Power Automate cost vs self-hosted n8n: where the money goes
Self-hosted n8n removes per-user and per-flow licensing for the Community edition, but it replaces those fees with servers, PostgreSQL, operations and migration effort that you pay for in infrastructure and staff time. Business and Enterprise features are priced separately: the Business plan is listed at 667 euros per month billed annually and is currently self-hosted only, while the cloud Starter and Pro plans are listed at 20 and 50 euros per month. The Community edition is free to run, but SSO and LDAP, Git environments and log streaming are included only in the Business and Enterprise plans, so confirm which of those you need before comparing totals on the n8n pricing page.
Your Power Automate figures must come from your own Microsoft agreement, because the cost depends on your tenant, the users who build or run flows, the premium and process licenses you hold and any add-ons such as process mining. Pull the current per-user and per-bot lines from that agreement and your admin center, and do not rely on a public price sheet. List which flows depend on premium connectors or on the standard-connector limit of the free tier, then map each flow owner to the license they hold so you can count users and bots accurately.
The answer depends on three variables: feature needs, user count and execution volume. n8n counts an execution as one run of a whole workflow regardless of the number of steps, and every plan includes unlimited users, workflows and integrations, so execution volume and required features usually matter more than seat count. Queue mode adds Redis and a worker pool backed by PostgreSQL, and multi-main high availability is limited to Enterprise. Build a cost model with one row per component: license tier, servers for main, webhook and worker processes, PostgreSQL, Redis, backups, staff hours for upgrades and the one-time migration. Mark each line as one-time or recurring, and request written quotes against that same list.
Which cost components change when you move from Power Automate to n8n
This table compares each cost component on a Power Automate bill with its counterpart in a self-hosted n8n deployment, and marks whether it is paid once or on a recurring basis. Read the Power Automate column against your own Microsoft agreement, because licence rates depend on contract terms and are not listed here. The main takeaway is that n8n removes per-user and per-bot licensing for the automation layer, but moves cost into infrastructure, migration and operations that your team or a partner must carry.
| Cost component | Power Automate | Self-hosted n8n | One-time or recurring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premium per user | Per-user Premium licences, priced through your Microsoft agreement. Confirm current rates with Microsoft or your reseller. | No per-user fee. n8n states that all plans include unlimited users, workflows and integrations. | Recurring for Power Automate. None for n8n licensing. |
| Process and Hosted Process per bot | Per-bot licences for unattended flows and hosted bot capacity. Ask how many bots your desktop and cloud runs need. | No bot licence. Cloud flows run as n8n workflows, but desktop RPA is not covered and needs a separate tool. | Recurring for Power Automate. None for n8n. |
| Process Mining add-on | A separate add-on sold on top of Power Automate licensing. Confirm whether your agreement includes it. | Not provided by n8n. If you need process mining, plan and price a separate tool. | Recurring for Power Automate. Separate cost if needed for n8n. |
| Free tier standard-connector limit | Free tier restricts which standard connectors you can use, so growing needs push flows onto paid licences. | Connector access is not tiered by plan. n8n advertises more than 1,500 integrations on every edition. | Recurring for Power Automate. None for n8n connector access. |
| n8n license edition | Not applicable to Power Automate. | Community edition is free. Business is listed at 667 euros per month billed annually on n8n's pricing page and is currently self-hosted only. Enterprise is custom priced. | Recurring if you choose Business or Enterprise. Community has no licence fee. |
| Servers and PostgreSQL | Not applicable. Microsoft hosts the cloud flows, but on-premises gateways need your own servers. | Compute for the main instance and workers, plus a PostgreSQL database. Cost depends on execution volume and your cloud provider. | Recurring. Initial build is one-time. |
| Redis for queue mode | Not applicable to Power Automate. | Needed only when you run queue mode with workers. Adds a small recurring service to host, patch and monitor. | Recurring, only if you adopt queue mode. |
| Migration labor | Exporting flows and documenting owners, connections and approvals. Largely internal effort. | Rebuilding triggers, actions and connections in n8n, plus running both platforms in parallel. Quote from the written scope. | One-time, but it can run for months on large estates. |
| Internal skills, support and upgrades | Included in Microsoft support and admin roles. Premium support is a separate contract. | Needs staff or a partner for hosting, security patches, upgrades and backups. Enterprise adds vendor support with an SLA. | Recurring. Ask any partner for a quote based on a written scope. |
What moves the comparison most
The cost gap between Power Automate and self-hosted n8n is driven by who builds flows, how many bots run, how much work flows execute and which n8n features your team needs. Check these six drivers before you compare any price lists, because each one changes the number of licenses, servers or staff hours you pay for.
