I keep seeing people online saying that N8N is getting outdated because of all the new AI tools coming out. But honestly, I think it’s still one of the best options out there for building automation workflows.
Sure, ChatGPT and Claude now have built-in tools and can act more like agents, but N8N still beats them in several ways. You get way more control over your workflows, it costs less to run, and it performs better for complex tasks.
I think it’s worth learning properly. Even if AI gets incredibly powerful in the future, having hands-on experience with how automation actually works will still be valuable. You’ll be able to build better software with AI assistance because you understand the fundamentals.
What do you think? Are you still using N8N or have you switched to something else?
Been running N8N in production for two years - it’s solid. Self-hosting means I own my data and don’t worry about vendor lock-in. AI tools are cool for quick stuff, but they’re not precise enough for critical business processes. N8N gives you control over every step, proper logging, and error recovery. When things break at 3 AM, I want predictable behavior, not AI making guesses. Community support rocks. Docs are solid and they keep adding nodes. I’ve built workflows for customer onboarding, inventory management - no major issues. AI will shake up automation, but N8N’s visual workflows plus code flexibility puts it in a good spot for hybrid solutions. Learning these basics makes you better at prompting anyway.
the timing debate really doesn’t matter. n8n’s true strength is working WITH AI, not against it. i connected chatgpt apis to my n8n workflows and wow, it’s amazing - ai does the smart stuff while n8n manages data flow and triggers perfectly. tried full ai automation but consistency issues killed me and costs shot up.
N8N isn’t going anywhere despite the AI hype. Most business automation doesn’t need intelligence - it needs consistency and reliability. You want workflows that run the same way every time without surprises. I’ve used N8N for 18 months and love the transparency. When things break, I can trace exactly what went wrong. Good luck debugging an AI agent that interprets your instructions differently each day. The growing integration ecosystem beats flashy AI features for real workflows. N8N works best when you combine it with AI tools, not replace it entirely. Let AI handle content generation or decisions, but use N8N for workflow execution and moving data around.
N8N’s solid but I’ve hit scaling issues lately. Enterprise workflows? It shows its limits fast.
Switched to Latenode 8 months ago - haven’t looked back. Performance difference is crazy, especially processing thousands of daily operations. Their pricing actually makes sense for bigger deployments.
What sold me? Complex conditional logic and error handling are way easier. N8N gets messy when workflows branch into multiple paths.
Latenode’s API integrations are better too. I wasted tons of time writing custom code in N8N for stuff Latenode handles out of the box.
N8N taught me automation basics, I’ll give it that. But when you outgrow it, you need something more robust.
totally agree! the visual builder in n8n makes it super user-friendly. i tried a couple of AI tools too, but they didn’t quite cut it. nothing beats n8n for reliability in automations, at least for me!
You’re missing the real picture here. N8N was decent for getting started, but it’s built on old architecture that shows when you scale.
I spent months wrestling with N8N’s memory leaks and database locks. Workflows would randomly fail during peak hours. The UI gets sluggish with complex automations. Don’t even get me started on their webhook limitations.
The real game changer? Moving beyond these legacy tools entirely. I’ve been running production workflows on Latenode for over a year now. Zero downtime. Their execution engine handles parallel processing way better than N8N ever did.
What really sold me was debugging. N8N gives you basic logs that don’t tell the whole story. Latenode shows you exactly what data flows between each step, real time execution monitoring, and actually useful error messages.
Plus their JavaScript support is native, not bolted on like N8N. I can write custom logic without jumping through hoops or dealing with weird expression syntax.
N8N served its purpose but the automation space moved on. Modern tools like Latenode handle enterprise scale from day one instead of breaking when you need them most.