Comparison
Syniaps or n8n?
A fair-code workflow workshop valued at $5.2bn, where the human draws every automation
What n8n sells: "AI agents and workflows you can see and control": connect any model to 500 integrations, see every decision on the canvas, keep the human in the loop, and depend on no vendor.
Syniaps
4.0 / 5
n8n
3.1 / 5
Surveyed on 15 September 2026 from the publisher's public pages, cited at the foot of this page. Offers change: check with the publisher before you decide.
n8n at a glance
- Who
- n8n GmbH, Berlin, 2019, $5.2bn
- A German publisher (Novalisstr. 10, Berlin), founded by Jan Oberhauser, with $493m raised including a $180m Series C in October 2025 (Accel, NVentures, Sequoia) and SAP taking a stake in May 2026 at a $5.2bn valuation. SOC 2 Type 2 and SOC 3 published on its Trust Center, 204,000 GitHub stars, and named customers including Deutsche Telekom, Mercedes-Benz, Vodafone and Mistral AI.
- What
- A workflow canvas plus an AI Agent node
- A visual workflow editor (trigger, nodes, expressions, JavaScript or Python code) with 500 integrations, an "AI Agent" node that links a chat model to tools, memory and vector store nodes, and an MCP client and server. Delivered as a managed cloud (Azure in the EU) or self-hosted with Docker, with a natural-language AI Workflow Builder reserved for the cloud.
- How it gets set up
- Everything is built node by node
- You create an account (a trial with no card) or a Docker container, then start from an empty canvas: pick a trigger, add each node, enter the credentials for each service ("Credentials store authentication information"), write the expressions, test, activate. The AI Workflow Builder drafts something from a description, but the user reviews it, fills in the credentials and maintains the workflow. Reviews describe a steep learning curve: "It looks simple at first but turns technical fast (JSON, expressions, APIs)".
- Which models
- Any model, chosen by the builder
- Chat nodes for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Mistral, Groq, Perplexity and Ollama locally; the person building the workflow picks the model and supplies their API key. Inference goes to the chosen provider (or stays on site with Ollama); the n8n cloud adds included OpenAI "AI credits" (2,300 a month on Starter).
- Price
- €20 to €667 a month, per execution
- Cloud: Starter at €20 a month (2,500 executions), Pro at €50 (10,000), Business at €667 (40,000, SSO, environments, Git), Enterprise by quote; users, workflows and integrations are unlimited, and only the volume of executions moves the bill (overage: €4,000 for 300,000 executions on Business). The Community Edition is free and self-hosted with no execution limit, but the server, the database and the upgrades are on you.
- Who it is for
- Technical teams and automation agencies
- Developers, ops and product teams who want to wire APIs together without a Zapier-style task tax, and agencies that sell n8n workflows to their clients. Genuinely strong for people who can read JSON and run a server; non-technical users drop out quickly.
Point by point
| Criterion | n8n | Syniaps | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | Any model can be plugged in (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Mistral, Ollama), one model fixed per node, no step-up | Claude Sonnet 5 / Opus 5 / Fable 5, GPT through Codex or the model of your choice; Standard, In-depth and Maximum modes chosen in conversation | Syniaps |
| "Execute" | API calls, JS/Python code, HTTP; no native browser and no terminal, sites without an API through community nodes or Airtop | Files, code, terminal, a browser driven with session cookies, long jobs in the background, hosted apps, GitHub | Syniaps |
| Knowledge | Retrieval you build yourself (vector store nodes, embeddings, chunking); nothing is indexed or maintained on its own | Synapses built and maintained by the agent from documents, email and cloud storage, with OCR, retrieval and a OneDrive/Drive/Dropbox mirror | Syniaps |
| Setup | An empty canvas, a trigger, nodes, credentials, expressions, tests; the AI Workflow Builder helps but does not replace the building | A short wizard, then the agent proposes the automations itself; the human confirms a card | Syniaps |
| Learning | Conversation memory per workflow (buffer, Postgres, Redis), with no capture of corrections or preferences | Retains corrections, skills and preferences, and proposes what it has learnt for approval | Syniaps |
| Sovereignty | Azure cloud in the EU, SOC 2 Type 2, on-premise and air-gapped self-hosting possible, Ollama for local inference | A dedicated OVH server in France, a sandbox per user, AI processed in Europe if you choose, but no certification | The alternative |
| Entry and price | A trial with no card in a minute, Starter at €20 a month, a free Community edition; per-execution billing that runs away with agent loops | A free 7-day trial open within minutes, a card required, then from €99 excl. tax a month, AI included | The alternative |
| Scope | A generic orchestration platform: it runs what you drew for it, and only that | An intelligence that knows the company and runs missions end to end, with experts per business area | Syniaps |
What each one does better
Where Syniaps wins
Nothing to draw
With n8n every automation is a workflow to build and maintain; Syniaps proposes it in conversation and the human confirms a card.
