n8n vs Power Automate: Per Execution vs Per User
September 28, 2026
The n8n vs Power Automate decision comes down to two facts: what each one bills for, and where each one runs. n8n bills per workflow execution and can run on a server you control. Power Automate licenses people and bots, and runs inside Microsoft's cloud, with desktop robots on Windows machines you register.
Everything else follows from those two facts:
- Power Automate is the natural choice if your company already lives in Microsoft 365, or if part of the process is a person clicking through an old Windows app
- n8n is the natural choice if data has to stay on your infrastructure, if you want real code inside a workflow, or if most of your APIs aren't Microsoft's
- The trap on each side is different: premium licensing on Power Automate, server ownership on n8n
Here's how the two compare, and how to tell which shape your team is.
n8n vs Power Automate: quick comparison
| n8n | Power Automate | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Execution — one whole workflow run | Per user (Premium), plus per-bot or per-flow Process licences |
| Cost scales with | How often workflows fire | How many people and bots are licensed |
| Where it runs | n8n Cloud, or self-hosted anywhere | Microsoft cloud; desktop flows on Windows machines |
| Self-hosting | Yes, free Community Edition | No |
| Licence | Sustainable Use License (source-available) | Proprietary, part of Microsoft Power Platform |
| Desktop / legacy app automation | No | Yes — attended and unattended desktop flows |
| Microsoft 365 depth | Native nodes for Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Excel | Native, plus Dataverse and tenant-level governance |
| Code inside a workflow | JavaScript and Python Code node | Expressions; custom connectors for missing APIs |
| Who maintains it | You, if self-hosted | Microsoft, plus your Power Platform admin |
The billing models, precisely
n8n's pricing page defines an execution as a single run of your entire workflow. It doesn't matter how many steps the workflow has or how much data it processes. A three-node workflow and a sixty-node workflow each count once per run.
Power Automate counts something else entirely. Microsoft's licence types documentation describes two families:
- User licences. Power Automate Premium lets a person create, run, and share unlimited cloud flows with standard, premium, and custom connectors, within daily action limits. It also includes one attended RPA bot.
- Capacity licences. A Process licence attaches to a machine, where it becomes an unattended bot, or to a cloud flow, which can then use premium connectors no matter which licence its users hold. Hosted Process adds Microsoft-hosted machines for RPA. Pay-as-you-go through an Azure subscription is a further option.
So one side meters activity and the other meters people. The practical results:
| Scenario | Usually cheaper on |
|---|---|
| A few people running high-volume flows | Power Automate — volume doesn't change a per-user licence |
| Many people, each with one small flow on standard connectors | Power Automate, if Microsoft 365 already covers it |
| A long workflow firing thousands of times | n8n — step count is free |
| A premium flow that hundreds of employees trigger by hand | Either; on Power Automate, price a Process licence against per-user licences |
| High volume with data that can't leave your network | n8n Community Edition, self-hosted |
The Power Automate detail most people get wrong is who needs the premium licence. Per Microsoft's licensing FAQ, automated and scheduled flows run in the owner's context, so only the owner needs Premium. Instant flows, meaning buttons and Power Apps triggers, run in the invoking user's context. If an instant flow uses a premium connector, every user who runs it needs Premium, or the flow needs a Process licence. That's where a department-wide rollout quietly multiplies the licence count.
n8n's trap sits elsewhere. Complexity is free, but frequency isn't. A workflow that fires once per record costs one execution per record. The same logic batched into one nightly run costs one.
Where each one runs
This is the other half of the durable difference, and for some teams it settles the decision before cost comes up.
n8n runs wherever you put it. Its hosting documentation covers self-hosting on your own infrastructure, on-premises, or in a private cloud. Without a licence key, a self-hosted instance runs as the free Community Edition. The source is on GitHub under the Sustainable Use License, which allows use for your own internal business purposes, or for non-commercial and personal use. It isn't an OSI open-source licence, and it doesn't let you resell n8n as a hosted service. n8n Cloud is there if you want the same billing without the server.
Power Automate runs in Microsoft's cloud. There is no self-hosted edition. Cloud flows live in Power Platform environments in your tenant. Two things reach back into your network:
- The on-premises data gateway connects cloud flows to data that stays on your servers
- Desktop flows execute on Windows machines you register, or on Microsoft-hosted machines under a Hosted Process licence
That's a bridge, not a relocation. The orchestration still runs in Microsoft's cloud. If your security review requires the automation engine itself to sit inside your network, n8n self-hosted is the mainstream option and Power Automate isn't one.
Where Power Automate is stronger
Desktop RPA. Desktop flows automate legacy apps, terminal emulators, web apps, and Excel files by working through the interface with UI elements, images, or coordinates. Per the setup requirements, they run on Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server. n8n has no equivalent. If a person clicks through an ERP client every morning, this alone decides it.
You may already own part of it. Microsoft's seeded licence breakdown shows Microsoft 365 licences include cloud flows with standard connectors. Premium connectors, custom connectors, and cloud-orchestrated RPA need more. Plenty of simple SharePoint-to-Teams approvals never need them.
