Contents8
- 01What does the text of n8n’s licence say?
- 02What can you do with n8n under this licence?
- 03What does the licence forbid?
- 04Can a service provider build and run your workflows?
- 05What does the Community edition contain, and what does it lack?
- 06Should you worry about a licence that is not open source?
- 07How do you stay within the rules?
- 08Frequently asked questions
n8n is often described as an open source tool. Its licence says something else: the code is public and you can install it on your own server without paying for a licence, but its text limits commercial use. In n8n’s official repository, the vendor talks about “fair-code”, not open source, and distributes n8n under two licences: the Sustainable Use License and the n8n Enterprise License.
For an SME automating its own processes, this nuance changes almost nothing. It matters to anyone who wants to build a product on n8n, and to anyone who hands their automations over to a service provider: knowing who controls the workflows decides what is allowed. Choosing the tool and putting it into production are covered in the other guides in our automation section, and our guide Automation without AI: when a rule is enough helps you spot the steps that do not need a model.
What follows is a decision-maker’s reading, based on the text of the licence and the FAQ the vendor publishes. It is not legal advice: for a commercial project that depends on n8n, have your case validated by the vendor or by a lawyer.
In short
When self-hosted, n8n’s licence allows any internal use, code modification included, with no licence fees.
A service provider can build, run and maintain your workflows, on your server or on theirs, as long as you receive results and not access to their instance.
The licence forbids letting outside people build their own workflows, reselling n8n as white label, or deriving an automation product from it.
The Community edition includes neither SSO nor workflow sharing: those features require a paid plan.
When in doubt, the vendor answers licence questions itself.
What does the text of n8n’s licence say?
The clause that matters takes two sentences, in the “Limitations” section of the licence text:
You may use or modify the software only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use. You may distribute the software or provide it to others only if you do so free of charge for non-commercial purposes.
The same file adds three useful points:
- files whose name or folder contains “.ee” (for Enterprise Edition) are excluded from the Sustainable Use License and require a valid Enterprise License;
- licence and copyright notices must be neither removed nor obscured;
- anyone who hands over a copy of the software must include the licence text with it, and clearly flag any modifications they have made.
Everything rests on the phrase “internal business purposes”, which the licence FAQ published by n8n clarifies:
Definition
Internal business purposes, according to n8n
The use of n8n within your organisation or within your product, with outside people allowed to receive or see what your workflows produce.
The FAQ sums up the most common case in one sentence: if the workflows are created or modified only by you or by people in your organisation, you can use n8n under the Community licence without paying. This licence only applies to the self-hosted version: n8n Cloud is a paid subscription, with its own terms.
What can you do with n8n under this licence?
According to the vendor’s FAQ, the licence notably allows you to:
- run your business with n8n, and use it for personal projects, learning or research;
- run several instances;
- charge your customers for creating, setting up and maintaining workflows, as well as for training and consulting;
- build automations for your customers on your instance, as long as they can neither create nor modify them;
- use n8n behind the scenes in your own product: your users trigger the automations you have built, and can even connect their own accounts to them.
What does the licence forbid?
The same FAQ lists what falls outside the framework:
- hosting n8n as a service and letting your customers build their workflows in it;
- allowing outside users to build or configure their own workflows from your product, whether through an in-house interface, n8n’s API, MCP or an AI agent acting for them;
- starting from n8n’s code to launch your own automation product;
- offering n8n as white label, removing its branding;
- using, without an Enterprise License, the features that require a licence key.
The deciding criterion is neither the interface nor who owns the credentials: it is who controls the workflow logic. An application that sends a ticket to n8n behind the scenes to assign it a priority, with the user only seeing the result, stays within the framework. A platform that lets its customers build their own automations falls outside it, even behind an in-house interface that hides n8n. The vendor puts the question this way: is n8n what you are selling, or a tool serving something else that you sell?
Can a service provider build and run your workflows?
Yes, and n8n’s FAQ says so explicitly: consulting and automation services are allowed, provided n8n remains the provider’s internal tool, with its customers receiving results, not access. Two set-ups are provided for:
n8n runs on the provider’s instance
The provider builds, runs and maintains your workflows there
You receive what they produce: messages, synchronised data, replies
You have access neither to the editor nor to the workflow logic
n8n runs on your server
The provider can install it, configure it, build and maintain your workflows in it
They can invoice that work
On one condition: they do not also host n8n for you
What this changes for you: if your team must one day be able to modify the workflows itself, n8n must run on your server. On a provider’s instance, the licence leaves you only the results. So ask the question from the start: where does n8n run, and who will control the editor?