The company already known
n8n starts from an empty canvas on every subject, while Syniaps already has the customer's synapses, email and cloud storage in mind.
Acts without an API
n8n stops where there is no API (or goes through Airtop and community nodes); Syniaps drives a real browser with captured sessions.
Missions end to end
n8n chains nodes planned in advance; Syniaps hands a mission to an expert who carries it through with files, code and a terminal.
Learns from its mistakes
n8n has no memory of corrections; Syniaps retains preferences and skills and proposes what it has learnt.
Where n8n wins
Total, visible control
Every step is a readable, testable, versionable node (Git on Business), with an execution history: auditing is native.
Sovereignty à la carte
Source code available, on-premise or air-gapped self-hosting, an EU cloud on Azure and SOC 2 Type 2: Syniaps offers neither on-premise nor certification.
Immediate and cheap entry
A trial with no card, €20 a month on Starter, a free Community edition: no card to give and no dedicated machine to pay for.
A massive ecosystem
204,000 GitHub stars, 200,000 members, 10,000 templates, 500 integrations and agencies that live off n8n: the workforce already exists.
Maturity and capital
$493m raised, SAP on the cap table and n8n embedded in Joule Studio: commercial weight Syniaps does not have.
Two caveats on its promise
- "AI agents" here means a node to wire up: without a model, tools, memory and a trigger configured by a human, it does nothing, and the "agent type" parameter changed again in 2026 (deprecated since 1.82, removed at 3.0), which breaks the existing guides.
- Fair-code is not open source: the Sustainable Use License restricts use to "internal business purposes" and forbids reselling n8n to your clients, while SSO, environments and advanced sharing stay on the Business plan at €667 a month.
The ten criteria, scored and justified
Intelligence
Frontier models (Claude, GPT, Gemini) and ways to step up a gear
Syniaps 5/5
Claude Sonnet 5, Opus 5 and Fable 5, GPT through Codex, or the model of your choice; Standard, In-depth and Maximum modes.
n8n 4/5
Chat nodes for OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Mistral, Groq and Ollama, but a single model fixed per node by the builder, with no step-up mode.
Execution power
Actually acts: files, code, browser, sites without an API, long-running work
Syniaps 5/5
Files, code, terminal, a browser for sites without an API, long jobs in the background, hosted apps.
n8n 3/5
JS/Python code, HTTP to any API and long pauses through the Wait node, but no native browser and no terminal: sites without an API go through Airtop or community Playwright nodes.
Company knowledge
A base built and maintained on its own from documents, email and cloud storage
Syniaps 4/5
Synapses built by the agent, OCR, a full cloud mirror; still young on very large volumes.
n8n 2/5
Retrieval exists ("Use RAG to answer questions from internal PDFs") but every ingestion, chunking and vectorisation pipeline has to be built and maintained by hand.
Zero setup
Nothing to brief, trigger or tick; the tool proposes, the human confirms
Syniaps 4/5
A short wizard, and the agent proposes its automations in conversation; site connections still have to be made once.
n8n 2/5
Everything starts from an empty canvas to wire; the AI Workflow Builder drafts from a description, but the user reviews it, enters the credentials and fixes it ("I missed some part of the logic").
Continuous learning
Remembers corrections and preferences without being asked to
Syniaps 4/5
Corrections, skills and preferences are retained and proposed for approval; no learning across customers yet.
n8n 1/5
The memory nodes only keep a conversation history per workflow; nothing captures corrections or preferences.
