Composio vs n8n

The capabilities barely overlap in the way that matters. n8n's center of gravity is a visual canvas: drag-and-drop nodes with per-step input/output inspection, re-run a single step instead of the whole workflow, and JavaScript or Python dropped anywhere the visual layer runs out of road. Its AI story is on-canvas — multi-agent setups, RAG pipelines, structured input/output enforcement on AI steps, rule-based guardrails, human-in-the-loop approvals, and native AI evaluation against real data, with traceable reasoning showing prompt, response, and next action per step. It also speaks MCP both ways: connect legacy systems and MCP tools, and let AI apps build or update n8n workflows themselves. Composio's center of gravity is the agent's runtime. Smart tool search resolves 1,500+ apps by intent rather than dumping schemas into context; auth is per end-user with OAuth, API keys, and automatic refresh; sessions scope credentials and context to each user; triggers like gmail.message.new or stripe.charge.succeeded wake agents instead of polling; and provider tool calls route through sessions for OpenAI and Anthropic. It ships agent plugins for Codex and Claude Code, a CLI, a programmable sandbox pre-wired with connected accounts, and a hosted MCP endpoint for exposing a session to MCP clients. Recent SDK releases hardened strict-mode schemas for nested and optional parameters and routed provider tool calls through sessions. One is an automation environment you operate; the other is an integration layer your code calls.

Both are freemium, but the cost drivers tell you they're sold to different budgets. n8n's price is tied to execution throughput and governance: Starter and Pro carry 5- and 20-concurrent-execution caps, and SSO plus audit logging only start at the Business tier at €667/mo — so an enterprise that needs SOC 2 or HIPAA artifacts out of the box is effectively buying at the Business level, not the free or low tiers. Self-hosting is the open-source escape hatch, but you pay for it in Docker maintenance and someone who owns the service. Composio's pricing question is different: you're paying for auth infrastructure and tool routing at agent runtime, per-user credential management, and session scoping, so cost scales with end-users and tool calls rather than with server concurrency. If your volume is low but your user count is high, those curves cross in opposite directions. Neither page gives a clean apples-to-apples figure, and they shouldn't — a €667/mo governance tier and a per-user agent-auth service aren't competing for the same line item. Pick based on whether you're buying an automation platform or an integration dependency inside your own app.