What does the Community edition contain, and what does it lack?
The second surprise comes from the features. The edition comparison published by n8n shows that the Community edition, the one that runs without a licence key, contains almost all of n8n’s features, except notably:
- single sign-on (SSO through SAML or LDAP);
- sharing of workflows and credentials: only the instance owner and their creator can access them;
- projects, custom variables and external secrets;
- environments and Git version control;
- sending logs to an external tool.
By registering your instance with an email address, you get the “Registered Community” edition at no cost, which adds folders, debugging with the data of a past execution and custom execution data. The rest requires a Business or Enterprise plan.
Key takeaway
What this changes for an SME
As long as one or two people design the workflows, the Community edition is more than enough. When several people need to share workflows, when your IT department requires SSO, or when you want to separate a test environment from production, you need to look at the vendor’s paid plans. Better to know that before building thirty workflows than after.
Should you worry about a licence that is not open source?
A licence that is not open source raises a legitimate question: what happens if the vendor changes the rules? Two things put the risk in perspective.
First, your workflows are not locked in: n8n stores them in JSON format, and its documentation on export and import describes how to download them as files. Second, the business logic (which data goes where, with which rules) remains transposable to another tool, provided it has been documented. That is a good reason never to accept a workflow delivered without its documentation.
Honest limit: moving fifty workflows to another tool remains a real undertaking. Reversibility exists, but it has a cost. If independence from the vendor is a decisive criterion for you, weigh it when you choose, by comparing with the alternatives in our comparison of n8n, Make and Zapier for an SME.
How do you stay within the rules?
Three checks are enough in most cases:
- Who creates and modifies the workflows?
Your organisation, or outside people.
- Where does n8n run?
With you, or with a provider.
- Is n8n what you sell?
Or only a tool behind what you sell.
At the slightest doubt about a commercial product, ask the vendor before launch.
For our part, we run n8n workflows in production, on our server. n8n is our default choice, not an exclusive one. Our offer to remove a manual task with n8n, on your server or ours bills for the design of each process and, as an option, its monitoring. What that monitoring covers is detailed in our guide to monitoring your n8n workflows.
Frequently asked questions
Is n8n open source?
Not in the strict sense. Its code is public, and you can read it, install it and modify it, but the Sustainable Use License limits commercial use: you cannot resell n8n, or let outside people build their own workflows in it. The vendor itself uses the term “fair-code”, not open source, to describe its licence.
Can you use n8n without paying for a licence?
Yes, when self-hosting: the Community licence only applies to the self-hosted version, and it costs nothing as long as the workflows are created or modified by people in your organisation. The real cost lies elsewhere: the server, backups, updates and the time of the person who keeps watch. n8n Cloud, for its part, is a paid subscription with its own terms.
Can you use n8n inside software you sell?
Yes, behind the scenes: your users can trigger the automations you have built and connect their own accounts to them, without accessing the editor or changing the logic. If your product lets them build their own workflows, even behind an in-house interface, you need a commercial licence. In-between cases, such as delivering n8n installed at your customers’ premises, should be validated with the vendor before launch.
Is SSO included in the Community edition?
No. According to the edition comparison published by n8n, single sign-on through SAML or LDAP is reserved for the Business and Enterprise plans when self-hosting, as are environments, projects and workflow sharing. If your IT department requires it, factor in that cost when you choose the tool, rather than discovering it when you open access to other teams.
Who should you contact if in doubt?
The vendor itself. The licence FAQ gives two addresses: license@n8n.io for questions of interpretation, sales@n8n.io to discuss a commercial licence. Describe your architecture: who builds the workflows, where n8n runs, what your users see. A written answer from the vendor is worth more than your reading or ours, especially for a product you are going to sell.
Sources
- Licence text (new tab)github.com
- Licence FAQ published by n8n (new tab)docs.n8n.io
- Edition comparison published by n8n (new tab)docs.n8n.io
Jim · founder of Brain Plus AI
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