n8n

What they do

n8n makes a platform for connecting software and automating work. Users build workflows in a visual, node-based editor, linking hundreds of applications through native integrations, generic HTTP requests and, more recently, the Model Context Protocol. When the visual approach runs out, they can drop into JavaScript or Python. The same canvas now hosts AI agents, with tools for monitoring runs, structuring model inputs and outputs and adding human approval steps before an agent acts.

Why it matters

Automation tools are usually sold as closed cloud services. n8n took a different route. Its code is public on GitHub under what it calls a fair-code licence, the Sustainable Use License, which lets companies self-host and modify the software while preventing others from reselling it as a competing hosted service. For banks, public bodies and any firm wary of sending data through a third party, the ability to run the whole platform on its own servers is a decisive advantage.

The timing has been kind. As companies look for practical ways to put large language models to work, n8n offers a familiar, inspectable layer where AI steps sit alongside conventional business logic. That positioning has drawn strategic interest from SAP, which is embedding n8n technology in its Joule Studio, a notable endorsement from Germany's largest software company.

Products to know

• n8n: the core workflow and AI agent builder, available to self-host.
• n8n Cloud: the managed, hosted version of the platform.
• n8n Enterprise: adds governance, security controls, observability and developer tooling for larger organisations.

The German angle

Jan Oberhauser founded the company in Berlin in 2019 and remains its chief executive; the name is a numeronym for "nodemation". n8n is a good example of a Berlin pattern that has matured over the past decade: a developer-led product that grows through an open community before building a commercial business on top. It also speaks to a European preference for data control that has become a selling point well beyond Germany, as more organisations weigh where their data and their AI workloads actually run.