Skyvern vs n8n
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Skyvern and n8n.
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Verdict: n8n wins
n8n scores 4.3/5, edging out Skyvern at 4.0/5. Technical teams and engineers who want code-level control and the option to self-host automation as core infrastructure.
Skyvern AI browser agent for workflow automation | n8n Workflow automation that gives you control | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.0 (1 review) | 4.3 (1 review) |
| Pricing Model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting Price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best For | Developers and ops teams automating login-gated, dynamic, CAPTCHA-protected browser workflows that keep breaking traditional scripts. | Technical teams and engineers who want code-level control and the option to self-host automation as core infrastructure. |
| Free Tier | ||
| API Access | ||
| Team Features | ||
| Open Source | ||
| Tags | open sourcefree tierapi accessbyok | open sourcefree tierapi access |
| Visit Skyvern → | Visit n8n → |
Skyvern
Pros
- + Vision-driven navigation survives UI changes that break selector-based scripts — layout drift in my test did not stop a run
- + Per-step run traces explain what the agent did and why, which turns failures into diagnoses instead of guesswork
- + Native CAPTCHA and 2FA/TOTP handling removes the two flows that most automation tools refuse to touch
- + Open-source AGPL core with a documented Docker self-host path for teams that cannot send credentials to a cloud vendor
- + Credit sizing is transparent: the pricing page publishes estimated action counts per tier (~170 / ~1,200 / ~6,200)
Cons
- - Per-action cost is inherently higher than scripted automation — each step carries LLM round trips, and self-hosters pay their own LLM API bills
- - Free tier (5,000 credits, 1 concurrent run) is an evaluation tier; team workspaces and 2FA support start at $149/month
- - Reliability on the hardest bot-protected and rate-limited sites is not something I would stake an SLA on despite native CAPTCHA solving
- - Seed-stage company with a small team; funding figures conflict across databases ($728K vs $2.7M) and long-term support is an open question
- - Not the right tool for high-volume extraction over stable pages, where a plain scraper is faster and far cheaper
n8n
Pros
- + Unlimited steps per execution: my 20-node nightly sync counted as one execution, so complexity stops driving cost (n8n.io/pricing)
- + Code nodes (JS/Python) with npm and env-var access meant I finished every prototype without leaving the platform
- + Self-hostable with no licence fee under the Sustainable Use License; full run snapshots and re-run-from-failed-node debugging
- + AI agent nodes (LLM connectors, vector stores, agents calling workflows as tools) are the deepest of any general automation platform I tested
- + Strong company trajectory: $180M Series C (Accel, Oct 2025) and a SAP strategic investment at ~$5.2B in May 2026
Cons
- - Not open source — the Sustainable Use License (fair-code) forbids offering n8n as a hosted service and fails OSI procurement checks
- - Assumes engineering literacy: JSON paths, expressions, and async data structures stumped every ops-only user I watched try it
- - Self-hosting carries real ops cost — queue mode, worker scaling and upgrades took me hours that a managed platform absorbs
- - Documentation is thin at the edges; AI node options and queue-mode config sent me to community forum threads
- - Business cloud tier is self-hosted-only at time of writing (cloud waitlisted), leaving a gap between Pro's 10K executions and Enterprise
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Skyvern or n8n?▼
n8n scores higher at 4.3/5 vs 4.0/5 for Skyvern, making it the better-rated option in our comparison.
What is the difference between Skyvern and n8n?▼
Skyvern: Open-source AI browser automation agent that can navigate complex websites, extract data, and complete workflows using LLMs and computer vision. n8n: n8n is a workflow automation platform that combines AI capabilities with business process automation, giving technical teams a visual builder with the option to add code when needed.
Is Skyvern or n8n more affordable?▼
Skyvern starts at €0/mo, n8n starts at €0/mo. Check the comparison table above for current pricing.
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