Microsoft Power Automate sells cloud flows and desktop RPA per user or per bot inside the Power Platform. Pages here cover replacing cloud flows with self-hosted n8n or Activepieces and what to do with desktop flows.
Comparing Power Automate cloud flows with self-hosted n8n: connector coverage for Microsoft 365 and third-party apps, per-user and per-flow licensing against n8n's editions, daily action limits, desktop RPA that n8n does not provide, and who operates each.
For business teams that build their own flows: how Activepieces' no-code builder compares with Power Automate for citizen developers, connector depth for Microsoft 365, licensing and self-hosting, and where Power Automate's desktop flows have no Activepieces equivalent.
Moving cloud flows to n8n: inventorying flows by owner and environment, exporting packages and solutions as a reference, rebuilding triggers and actions, replacing on-premises data gateway connections, re-creating connections, and running both in parallel before switching off.
For organizations whose flows are built by business users: rebuilding Power Automate cloud flows in Activepieces, mapping connectors and approvals, deciding which flows stay in Microsoft 365, and training makers on the new builder.
Cost of ownership by component: Premium per user, Process and Hosted Process per bot, the Process Mining add-on and the free tier's standard-connector limit, against n8n's Community or Enterprise edition, servers, PostgreSQL, migration and ongoing operations.
What Power Automate lets you take out: single-flow .zip packages that only owners can export, Dataverse solutions for groups of flows, and why neither imports into another tool. How to build a flow inventory and plan rebuilds before licenses lapse.
Desktop flows automate legacy Windows apps by mimicking keyboard and mouse. This page covers when Robot Framework, an open source automation framework for testing and RPA, replaces them, when an API integration in n8n is the better fix, and the bot machines you then run.
Power Automate reaches on-premises databases and file shares through the on-premises data gateway while flows run in Microsoft's cloud. This page covers running n8n inside your network instead so data never leaves it, and the trade-offs for Microsoft 365 connectors.
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