Makers and users
Power Automate licensing scales with the people who build or run premium flows, so every additional maker adds a recurring per-user cost. n8n's pricing page states that all plans include unlimited users, so the same headcount does not change the n8n license line. Count makers, approvers and admins separately, since each group may need a different Power Automate license. Confirm with Microsoft which license each group needs for the connectors you use, and confirm with n8n which edition covers your sign-in and audit requirements.
Unattended bots and desktop flows
Unattended desktop automation is priced per bot or per process in Power Automate, so bot count is often the largest recurring line when desktop flows are involved. n8n does not run desktop RPA, so any bot machines and their licenses stay on the Power Automate side unless you replace those flows with API integrations. Inventory every unattended flow and classify it as API-capable or UI-only before you model cost, since UI-only flows keep the bot line open.
Execution volume
Power Automate meters actions and runs against your license entitlement, while n8n counts one execution as one run of a whole workflow regardless of the number of steps. A flow with many actions costs more in Power Automate as it grows, but may cost the same single execution in n8n. Pull run counts and average step counts per flow from your current tenant, then compare them against n8n's execution counting rule and the capacity of the servers you plan to run.
Connectors and Microsoft 365 integrations
Power Automate's standard and premium connectors, including Dataverse and many Microsoft 365 actions, determine which license tier each flow needs. n8n lists more than 1,500 integrations, but coverage of Microsoft 365 objects, such as Teams approvals or SharePoint permissions, must be checked action by action. Map each flow's connectors to n8n nodes or HTTP calls to the Microsoft Graph API, and flag any flow that depends on a connector with no equivalent so it stays on Power Automate.
Sign-in, Git and logging features
SSO and LDAP, environments with Git and log streaming are included only in n8n's Business and Enterprise plans, so needing any of them moves you off the free Community edition. The Business plan is currently self-hosted only, and Enterprise is priced by custom quote. Power Automate handles sign-in through Microsoft Entra ID under your existing agreement, so this driver is about whether your identity and audit requirements force a paid n8n license line. List these requirements before you request quotes.
Availability and high availability needs
Queue mode splits triggers and webhooks from a pool of workers that share PostgreSQL and Redis, which adds servers and database operations work even on the free edition. Running several main instances for high availability is restricted to self-hosted Enterprise deployments, so uptime targets can push the license tier as well as the infrastructure. Ask your team whether flows must keep running during an outage, how many workers peak load needs and who is on call for the database, and compare that with the uptime terms Microsoft provides for your Power Automate plan.
How to build the comparison with your own numbers
This sequence turns a vague licensing renewal into a like-for-like cost model, so you can compare Power Automate and self-hosted n8n over several years using your own flows, seats and quotes rather than list prices.
Inventory every flow by owner and license type
Export a list of all cloud flows, desktop flows and their owners from the Power Platform admin center and your environments. For each flow, record the environment, the owner, whether it runs under a per-user or per-flow arrangement, and whether it uses premium connectors. The owner of a flow often differs from the person who pays for the license, so note both. You are done when every flow appears on one sheet with an owner, an environment and a license tag, and nothing is listed as unknown.
Map each licensed seat and bot to real workloads
Match each user seat and each bot or process license to the flows it actually runs in a typical month. Use run history and usage reports where your tenant provides them, and ask makers which flows they depend on. Many seats cover a handful of flows, and some bots sit idle, so this mapping shows which licenses carry real load. You are done when each license line points to at least one workload or is flagged as idle, and the flagged lines are confirmed with their owners.
Price the Microsoft agreement from your own quote
Ask your Microsoft partner or licensing contact for a written quote that reflects your tenant, your seat count, your bot count and any add-ons such as process mining. Do not use public list prices from a website or a third-party article as your baseline, because your enrollment terms, discounts and renewal dates change the total. Separate the per-user line, the per-bot line, the add-on line and any free-tier limits you rely on. You are done when the quote lists each component with its billing period and its renewal date.
Choose the n8n edition by the features you need
Compare the features your flows and governance requirements depend on against the n8n editions. The n8n pricing page states that SSO and LDAP, environments with Git and log streaming are included only in the Business and Enterprise plans, and that multi-main high availability is limited to Enterprise self-hosted deployments. The Community edition is free to run, but confirm with n8n whether your intended use fits its license terms, since the Sustainable Use License limits use to internal business or non-commercial purposes. You are done when each required feature is mapped to an edition and the licensing position is confirmed in writing.
Size hosting and PostgreSQL with your team
Estimate the servers, storage, backups and database capacity needed for your execution volume, starting with a small main instance and a PostgreSQL database. If you run queue mode, add Redis and a pool of worker processes, and plan for the encryption key to be shared with each worker and webhook processor. Ask your cloud or infrastructure team for their quote on compute, managed database and network egress, and ask your DBA to confirm the sizing for your retention needs. You are done when hosting, database and Redis each have a sized line item and a named owner.
