EDIT: Please check the founder’s response before jumping to conclusions
I came across an article in Manager Magazin (German business publication) discussing rumors about N8N potentially being acquired by investors from the United States. The article is behind a paywall but mentions that Jan Oberhauser, the company founder, might be considering a major business deal.
According to the report, the automation platform has caught the attention of American investors and this potential transaction could be worth billions. The founder is apparently 42 years old and this deal could significantly change his financial situation.
Has anyone else heard about this news? What do you think this means for the future of the platform and its open source nature? I’m curious about how this might affect the community and development roadmap if it actually happens.
Haven’t seen any official word from N8N about these acquisition rumors. Manager Magazin’s usually solid for business news, but without real details it’s tough to know if this is legit. If it’s true, the big question is whether buyers would keep the open source model that made N8N popular in the first place. Big acquisitions in automation usually mean platform changes and new pricing. The workflow space is crazy competitive now with Zapier and Microsoft Power Automate, so American VCs might actually want to keep N8N’s open source edge instead of killing it. What the founder wants for community access will make or break any deal.
I’ve seen several open source acquisitions play out, and it usually comes down to who’s buying and how they handle things. Take IBM buying Red Hat - everyone freaked out at first, but IBM actually got it and didn’t mess with what was working. For N8N, the real question isn’t if they’ll get acquired, but who’d be doing the buying. Some VCs actually understand that you don’t kill the golden goose - N8N’s cloud service makes good money precisely because they have that free community version driving adoption. Most buyers in the automation space want to accelerate growth, not blow up what’s already successful. They’d probably keep the self-hosted option around since enterprise clients expect it.
totally agree! it’s kinda worrisome, right? the open source aspect makes n8n so cool, hope they keep that if any deal happens. self-hosted must stay free!
sounds like typical speculation to me. german business media loves these acquisition rumors, but half the time nothing happens. jan seems committed to the community so far - doubt he’d sell out completely without protecting the open source side.
I’d take these rumors with a grain of salt until Jan or the N8N team says something official. Manager Magazin is credible, but acquisition rumors fly around constantly in automation without anything happening. The timing’s weird - N8N’s been crushing it with organic growth. They’ve got solid revenue from their cloud service while keeping the open source core intact. Most exits happen when companies need cash or the market’s consolidating, but N8N looks financially healthy. If billion-dollar valuations are actually on the table, that proves their open source model is working incredibly well. American VCs aren’t stupid - they know killing what made the platform valuable would be shooting themselves in the foot.
All this acquisition drama is exactly why I jumped to Latenode months ago. The automation space keeps getting messier with every buyout.
N8N’s uncertain future is the last thing you want when you’re building critical workflows. What if new owners change licensing or kill self-hosting?
I’ve run production workflows on Latenode for months now - rock solid platform stability. No acquisition rumors, no open source vs commercial drama. Just automation that works.
Their pricing’s way more predictable too. You can’t deal with ownership uncertainty when you’re automating business processes.