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Invent vs n8n: build the machine or run the shop

n8n is a superb automation toolkit, and a toolkit is a project. Invent is the finished product for customer conversations, working the day you sign up, from $29/mo.

Entry plan€20/month

Starter is €20 a month billed annually for 2,500 executions; Pro is €50 for 10,000. Cheap, and it is the toolkit, not the product.

Self-hostingYou run it

The community edition is free to download. The server, the upgrades, the backups and the person on call are yours.

What you getToolkit

Nodes, triggers and a canvas. The AI agent that answers your customers, the inbox your team works in and the contact record are things you assemble.

01Pricing

n8n pricing vs Invent

n8n figures are its published plans. Cloud prices are billed annually; the self-hosted community edition has no licence cost.

Invent Business$29/monthIncludes $29 of usage. Overage at the same per-message rates, from $0.001.

~3,000 Auto messages≈ $32 total

White-label + custom domainIncluded

SSO + audit logsIncluded

Team inbox, CRM, broadcastsIncluded

Free trial7 days

n8n Starter€20/month2,500 workflow executions a month, billed annually.

Billing unitWorkflow executions

Shared team inboxNot included

WhatsApp and channelsNodes to wire up

Who builds the agentYou do

Self-host optionYes, free licence

From n8n.io/pricing, cloud plans billed annually, verified Aug 5, 2026.

02Features

Feature comparison

The highlights. The full comparison table lives on the compare page.

Feature	Invent	n8n
The job each one does
Built for	Answering customers	Automating anything
Time to first answer	Same day	A build project
Who runs it	We do	You, if self-hosted
Where they overlap
Visual workflows	Included	Included
Shared team inbox	Included	Not available
WhatsApp	Included	Limited capability

Verified against n8n.io pricing and docs, Aug 5, 2026. See the full matrix on the compare page.

03Fine print

The fine print

All from n8n's own pricing page, Aug 5, 2026.

Executions are the meterStarter covers 2,500 executions a month and Pro 10,000, with Business at €667. A chatty support agent triggers a lot of runs, so the automation tier you need is rarely the entry one.

Cloud prices assume annual billingThe published rates are billed annually, so the cheap monthly-looking number needs a year committed. Invent is month to month.

Free self-hosting is real workThe community edition costs nothing to licence and plenty to operate: hosting, upgrades, queue mode at volume, backups and the person who fixes it at 2am. Advanced features need a paid licence key anyway.

You are building the productConnecting an LLM node to a WhatsApp node is a demo. Making it answer accurately, hand off to a human, respect business hours and keep a contact history is the actual product, and it stays your job to maintain.

Leaving n8n? We move you over, free

Book a free 30-minute call and we migrate your agent for you: knowledge, instructions, channels, branding. You just approve the result.

1Book a 30-minute callShow us your n8n setup. Sources, instructions, integrations.

2We rebuild it hereKnowledge, instructions, channels, and your white-label branding. No charge.

3You flip the switchTest it side by side, go live when you are happy.

Common questions

How much does n8n cost?

Cloud Starter is €20 a month billed annually for 2,500 executions, Pro is €50 for 10,000 and Business is €667 for 40,000. The self-hosted community edition is free to licence, with infrastructure and operations on you.

Can Invent replace n8n?

For customer-facing automation, yes: Invent has visual workflows, an AI agent, channels and a CRM already wired together at $29/mo a month. For general-purpose automation across your whole stack, n8n is the more flexible tool.

Can I use both?

Yes. Plenty of teams run n8n for internal automation and let Invent own the customer conversation, connected through the API or MCP.

Which is better, Invent or n8n?

It depends on whether you want to build or to run. n8n gives an engineering-minded team unlimited flexibility and the maintenance that comes with it. Invent gives a support team a working product with no build phase.

How do I move a support workflow to Invent?

Book a short migration call. We map what your n8n workflows do today, rebuild the customer-facing parts as agent instructions and native workflows, and leave the back-office automation where it is.

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