Add migration and parallel-run effort
Count the effort to rebuild each flow in n8n, re-create connections, replace on-premises data gateway paths, test outputs and run old and new flows side by side before switching off the originals. Use the flow inventory from the first step to group flows by complexity, and note that Power Automate exports do not import into n8n, so rebuilds are manual. Ask your implementation partner for a fixed-scope estimate written against that inventory. You are done when every flow has an effort estimate, a cutover date owner and a parallel-run plan.
Add the operations line for patching, backups and on-call
Add a recurring line for patching n8n, PostgreSQL, Redis and the operating system, for tested backups and restores, for monitoring and for on-call coverage. These costs are often missing from self-hosted comparisons, and they recur for as long as the platform runs. Confirm who in your organization or with which partner holds each responsibility, and what the support model is if you choose a commercial agreement with n8n. You are done when each operations task has an owner and a recurring cost line.
Compare totals over several years, split one-time and recurring
Build a multi-year table with two sections: one-time costs such as migration, rebuild and setup, and recurring costs such as Microsoft licenses, n8n plans, hosting, database, operations and support. Run the Power Automate side and the n8n side on the same years and the same volumes, and note which lines change with growth in flows or executions. Ask each vendor and partner for written quotes that match these lines, so the comparison rests on documents. You are done when one table shows both paths by year with every line sourced to a quote or internal estimate.
What does not move to n8n and still costs money
Not every Power Automate license can be retired when cloud flows move to n8n. Desktop RPA, which runs flows on Windows machines against legacy applications through the desktop client, has no n8n equivalent, and n8n does not provide an RPA runtime. Some Microsoft 365 connector depth, including the triggers and actions that depend on Microsoft's own services, may also have no direct replacement in n8n. Before you cancel anything, inventory which flows depend on desktop automation or on those connectors, and record which per-user or per-bot licenses those flows consume. Those licenses are the ones that may remain on the invoice after the migration.
A split estate carries two cost lines and two sets of skills. Retained Power Automate licenses continue to bill on their existing terms, while n8n adds server, database and operations costs that recur on your own infrastructure. Your team also has to maintain two platforms, two credential stores and two sets of access controls, and staff who know the desktop tooling may not be the same people who run n8n. Ask for a written breakdown of which licenses are tied to which flows, so the retained spend is visible and does not sit inside a general Microsoft agreement where it is hard to isolate.
The scope of the remaining estate is covered in the sibling pages on Open-source alternative to Power Automate Desktop RPA and on Power Automate versus n8n, which compares connector coverage. Read those pages to decide whether a desktop flow should be replaced with an API integration or kept as a bot, and to check Microsoft 365 connector gaps for each flow you plan to move. Confirm the retained scope with your Microsoft account team and your own inventory, not with assumptions about which connectors n8n supports.
Questions buyers ask before comparing n8n and Power Automate costs
Is self-hosting n8n cheaper than Power Automate overall?
It depends on the drivers and the n8n edition you need, so there is no general answer. The free Community edition has no license fee, but you still pay for servers, PostgreSQL, backups, monitoring, migration work and the staff who run the platform. Power Automate is priced per user for Premium flows and per bot for Process and Hosted Process, and the Process Mining add-on is priced separately. Compare your own user count, flow volume and bot needs, then add the n8n edition that covers the features you require, since SSO, LDAP, Git environments and log streaming need the Business or Enterprise plan. Ask each vendor or partner for a written quote that lists every component.
Does the n8n Community edition include SSO or LDAP?
No. According to n8n's pricing page, SSO and LDAP, environments with Git, and log streaming are included only in the Business and Enterprise plans. The Community edition runs without a license key and covers the core automation features. If your audit or identity policy requires single sign-on, plan for a licensed edition from the start and confirm current plan contents on the pricing page before you budget. n8n SAML single sign-on is documented for Business and Enterprise plans, with setup guides for Okta Workforce Identity and Azure AD.
How much effort does migrating from Power Automate take?
The effort depends mainly on the number of flows, how many connectors and custom actions each flow uses, how many owners need to be retrained, and how many on-premises data gateway connections must be replaced. Power Automate lets owners export single flows as packages and admins export solutions, but neither imports directly into n8n, so each flow is rebuilt. Start with an inventory by owner and environment, then rank flows by business impact. Ask any implementation partner for a scoped estimate that lists flows, connectors, credentials and test cycles.
Can our internal team run self-hosted n8n without outside help?
Often yes for a small, well-scoped deployment, but it depends on the skills you already have. Running n8n in production involves Docker Compose or Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, Redis when you use queue mode, backups, upgrades and secret handling. In queue mode, the encryption key must be shared with every worker and webhook processor so they can read stored credentials, which is a common point of failure if it is mishandled. Multi-main high availability is restricted to Enterprise self-hosted deployments. Check that your team can own these tasks, or ask a partner to document and hand over the runbooks.
