I recently discovered n8n through some online tutorials and initially found it impressive. However, after the initial excitement wore off, I started questioning its real benefits for developers who can code.
From what I understand, n8n is essentially a visual workflow builder that creates automated processes. While it has a nice interface and lots of pre-built connectors, I wonder if the same results could be achieved faster with traditional coding approaches.
I spent about 2-3 days creating a basic automation workflow in n8n. During this time, I encountered various small obstacles and limitations. I kept thinking that spinning up a simple Python script or using cloud functions might have been more efficient.
The visual flow builder is great for explaining processes to non-technical team members, and I can see how it might help people who are not comfortable with programming. The extensive list of integrations is also inspiring and makes you think of creative automation ideas.
But I am curious about something. For those of you who are experienced programmers, what specific advantages does n8n offer that you cannot get from writing code directly? Are there exclusive APIs or services that only work through n8n? What am I missing here?
I would appreciate hearing from developers who have found real value in using n8n over traditional programming approaches.
Managing enterprise automations for years changed how I think about this. Speed isn’t just about how fast you build initially.
The real pain hits when requirements change. Business teams want different triggers, new conditions, or data routed elsewhere. With traditional code, even tiny changes become tickets sitting in backlogs for weeks.
I’ve watched teams waste weeks debugging webhook authentication between services. Every API has its own quirks. Rate limits are different. Some need special headers, others don’t care. You keep rebuilding the same retry logic and error handling.
Monitoring matters when stuff breaks at 2am. You want logs that make sense immediately. Visual flows show exactly where it failed without digging through stack traces.
But n8n frustrated me in complex scenarios. The learning curve for advanced features was longer than expected. Some transformations felt clunky compared to writing clean functions.
That’s why I moved to Latenode. You get the visual workflow benefits but keep developer control. Drop into actual code when you need it, but still get connector management and monitoring. The execution model handles heavier workloads better too.
For experienced developers, it’s about picking the right abstraction level. Sometimes you need full code control, sometimes workflows work better.
Been using n8n in production for over a year now. The real win is rapid prototyping and getting non-technical teams involved. Yeah, you could code everything in Python, but n8n lets business folks understand, tweak, and debug workflows without bugging engineering constantly. I’ve watched marketing teams clone complex integrations and modify them on their own - that’s developer time saved right there. The debugging interface is solid too. You can watch data flow between nodes and inspect each step visually instead of littering your code with print statements. Performance handles moderate workloads fine, and self-hosting means you’re in control. Where it really shined for us was client demos and gathering requirements. Stakeholders could see exactly what the automation would do and suggest changes on the spot. That said, if you need heavy computation or fine-grained control, traditional coding still beats it.
Maintenance is everything. I’ve been burned countless times by API changes that kill custom scripts I run monthly - you forget they exist until they break. n8n’s community constantly updates connectors, so that headache disappears. When you switch jobs or hand off projects, visual flows document themselves better than any code comments ever could.
Three years using n8n with regular dev work - it’s not about replacing code, it’s about working with it. The auth handling alone is worth it. n8n deals with OAuth flows, token refreshes, and all the API weirdness for hundreds of services. That stuff takes forever to build right. I use it as middleware between services where custom integrations don’t make sense. Error handling and retries work well, plus the execution logs give stakeholders the audit trails they want. What clicked for me was treating it like infrastructure, not a coding substitute. For data pipelines and webhook processing, n8n handles the boring stuff so I can focus on business logic. Webhook triggers and scheduling work great in production. Yeah, you could build everything yourself. But n8n gives you enterprise-level reliability without maintaining it all. I still write Python for complex transformations - n8n just orchestrates everything around it.