceNow calls a central hub to discover, secure, govern, observe, and measure AI

    Where it sits⁠Source 55, Source 56, Source 57

    1. Build agents: Not publicly documented
    2. Host and run agents: Not publicly documented
    3. Identity and access: Offered, Scoped OAuth tokens (community docs)
    4. Registry and governance: Offered, AI inventory tied to CMDB
    5. Traffic between agents, tools, and models: Offered, AI Gateway (community docs)
    6. Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented

    ServiceNow describes it as a central hub to discover, secure, govern, observe, and measure AI.⁠Source 56 ServiceNow documents a connector that discovers and imports AI assets from n8n.⁠Source 58

    n8n vs ServiceNow AI Control Tower

  • Workday Agent System of Record

    Workday system of record to find, add, register, configure, monitor, and manage AI agents

    Where it sits⁠Source 59, Source 60, Source 61

    1. Build agents: Not publicly documented
    2. Host and run agents: Not publicly documented
    3. Identity and access: Offered, Agent System User per agent
    4. Registry and governance: Offered, Agent Registry in Management Hub
    5. Traffic between agents, tools, and models: Offered, Agent Gateway for Workday APIs
    6. Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented

    Set up in each Workday tenant, it registers and manages agents, each with a unique Workday identity under Workday security policies.⁠Source 59, Source 60, Source 62, Source 63 External agents are registered through its API.⁠Source 64

    n8n vs Workday Agent System of Record

Gateways, identity, and security

4 alternatives

  • Cloudflare MCP server portals

    Cloudflare One feature that puts MCP servers behind one governed endpoint

    Where it sits⁠Source 65

    1. Build agents: Not publicly documented
    2. Host and run agents: Not publicly documented
    3. Identity and access: Offered, Identity provider or service token
    4. Registry and governance: Offered, Centrally managed MCP servers
    5. Traffic between agents, tools, and models: Offered, Proxy for MCP tool calls
    6. Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented

    A portal that puts multiple MCP servers behind one HTTP endpoint, with admins choosing the tools each portal exposes.⁠Source 65 n8n can itself act as an MCP server and client.⁠Source 5, Source 66

    Cloudflare MCP server portals vs n8n

  • Kong AI Gateway

    Gateway that governs LLM, MCP, and agent-to-agent traffic

    Where it sits⁠Source 67, Source 68, Source 69

    1. Build agents: Not publicly documented
    2. Host and run agents: Not publicly documented
    3. Identity and access: Offered, Per-agent allow or deny lists
    4. Registry and governance: Preview, Konnect Catalog agents
    5. Traffic between agents, tools, and models: Offered, Gateway for LLM, MCP, A2A
    6. Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented

    A gateway for LLM, MCP, and A2A traffic that proxies to agents at their own URLs.⁠Source 67, Source 70 Kong says it governs A2A traffic without changing how agents are built.⁠Source 71

    Kong AI Gateway vs n8n

  • Okta for AI Agents

    Okta offering that gives AI agents a first-class identity so organizations can discover, onboard, protect, and govern them

    Where it sits⁠Source 72, Source 73, Source 74

    1. Build agents: Not publicly documented
    2. Host and run agents: Not publicly documented
    3. Identity and access: Offered, Agent identity and credentials
    4. Registry and governance: Offered, Universal Directory with human owners
    5. Traffic between agents, tools, and models: Preview, Agent Gateway for MCP tools
    6. Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented

    Okta says it gives AI agents a first-class identity.⁠Source 75 Admins register or import agents and set which resources each may access.⁠Source 76, Source 77 Per-agent identity from n8n is not publicly documented.

    n8n vs Okta for AI Agents

  • Zenity AI Agent Security & Governance Platform

    Security and governance platform for AI agents, aimed at security teams

    Where it sits⁠Source 78, Source 79

    1. Build agents: Not publicly documented
    2. Host and run agents: Not publicly documented
    3. Identity and access: Not publicly documented
    4. Registry and governance: Offered, AI Observability agent inventory
    5. Traffic between agents, tools, and models: Offered, Tool-call blocking for coding agents
    6. Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented

    A security and governance platform for AI agents, delivered as SaaS, that Zenity aims at security teams.⁠Source 80, Source 81 Zenity says it can block actions on Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry, and coding agents.⁠Source 82

    n8n vs Zenity

Build it yourself

1 alternative

Not a product: your own team assembles the pieces.