Governance is the architecture. Environments, data policies that decide which connectors can share data, and a central admin centre come with the platform. In self-hosted n8n, the Community Edition lacks SSO, environments, and workflow sharing. Those need a paid Business or Enterprise licence key, per n8n's edition comparison.
Nothing to operate. No server, no upgrades, no backups, no on-call rota. For an ops team without an engineer, that matters more than any line in a pricing table.
Where n8n is stronger
Self-hosting and data control. Your network, your database, your retention policy, your upgrade schedule. For regulated teams that's not a preference. It's the requirement.
Code as a first-class step. The Code node runs JavaScript or Python inside the workflow. Self-hosted, you can enable built-in and external npm modules too. Power Automate's cloud flows lean on expressions, and an API with no prebuilt connector means building a custom connector, which Microsoft 365 licences don't include.
Non-Microsoft APIs. n8n lists 2,000+ integrations in its library, plus an HTTP Request node that calls any REST API. If your stack is Stripe, Postgres, Slack, and a handful of internal services, n8n treats them all the same. Power Automate treats Microsoft services as home and everything else as a connector, often a premium one.
Long workflows. Per-execution billing means depth costs nothing. Add error handling, retries, and logging nodes without watching a meter.
n8n or Power Automate for Microsoft 365?
If "Microsoft 365" is why you're asking, check what you actually need from it.
| Your situation | Better fit |
|---|---|
| SharePoint, Teams, and Outlook flows on standard connectors | Power Automate — likely already licensed |
| Dataverse, Dynamics 365, or Power Apps in the loop | Power Automate |
| Microsoft 365 is one system among many | n8n |
| Data must stay on your own infrastructure | n8n, self-hosted |
| Legacy Windows apps anywhere in the process | Power Automate |
n8n isn't locked out of Microsoft. It ships native nodes for Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Excel, OneDrive, and Dataverse. What it can't match is tenant-level integration: Power Automate is governed from the same Power Platform admin centre and environments as the rest of your Microsoft estate, and its licensing already sits inside your Microsoft agreement.
Searching for a self-hosted Power Automate alternative usually means the Microsoft cloud itself is the blocker. n8n is the most common answer. Our Power Automate alternatives guide covers the rest, including the genuinely open-source options.
What neither one covers
Both tools assume you're designing a process: a trigger, some steps, systems with interfaces. That's most business automation.
It isn't the situation you're in when you've seen an AI setup someone else built, an agent or a research workflow or a Claude Code configuration, and you just want it running on your machine. No trigger configures that. The blocker is someone else's environment.
Taku is an AI-native desktop workspace built for that shape of problem. You mirror an AI app or workflow that already works, run it, and remix it into something you keep. It doesn't replace n8n or Power Automate, and they're better at the process automation above. Taku is in Beta, and the Mac app is available now. The free app library shows what mirroring looks like.
Deciding
- Legacy Windows app in the process? → Power Automate. Nothing in n8n drives a desktop UI.
- Data or the automation engine must stay on your infrastructure? → n8n, self-hosted.
- Standardised on Microsoft 365, flows mostly on standard connectors? → Power Automate, and check what you already own.
- Workflows need real code, or mostly hit non-Microsoft APIs? → n8n.
- Nobody will own a server? → Power Automate, or n8n Cloud.
- Premium instant flow that hundreds will trigger? → Price a Process licence against per-user licences before you compare anything else.
Still weighing the field? Zapier vs Power Automate covers per-task billing against per-seat, and n8n alternatives maps the rest of the self-hostable side.
FAQ
Is n8n cheaper than Power Automate?
It depends on shape, not size. Self-hosted Community Edition has no execution fees, but you pay for the server and the person who runs it. Per n8n's pricing, self-hosted Business and Enterprise are still priced on executions. Power Automate can cost nothing extra for standard-connector flows your Microsoft 365 licences already cover, and a lot once premium instant flows spread across a department.
Can Power Automate be self-hosted?
No. Cloud flows run in Microsoft's cloud. The on-premises data gateway reaches data on your servers, and desktop flows run on Windows machines you register, but the platform itself isn't something you can install on your own infrastructure.
Can n8n do RPA like Power Automate Desktop?
No. n8n works through APIs and code. Driving a Windows application's interface is what Power Automate's desktop flows do, and n8n has no equivalent.
Is n8n open source?
No, and n8n doesn't claim to be. The source is public under the Sustainable Use License, which permits internal business, non-commercial, and personal use but not reselling n8n as a hosted service. It's source-available, or "fair-code," not OSI open source.
Does n8n work with Microsoft 365?
Yes. It has native nodes for Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Excel, OneDrive, and Dataverse. It lacks the tenant-level governance and admin integration Power Automate gets from being part of the Microsoft platform.
Can I migrate Power Automate flows to n8n?
Not automatically. No converter exists in either direction, so migration is a rebuild. Prototype your heaviest flow on n8n first, and redesign triggers around per-execution billing rather than porting them as they are.