Inngest vs n8n
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
n8n
Workflow automation with a node-based editor
| Feature | Inngest | n8n |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 90 · Excellent | 100 · Excellent |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Sustainable Use License |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,879 | ★ 205,815 |
| First released | 2021 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Zapier, AWS Step Functions | Zapier, Make |
What are Inngest and n8n?
Inngest
Inngest is an open-source platform for building event-driven workflows and reliable background jobs. It provides durable step functions, automatic retries and a local development server, and the execution engine can be self-hosted.
- Event-driven background jobs
- Durable step functions
- Local development server
- Self-hostable execution engine
n8n
n8n is a workflow automation tool with a visual node editor that connects apps and APIs, with optional code steps. It targets technical users automating processes across services. It is deployed via Docker.
- Visual node-based workflows
- Hundreds of app integrations
- Code nodes for custom logic
- Self-hostable with no execution caps
Inngest vs n8n: key differences
Inngest is written in Go, while n8n is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Inngest versus Sustainable Use License for n8n. N8n is the more established project (first released 2019), while Inngest arrived in 2021. N8n has the considerably larger community, at 205,815 GitHub stars versus 5,879.
Why pick each one
Choose Inngest if…
- Good developer experience
- Reliable step execution
Watch out for
- Some features tied to Inngest Cloud
Choose n8n if…
- Powerful and flexible
- Huge integration library
- Code when you need it
Watch out for
- License is fair-code, not OSI
- Complex workflows get unwieldy
Frequently asked questions
Is Inngest or n8n better?
Neither is universally better. n8n has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Inngest and n8n free and open-source?
Yes. Inngest is licensed under Apache-2.0 and n8n under Sustainable Use License. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Inngest and n8n with Docker?
Inngest: yes. n8n: yes.