  • Build it yourself (DIY)

    Building agent connections and controls in-house from open protocols, existing infrastructure, and open-source tools

    Where it sits⁠Source 83, Source 84, Source 85, Source 86, Source 87, Source 88

    1. Build agents: You build it, Open-source frameworks like ADK
    2. Host and run agents: You build it, Self-hosted, like LangGraph
    3. Identity and access: You build it, Your own identity provider
    4. Registry and governance: You build it, Your own agent registry
    5. Traffic between agents, tools, and models: You build it, Your gateway and service mesh
    6. Agents across organizations: You build it, A2A with API management

    Your team builds agents with open-source frameworks such as LangGraph or Google’s ADK, and its own controls around them.⁠Source 83, Source 84 Uber says it built its own MCP registry and gateway.⁠Source 87

    DIY vs n8n

Questions buyers ask

Does n8n keep a registry of every agent?

n8n’s Agents feature, in preview, keeps agents in n8n projects alongside workflows.⁠Source 4 Listing or managing agents built outside n8n is not publicly documented. External AI agents can use n8n tools through its MCP Server Trigger node.⁠Source 5

How is n8n priced?

n8n prices its paid plans by monthly workflow executions, with unlimited users.⁠Source 89 Cloud Starter is $20 a month, billed annually, for 2,500 executions; the self-hosted Community edition is free, and Enterprise pricing is through sales.⁠Source 89, Source 90 In preview, one agent turn counts as one execution.⁠Source 4

Can n8n be self-hosted?

Yes: on your own infrastructure, on premises, or in a private cloud; without a license key it runs as the free Community edition.⁠Source 90, Source 91 Business and Enterprise license keys must ping n8n’s license server daily; air-gapped installs can use a license certificate instead.⁠Source 89, Source 92

How we compare

Read the full method

Every claim on this page links to a public source. Where none answers a question, the page says so.

We re-check every fact at least every 90 days. This page was last checked .

Something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we’ll correct it.

Sources

95 public sources, each with the date we checked it. Every one opens in a new tab.

  1. Source 1: AI Workflow Automation Platform - n8n n8n · checked Back:ab

  2. Source 2: Choose how to use n8n n8n · checked Back to text

  3. Source 3: LangChain in n8n n8n · checked Back:abc

  4. Source 4: Build and manage agents n8n · checked Back:abcd

  5. Source 5: MCP Client Tool n8n · checked Back:abc

  6. Source 6: Overview - Amazon Bedrock AgentCore (Developer Guide) AWS · checked Back:abc

  7. Source 7: Provide identity and credential management for agent applications with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Identity AWS · checked Back to text

  8. Source 8: AWS Agent Registry: Discover and manage agents, tools, and resources AWS · checked Back to text

  9. Source 9: HTTP passthrough targets - AgentCore Gateway AWS · checked Back to text

  10. Source 10: Sharing a registry across accounts with AWS RAM AWS · checked Back to text

  11. Source 11: Get started with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore AWS · checked Back to text

  12. Source 12: Crew Studio CrewAI · checked Back to text

  13. Source 13: CrewAI AMP (platform docs introduction) CrewAI · checked Back:ab

  14. Source 14: Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) CrewAI · checked Back to text

  15. Source 15: Agent Repositories CrewAI · checked Back to text

  16. Source 16: Custom MCP Servers CrewAI · checked Back to text

  17. Source 17: A2A on AMP CrewAI · checked Back to text

  18. Source 18: Agent-to-Agent (A2A) Protocol (CrewAI framework docs) CrewAI · checked Back to text

  19. Source 19: Agent Platform overview Google · checked Back:ab

  20. Source 20: Agent Gateway overview Google · checked Back to text

  21. Source 21: Agent Identity overview Google · checked Back:ab

  22. Source 22: Agent Registry overview Google · checked Back:ab

  23. Source 23: Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI) Google · checked Back to text

  24. Source 24: Use manual registration Google · checked Back to text

  25. Source 25: AI Agent Builder | IBM watsonx Orchestrate IBM · checked Back to text

  26. Source 26: Welcome to IBM watsonx Orchestrate Agent Development Kit IBM · checked Back to text

  27. Source 27: Agent identity overview IBM · checked Back to text

  28. Source 28: AI Agent Control Plane | IBM watsonx Orchestrate IBM · checked Back to text

  29. Source 29: Partner A2A (Agent2Agent) agents IBM · checked Back to text

  30. Source 30: IBM watsonx Orchestrate IBM · checked Back to text

  31. Source 31: Overview - Agents (watsonx Orchestrate ADK docs) IBM · checked Back to text

  32. Source 32: No-code agents with LangSmith Fleet LangChain · checked Back to text

  33. Source 33: LangSmith Deployment LangChain · checked Back to text

  34. Source 34: Agent platform comparison LangChain · checked Back to text

  35. Source 35: LangSmith Deployment LangChain · checked Back to text

  36. Source 36: Remote MCP servers LangChain · checked Back to text

  37. Source 37: LangSmith: The Agent Engineering Platform LangChain · checked Back to text

  38. Source 38: Set up LangSmith LangChain · checked Back to text

  39. Source 39: Why Blocks? Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  40. Source 40: What is Blocks? Blocks.ai · checked Back:ab