Autonomy
Missions and automations server-side, computer switched off, human approval on sensitive moves
Syniaps 4/5
Missions and scheduled actions run server-side with your computer off, with approval cards; mission ceilings still need tuning.
n8n 4/5
Workflows run server-side on a trigger or a schedule, with human approval possible (Wait on a form or webhook), but only along paths planned in advance.
Integrations and connections
Everyday tools, MCP, cloud storage, email, sites without an API
Syniaps 4/5
Email, cloud storage, meetings, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, MCP, sites without an API; fewer native connectors than a Zapier.
n8n 4/5
500 integrations (1,500 according to the README), a universal HTTP node, an MCP client and server, but nothing native for sites without an API or for session cookies.
Sovereignty and security
EU hosting, per-customer isolation, EU or on-premise inference, certifications
Syniaps 3/5
A dedicated machine in France (OVH), strong per-user isolation and AI processed in Europe if you choose; no on-premise option and no certification.
n8n 4/5
An Azure cloud hosted in the EU with SOC 2 Type 2 and SOC 3, on-premise or air-gapped self-hosting and local inference through Ollama; in the cloud, isolation between customers is only logical.
Teamwork
Shared spaces, roles, delegation, company-wide memory
Syniaps 4/5
Company sources connected once, shared synapses, role profiles, shared skills and conversations, shared mailboxes in missions; no SSO and no fine-grained roles.
n8n 3/5
Unlimited users, shared projects, admin roles from Pro, SSO and environments from Business, but no company memory shared between workflows.
Price and access
Total cost (tool + AI + machine) against what you get, and how easily you start
Syniaps 3/5
A dedicated machine, AI included and a 7-day trial that opens within minutes, from €299 excl. tax a month; a card is required for the trial and there is no free tier.
n8n 4/5
A trial with no card, €20 a month for 2,500 executions and a free Community edition; on the other hand agent loops burn through the quota quickly and SSO starts at €667 a month.
Verdict
Building your automations by hand against receiving them ready-made
n8n
n8n is the workbench: powerful, transparent, sovereign, provided you have someone who can hold the tool and maintain every workflow.
Natural fit: technical teams, ops and automation agencies that want to wire APIs and models together with no task tax and no lock-in.
Syniaps
Syniaps is the worker who knows the house: it proposes, executes and learns, on a dedicated machine, with nobody drawing a canvas.
Natural fit: leaders and business teams with no technical profile who want missions done, not one more tool to learn.
n8n is not a head-on competitor but the reference every technical buyer will cite to say "we could do this ourselves".
Never sell Syniaps as an automation tool (n8n will win on price, openness and code sovereignty); sell the absence of building, the knowledge of the company and the browser without an API. Consider an n8n connector (webhook or MCP) so customers who already have it can trigger Syniaps from their workflows rather than choose between the two.
Public sources (19)
- https://n8n.io
- https://n8n.io/pricing/
- https://n8n.io/ai/
- https://n8n.io/legal/security/
- https://n8n.io/legal/privacy/
- https://trust.n8n.io/
- https://docs.n8n.io/choose-how-to-use-n8n.md
- https://docs.n8n.io/build-your-first-workflow.md
- https://docs.n8n.io/integrations/builtin/cluster-nodes/root-nodes/n8n-nodes-langchain.agent/
- https://docs.n8n.io/integrations/builtin/core-nodes/n8n-nodes-base.wait/
- https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n
- https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/blob/master/LICENSE.md
- https://blog.n8n.io/announcing-new-sustainable-use-license/
- https://blog.n8n.io/series-c/
- https://tech.eu/2026/05/12/n8n-s-valuation-doubles-to-5-2bn-following-sap-strategic-investment/
- https://www.capterra.com/p/198028/n8n-io/reviews/
- https://hackceleration.com/labs/review/n8n
- https://www.airtop.ai/blog/unlock-no-code-web-automation-with-airtop-and-n8n
- https://dev.to/alifar/n8n-ai-workflow-builder-brings-natural-language-automation-to-cloud-workflows-2ah4
n8n is a trademark of its publisher, cited here for the purpose of objective comparison. Syniaps is neither affiliated with nor a partner of that publisher. Found an error in this comparison? Write to us at [email protected] and we will correct it.