I perform pre-sales automations and post-sales automations, which involves CRM management. This includes finding leads on the internet, reaching out to the leads, building interest, and scheduling meetings with the sales team. Another use case for me is scraping information off the internet periodically, which could include competitor information or business intelligence information that is then scraped and put into a Google Sheet. A third use case I'm currently working on is blog generation for SEO. Companies that want to get their name better represented on the internet hire me to write automations for them that write blogs and use keywords. With these keywords, they are posted to the company's page directly or to their LinkedIn page, which helps build interest and helps them rank higher on Google.
n8n
n8n.ioExternal reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
Incredible concept validation and easy expansion with API integration
Great overall experience
Flexible Workflows With Powerful Customization in n8n
Affordable, Powerful Automation with Full Control via Self-Hosted n8n
Simple tool for workflow: mainly graphics, minimal coding
n8n Makes API Integrations and AI Workflows Effortless
Plus, you can connect multiple AI Models, and kind of bring in AI Agents in workflow, be it for research or task executions like Posting on Social Media, Newsletters etc.
And, you can find tons of workflow templates on their marketplace (plus, n8n being widely known, you can find tons of templates that can be implemented in your business e.g. AI Newsletter Creation, Automated Outreach, Social Media Posting etc.)
Best part, they also have a community edition that you can host on your server (when you only pay for server cost)
Simple, Minimalistic, User-Friendly, and Powerful Open Source Tool
Automation has transformed lead outreach, SEO content, and ongoing web research workflows
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The features of n8n that I have found the most valuable so far include the ability to deploy it myself and to build a workflow around what I need, and that it connects with a bunch of other services. It connects with Google Sheets, and it has APIs for CRMs such as Salesforce or DatoCMS, which is pretty helpful because it connects to everything. It's also really helpful that I can store context for AI, so once I can store context for the AI, it makes the generation much more accurate.
One positive impact that n8n has had on my customers' organizations is significantly less hassle over SEO or reaching out to clients and scheduling meetings. It helps them save a lot of time, and most of the time, it assures interest in the organization. If a pre-sales automation is done and someone has scheduled a meeting through n8n or the automation that I've built, the customer can be certain that the person who scheduled the meeting is interested in the product. This means a warm lead coming in instead of a cold outreach. I would say the main benefits are saving time, increasing efficiency, and reducing hassle.
What needs improvement?
n8n is a really developer-focused program right now. It's very good for people who are comfortable with programming, hosting things on their own, and with automations. However, it could definitely be made a lot more user-friendly because when I started out with automations, I was also using Zapier. n8n has a bit of a learning curve to it; you have to learn a lot. Once you learn the software properly, it's very good. If they can make it more user-friendly, that would be great.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with n8n for the past two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability and reliability of n8n as very stable. I've never had a crash, and I've never had it use too many resources. n8n deployments are some of the cheapest that I've come across; the monthly cost for n8n deployment self-hosted rarely exceeds five dollars. For five dollars, I can run an entire business's back end basically.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of n8n solution is pretty good, and that's where my expertise comes in. It's about how scalable you can make it. Suppose the customer has ten thousand data points that they need to run through n8n. One approach might take a day to go through all of it and another approach might take fifteen minutes to go through all of it. It just depends on how you format the thing and how you go through it, or how you organize the workflow and how the workflow carries over.
How are customer service and support?
I don't often communicate with the technical support of n8n; the community support is really good. I can reach out to members of the community, ask questions, and usually within a week, they're answered.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Negative
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
When my customers start working with me, most of them are Indian right now, and they do not know these automations exist. If they were previously aware, they would be using Zapier, the American company. Once I make them aware of n8n and how it works, they're very eager to try it, and once they see the results in action, they just stick with n8n.
How was the initial setup?
In my experience with the deployment and installation of n8n, initially, when I was learning the software, I had some challenges on how to store information and how to make sure that the information is persistent and doesn't reset all the time. Once you read the documentation posted online, it's pretty straightforward, and hosting it myself on the cloud is also pretty straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
I'm a consultant for n8n; I copy the source code and I deploy it personally.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Comparing Zapier with n8n, I see that Zapier is kind of expensive; it charges per run. When I say per run, it means every run over the workflow, it charges you, plus the API costs on top of that. The other microservices that Zapier has are kind of expensive. I would say Zapier is more user-friendly; it's very no-code, and anyone who's never deployed something themselves or built an automation can easily use Zapier to make something, but it will end up being a lot more expensive. For example, per run on Zapier, I think is ten cents, and if you have one hundred runs of a workflow, that is easily one dollar. Workflows usually run for more than fifteen thousand to sixteen thousand runs.
What other advice do I have?
My customers are usually not aware of n8n; they have to be made aware. They're more aware of Zapier, n8n's competition, and for Zapier, they purchase it directly from the website. n8n has to be deployed on a cloud usually.
I think my customers usually buy n8n from third-party marketplaces. I have not heard of a customer buying n8n directly from n8n's website. The third-party website would be me, basically. I would make them aware of the product and then they would start using it through me. Once they're aware of how n8n works, they usually leave the handling to someone else because it's a complex tool to use and it's kind of hard to master. Once I deploy it for them and I make a solution for them, it runs automatically. They don't need me to change the process anymore. If they do require me to change the process, that's when they reach out to me again or perhaps another consultant.
The materials, guides, and documentation on n8n available on the internet are pretty extensive. They basically walk you through everything, and the different APIs that n8n connects to have their own set of documentation. The documentation on the internet is very extensive; there is no way that if you read through the documentation, you won't find the solution to what you're looking for. I would rate this review a ten out of ten.