  41. Source 41: Authentication reference Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  42. Source 42: Your company's private network Blocks.ai · checked Back:abc

  43. Source 43: Joining a Blocks network Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  44. Source 44: Pricing Blocks.ai · checked Back:ab

  45. Source 45: Agent 365 SDK frequently asked questions | Microsoft Learn Microsoft · checked Back to text

  46. Source 46: Microsoft Agent 365 SDK overview | Microsoft Learn Microsoft · checked Back to text

  47. Source 47: Agent 365 identity | Microsoft Learn Microsoft · checked Back:ab

  48. Source 48: Agent Registry in Microsoft 365 admin center - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn Microsoft · checked Back to text

  49. Source 49: Bring your own (BYO) MCP server in Microsoft 365 admin center - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn Microsoft · checked Back to text

  50. Source 50: Microsoft Agent 365 - Service Descriptions | Microsoft Learn Microsoft · checked Back to text

  51. Source 51: Microsoft Agent 365 Trigger n8n · checked Back to text

  52. Source 52: Agent Fabric Overview Salesforce · checked Back:ab

  53. Source 53: Get Started with Agent Fabric Salesforce · checked Back to text

  54. Source 54: See Every Agent. Govern Every Agent. Control AI Costs. (mulesoft.com home page) Salesforce · checked Back to text

  55. Source 55: What's new in AI Gateway v3.4 - September 2026 release (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) ServiceNow · checked Back to text

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  57. Source 57: AI Gateway Implementation Guide (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) ServiceNow · checked Back to text

  58. Source 58: AI Service Graph Connector for n8n (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) ServiceNow · checked Back to text

  59. Source 59: Concept: Agent Security (Workday Administrator Guide) Workday · checked Back:ab

  60. Source 60: About Workday Agents (Workday Administrator Guide) Workday · checked Back:ab

  61. Source 61: Concept: Workday Agent Gateway (Workday Administrator Guide) Workday · checked Back to text

  62. Source 62: Set Up Agent System of Record (Workday Administrator Guide) Workday · checked Back to text

  63. Source 63: Setup Considerations: Agent Security (Workday Administrator Guide) Workday · checked Back to text

  64. Source 64: Register External Agents (Workday Administrator Guide) Workday · checked Back to text

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  66. Source 66: MCP Server Trigger n8n · checked Back to text

  67. Source 67: AI Agents - Kong AI Gateway docs Kong · checked Back:ab

  68. Source 68: Agents in Catalog - Kong Docs Kong · checked Back to text

  69. Source 69: Kong AI Gateway product page Kong · checked Back to text

  70. Source 70: AI Gateway architecture - Kong Docs Kong · checked Back to text

  71. Source 71: The Agent Gateway for Secure, Observable Agent-to-Agent Communication (Kong) Kong · checked Back to text

  72. Source 72: Add AI agents manually (Okta Help Center) Okta · checked Back to text

  73. Source 73: Okta for AI Agents (product page) Okta · checked Back to text

  74. Source 74: Agent Gateway (Okta Help Center) Okta · checked Back to text

  75. Source 75: Okta brings first-class identity to AI agents with Agent SSO Okta · checked Back to text

  76. Source 76: Add and register AI agents (Okta Help Center) Okta · checked Back to text

  77. Source 77: AI agent resource connections (Okta Help Center) Okta · checked Back to text

  78. Source 78: AI Observability | See Every Agent, Know What it Touches | Zenity Zenity · checked Back to text

  79. Source 79: Coding and Personal Agents | Zenity Zenity · checked Back to text

  80. Source 80: AWS Marketplace: Zenity Zenity · checked Back to text

  81. Source 81: Platform | AI Agent Security & Governance Platform | Zenity Zenity · checked Back to text

  82. Source 82: Zenity's Coverage of the 2026 OWASP Top 10 for LLM Apps Zenity · checked Back to text

  83. Source 83: google/adk-python README (GitHub) github.com · checked Back:ab

  84. Source 84: langchain-ai/langgraph README (GitHub) github.com · checked Back:ab

  85. Source 85: Integrating with Model Context Protocol (MCP) - Keycloak keycloak.org · checked Back to text

  86. Source 86: Agent Discovery - A2A Protocol a2a-protocol.org · checked Back to text

  87. Source 87: Designing MCP Gateway Uber's MCP Management Platform - Uber Blog uber.com · checked Back:ab

  88. Source 88: Enterprise Features - A2A Protocol a2a-protocol.org · checked Back to text

  89. Source 89: n8n Plans and Pricing n8n · checked Back:abc

  90. Source 90: Compare editions n8n · checked Back:ab

  91. Source 91: Host n8n n8n · checked Back to text

  92. Source 92: Manage your license n8n · checked Back to text

  93. Source 93: Network requirements Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  94. Source 94: Solutions: Agent sprawl Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  95. Source 95: Solutions: Partner networks Blocks.ai · checked Back to text