We may earn a commission if you buy through links on this page. It never changes a score or a ranking. How we make money
Most buyers should pick n8n.
Pick n8n if you want visual workflows, visible AI steps, and self-hosting; its Cloud starts at $20/month with annual billing, but Starter stops at 2,500 executions monthly and has no overages. Choose Power Automate if your work centers on Microsoft apps, legacy desktop RPA, or unattended bots. Premium is $15/user/month paid yearly, while bot plans start at $150/month. n8n has the lower-cost entry; Power Automate lists more than 1,000 connectors and supports desktop flows. Power Automate support details aren't listed here.
01Side by side
| n8n | Power Automate | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $20/month, annual Cloud billing | $15/user/month, paid yearly |
| Free option | Free self-hosted Community Edition; server-limited executions | No free plan; 30-day trial |
| Best for | Visual workflows, AI agents, and self-hosting | Microsoft workflows and desktop RPA |
| Core strength | Step-by-step workflow visibility and error recovery | Cloud flows, desktop RPA, and process mining |
| Learning curve | Visual builder with optional code | Low-code authoring with Copilot |
| Integrations/data | Connector count not published | More than 1,000 prebuilt connectors |
| Team/seat costs | Unlimited users; execution caps vary by plan | $15/user or $150/bot monthly, paid yearly |
| Support | No Community support; Enterprise has dedicated SLA support | Support details not published here |
n8n Choose n8n if
- Choose n8n if you need self-hosting or on-prem deployment.
- Choose n8n if you want to inspect and rerun individual workflow steps.
- Choose n8n if unlimited users matter more than Cloud execution volume.
Power Automate Choose Power Automate if
- Choose Power Automate if you need desktop RPA for legacy systems.
- Choose Power Automate if your workflows need its 1,000-plus connectors.
- Choose Power Automate if you need unattended bots or Microsoft-hosted bot VMs.
02Pricing compared
n8n has the lower-cost entry if you self-host: Community Edition is free, but you manage the infrastructure and get no vendor hosting or support. Cloud Starter costs $20/month with annual billing or $24 month to month. It includes 2,500 executions monthly and has a hard cap; Starter and Pro have no execution overages. Pro starts at $50/month annually for 10,000 executions.
Power Automate Premium is $15 per user/month, paid yearly, and includes cloud flows and attended desktop flows. Unattended automation requires a bot plan: Process is $150 per bot/month, while Hosted Process is $215 per bot/month. The Process Mining add-on is $5,000 per tenant/month, paid yearly, and requires Premium. So compare the billing unit as well as the sticker price: user, bot, tenant, or self-managed infrastructure.
03Features and depth
n8n centers on visual workflows, with the option to drop into code. Its AI-agent features include step-by-step visibility into current or past runs, human approval steps, and the ability to rerun a failed step. It can be self-hosted, including on-premises or via Docker. The free Community Edition does not include SSO, LDAP, queue mode, or admin roles; paid Business adds SSO/LDAP, Git version control, and queue mode.
Power Automate covers cloud flows and desktop RPA. Its listed plans include attended desktop flows on Premium and unattended desktop flows on Process and Hosted Process. Microsoft also lists Copilot-assisted authoring, process and task mining, and more than 1,000 prebuilt connectors. Hosted Process includes a Microsoft-hosted Azure VM. Managed Environments add centralized governance, monitoring, and data loss prevention. The trade-off is focus: n8n emphasizes inspectable workflows and self-hosting, while Power Automate adds desktop bots and Microsoft’s process-mining and governance options.
04Ease of use and learning curve
Both products offer visual or low-code ways to build automations, but they suit different operating setups. n8n’s visual builder can be supplemented with code, and its run-by-run visibility can help teams trace failures. Self-hosting Community Edition avoids a subscription, but means your team manages the infrastructure; its listed free plan also lacks SSO, LDAP, queue mode, and admin roles.
Power Automate offers Copilot-assisted authoring and cloud flows, plus desktop RPA for UI actions and legacy systems. That breadth may fit teams already centered on Microsoft workflows, but bot plans are priced per bot and Hosted Process adds a per-bot charge. The published pricing does not list Power Automate support details, so we would not assume support coverage from the plan names alone.
Questions people ask
What are the downsides of using Power Automate?
The main trade-offs in the listed plans are the billing units and added costs. Premium is $15 per user/month, but unattended bots start at $150 per bot/month, Hosted Process is $215 per bot/month, and Process Mining costs $5,000 per tenant/month. The published plan details also do not specify support coverage.
Is there any better tool than n8n?
That depends on the workflow. n8n fits teams wanting visible AI steps, code flexibility, or self-hosting. Power Automate may fit better when you need desktop RPA, unattended bots, or Microsoft-centric workflows. Its Premium plan starts at $15 per user/month paid yearly; unattended bot plans start at $150 per bot/month.
What is an automation tool?
An automation tool connects steps across apps, data, or systems so a process can run with less manual work. In this comparison, n8n builds visual workflows and AI agents, while Power Automate handles cloud flows and desktop RPA, including UI actions and legacy systems.
Does Power Automate desktop still exist?
Yes. Power Automate’s current listed plans include desktop flows for robotic process automation: Premium includes attended desktop flows, while Process and Hosted Process include unattended desktop flows. Hosted Process also includes a Microsoft-hosted Azure virtual machine. The published pricing material does not give a separate desktop-app price.