n8n vs Temporal

Temporal and n8n recover from failure in fundamentally different ways, and the difference decides whether a process can safely pick up mid-flight. Temporal keeps a complete, ordered event history for each workflow and rebuilds state by replaying that history after a worker crash or deployment. That replay model is why Temporal workflow code must be deterministic: the same history has to produce the same decisions every time, so developers keep side effects such as API calls inside activities and avoid reading clocks or random values directly in workflow code. The Temporal Workflows documentation is the place to confirm the exact rules your language SDK enforces.

n8n works from a different unit. Its execution is counted as one run of a whole workflow, regardless of how many steps it contains, and in queue mode the main instance hands executions to workers that read and write results in the database. Recovery in this model is largely a matter of re-running or retrying a workflow run, which is usually acceptable for integration flows such as syncing a CRM record, posting a notification or moving a file, where a repeated call can be made idempotent. It is a weaker fit for a process that must wait for a human approval for several days and then continue from the exact step where it stopped, because n8n does not replay a per-step event history in the way Temporal does.

Test this before you commit, not after the first outage. For Temporal, run a workflow with a long timer, kill the worker mid-activity, and confirm the workflow resumes at the expected step without repeating completed side effects. For n8n, run a failing execution in queue mode, stop a worker during a long run, and check what the retry settings do to downstream systems and whether the stored result is correct. Also confirm how your team will reason about duplicate calls, since the answer shapes whether you need idempotency keys in each external integration. Record the results with the exact versions you plan to run.

The running cost of n8n is mostly the infrastructure and the people who keep it patched. A small self-hosted n8n install is one main instance with its database. A queue mode setup adds Redis to pass executions and separate worker processes that run them, with PostgreSQL holding workflow data and results. Each of those components is a server you size, back up and monitor, and worker count is the lever that moves capacity and cost together. Before you price it, confirm with n8n how many workers your execution volume needs and whether you intend to run multi-main high availability, which n8n restricts to Enterprise self-hosted deployments.

The running cost of Temporal is a larger platform to operate. A self-hosted Temporal Service runs Frontend, History, Matching and Worker services, plus a persistence store and, if you want richer search, an advanced visibility store. Temporal's tested persistence options are Cassandra, PostgreSQL and MySQL, and SQLite is for development only. One-time work includes designing namespaces and the authorization model, configuring mTLS and OIDC for the Web UI, and setting up a payload codec and codec server if workflow payloads must be encrypted. Recurring work includes minor-by-minor upgrades with schema changes applied first, patching, on-call coverage for the services and stores, and backups of the persistence layer. Temporal Cloud shifts most of that recurring work to the vendor, but its pay-as-you-go pricing is metered: the Temporal pricing page lists 50 US dollars per million actions, plus active storage at 0.042 dollars per GB-hour and retained storage at 0.00105 dollars per GB-hour, with a 99.9% SLA.

Pricing models differ in kind, so compare quotes on the same workload. n8n's pricing page lists a free self-hosted Community edition and paid plans per month, with the Business plan at 667 euros per month billed annually and self-hosted only, and it counts an execution as one run of a whole workflow regardless of steps. Enterprise pricing is custom. Temporal Cloud is priced by actions and storage, so cost rises with workflow throughput and retained history. Ask each vendor, or your implementer, for a written quote that lists: the number of workers, Redis and database sizing; which features are included (SSO, Git environments, log streaming, multi-main, external secrets); support and SLA terms; the upgrade and patching responsibilities; one-time implementation fees separate from annual support; and the assumptions behind any execution or action estimate.

Implementing n8n and implementing Temporal are different kinds of work, and the effort sits in different places. For n8n, the self-hosted setup decisions include whether to stay in regular mode or move to queue mode, where the main instance hands executions through Redis to workers that write to PostgreSQL, and how the main instance's encryption key is shared with every worker and webhook processor so they can read stored credentials. Identity work means configuring SAML single sign-on, which is only available on the Business and Enterprise plans. Governance work means deciding who owns each workflow and how credentials are scoped to integrations. For Temporal, the work is heavier on infrastructure and code: deploying the Frontend, History, Matching and Worker services, choosing a supported persistence store (Cassandra, PostgreSQL or MySQL, not SQLite outside development), selecting an advanced visibility store, writing worker code, and configuring an Authorizer, since the default noopAuthorizer allows every request.

Projects usually run long for predictable reasons. In n8n, flows often lack a named owner, so nobody can say which credentials a flow uses or who may change it when an upstream API moves, and credentials are rarely documented. In Temporal, the most expensive mistakes are determinism errors in workflow code, where changes to a running workflow break replay, and upgrade sequencing, because Temporal recommends moving one minor version at a time and running schema upgrades before server upgrades when release notes require it. Confirm with Temporal's upgrade and release documentation which steps apply to your target version before you schedule the work.

DeployOpen works under fixed-scope agreements, so deliverables, timelines and responsibilities for either platform are agreed in writing before work starts. No duration is estimated here, because the effort depends on your flow count, identity estate, persistence choice and the number of workers and services you need. Ask any implementation partner, DeployOpen included, to break the quote into setup, governance, testing and upgrade-readiness phases, and to state who owns the credentials inventory and the flow catalog after handover.