| Working model | A visual builder connects apps in scenarios, with routers and filters. | A workflow service available as n8n Cloud or a self-hosted installation; deployment choice changes responsibilities. |
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| Free access | The existing automation free guide documents a limited free plan. It does not establish a numeric credit quota, so this page does not add one. | The free guide documents self-hosting without a software execution cap. Community is not a free hosted Cloud plan, and real infrastructure capacity still applies. |
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| Paid price and commitment | Paid plans use credit tiers and a billing-cycle selector. A fixed current amount with an unambiguous selected billing basis was not established in the retrieved page; check the live quote. | Cloud Starter is €20/month billed annually. This is a hosted subscription, not the price of self-hosted Community. |
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| Billing unit | Scenario actions consume credits; advanced AI actions can consume more. Count the actual workflow steps instead of equating a credit to a complete business process. | Cloud pricing is based on workflow executions rather than pricing each step as a separate execution. Third-party services have their own charges. |
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| Hosting and maintenance | Editorial fit: a hosted builder when server operation is outside your remit. | Self-hosting requires installation, configuration, security, updates and infrastructure management. Cloud is the alternative for managed hosting. |
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| Team collaboration | Team roles and shared templates are documented in the Teams offer. Confirm the selected plan rather than treating Free as full governance. | Community omits features such as projects, workflow/credential sharing and SSO; paid editions have different entitlements. |
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| Learning curve | Editorial guidance: start with a representative visual scenario and inspect its run history and credit usage. No training-time estimate is supplied. | Editorial guidance: evaluate workflow construction separately from learning to operate the server. No claim that self-hosting is simple or faster is made. |
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| Business and client use | Check the chosen plan, connected-service permissions and any client requirements. This page does not establish a right to redistribute the platform. | Community uses the Sustainable Use License. Internal use and certain client-work arrangements are allowed; hosting it as a service or letting external users configure workflows can require a commercial license. |
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| Upgrade trigger | Upgrade when the required quota, scheduling or team feature exceeds the selected plan; there is no invented time-to-upgrade prediction. | Move to Cloud or a paid self-hosted edition when maintenance responsibility or a documented Community feature restriction blocks the work. |
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