How long does a move from Power Automate to n8n take?
No fixed duration applies to every organization, so confirm timing with a scoped plan rather than a generic figure. The main drivers are flow count and complexity, the number of approvals and data gateway connections, how long parallel running must last, and how quickly credentials can be re-created in n8n. Our migration guide describes the inventory, rebuild, parallel run and switch-off steps in more detail. Ask for a schedule that ties each phase to a named deliverable and an acceptance check.
What does a DeployOpen fixed-scope engagement cover?
A fixed-scope engagement covers the work agreed in writing before it starts: scope, deliverables and timelines. For this topic, that can include planning the n8n deployment, implementing and customizing it in your own cloud account or data center, integrating it with your systems, hardening it, setting up backups, documenting the platform and supporting handover. DeployOpen does not publish a price list, and a quote follows from the written scope. Ongoing support, upgrades and testing are available as retainers. DeployOpen prepares systems and evidence for compliance assessments but does not issue audit reports or certifications.
Which Power Automate capabilities does n8n not replace?
n8n does not provide the desktop RPA that Power Automate offers for automating legacy Windows applications through keyboard and mouse actions. It also has no direct equivalent to the Microsoft 365 connector depth or the on-premises data gateway that Power Automate uses. Before you compare costs, list which flows depend on desktop automation or Microsoft-specific connectors. Those flows may need a separate solution, such as an API integration or a dedicated RPA framework, and that work belongs in the cost model too.
What to ask for in a quote for the self-hosted side
DeployOpen does not publish a price list. A quote follows from a written scope that both sides agree before work starts, so the most useful thing you can do is ask for that scope to be explicit about what is included. Request a list of every component the quote covers: the n8n instance or instances, worker and webhook processes if you run queue mode, the PostgreSQL database, the reverse proxy and TLS, the secrets and encryption key handling, the workflow migration itself, and the monitoring you expect to run. Ask for the edition assumption in writing. Community, Business and Enterprise differ on SSO, environments with Git, log streaming and multi-main high availability, and the n8n pricing page is the place to confirm which features each edition currently includes. A quote built on the wrong edition will not match the controls your auditors ask about.
Next, ask for the hosting topology: which cloud account, data center or air-gapped network hosts the stack, how many environments exist (development, test and production are the usual split), and how the instance reaches the internal systems that Power Automate currently reaches through the on-premises data gateway. Then ask who owns backups and restore testing, who applies n8n release upgrades and security patches, how the encryption key is stored and rotated, and what the change window looks like. Ask for handover documentation by name: runbooks, architecture diagrams, the inventory of migrated workflows with owners, and the restore procedure. Finally, ask what happens after go-live. Support, upgrades and continuous testing are available as retainers, so the quote should state clearly whether the engagement ends at handover, includes a warranty period for defects, or moves into a retainer that you can start or decline later.
Compare quotes on these items, not on the headline figure. Two proposals that look similar can differ sharply in backup scope, edition assumptions and who carries the operating work after handover, and those differences drive your total cost of ownership. Ask each bidder to state its assumptions, including what it expects you to supply, such as cloud accounts, DNS, certificates and access to source flows. Hypothetical example, labeled as illustrative: a quote that omits restore testing and upgrade responsibilities may look cheaper at signing but leave your team holding the operating work later. Your own finance and security teams should review the scope before you sign.
How DeployOpen scopes a fixed-price n8n implementation
DeployOpen plans, implements, hardens and documents self-hosted open-source platforms inside your own cloud accounts, data centers or air-gapped networks. For Power Automate cost vs self-hosted n8n, we start with a written scope that separates the flows you keep from the ones you retire, so the comparison rests on your actual license and hosting numbers.
How we scope
- Inventory which Power Automate flows, premium connectors and desktop flows are in use, by owner and environment.
- Agree which n8n edition fits each workload, with the licensing terms written into the scope before work starts.
- Price the self-hosted components separately: servers, PostgreSQL, Redis if queue mode is used, and backup storage.
How we build
- Deploy n8n with Docker Compose or the documented cloud install inside your environment, with PostgreSQL as the database.
- Rebuild priority flows as n8n workflows and test each one against the same inputs used by the original flow.
- Configure credential storage and the encryption key handling required for any queue mode worker pool.
How we hand over
- Document each workflow, its owner, its credentials and the systems it touches, so your team can maintain it.
- Run the old and new flows in parallel for an agreed period, then record the cutover decision and rollback steps.
- Deliver the cost model with each recurring component named, so your finance team can track ongoing spend.
How we support
- Offer ongoing support, upgrades and testing as a retainer after handover, scoped in writing.
- Plan n8n version upgrades against the release notes and confirm licensing changes before each one.
- Ask any quote to state which items are one-time and which recur each year, and what drives them up.
