n8n is not open source. Its code is public, but n8n's documentation says it does not call itself open source because, under the Open Source Initiative's definition, "open source licenses can't include limitations on use."[2] Two sentences in its license decide what you may do with it commercially, and most people who install n8n never read them. n8n calls itself "source-available" instead.[2]
Open source is a promise about use. Source-available is a promise about reading.
n8n's README states it outright. The project is "fair-code", and the first property it lists is "Source Available: Always visible source code." The same README names both licenses in one line: n8n is "fair-code distributed under the Sustainable Use License and n8n Enterprise License."[4] Its documentation is just as direct about the other label: under the heading "Is n8n open source?", it says "we do not call ourselves open source," for the reason quoted above.[2]
An open source license, in the sense of the OSI's Open Source Definition, lets you use the software for any purpose, including selling it. A source-available license lets you read the code, then sets its own terms for what you may do with it. n8n's is the Sustainable Use License, version 1.0. It grants the right to "use, copy, distribute, make available, and prepare derivative works of the software", then attaches the part that matters:[1]
"You may use or modify the software only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use. You may distribute the software or provide it to others only if you do so free of charge for non-commercial purposes." Sustainable Use License 1.0, Limitations[1]
Can a business use n8n commercially? For its own operations, yes: n8n's FAQ lists "Use n8n community version to help run your business" and "Charge your customers for workflow creation, setup, and maintenance services" as permitted.[3] Read that first sentence of the clause as a business owner and it sorts most cases quickly. Running your own operations on n8n is your own internal business purpose, and n8n's FAQ says that covers work whose results people outside your business see: "'Internal business purpose' refers to the use of n8n within your organization or product where people outside of your business can receive or see what your workflows produce." Its one-line summary: "If workflows are only created or modified by you or people in your organization, you can use n8n under the Community license for free."[3] In the FAQ's reading, what the clause rules out is n8n itself becoming the thing you sell or hand over.
n8n's case for the restriction is that it pays for the product: "By operating as a business, we can continue to release features, fix bugs, and provide reliable software at scale long-term."[2] For a business running its own operations on n8n, the clause asks for nothing. It starts to matter when n8n itself would become part of what you sell, and the FAQ's examples on each side are worth reading in n8n's own words.
- "Use n8n community version to help run your business"
- "Build automations for your clients on your instance, as long as your clients do not have the possibility to create or edit them."
- "Charge your customers for workflow creation, setup, and maintenance services."
- "Use n8n behind the scenes in your own product, where users can use and trigger the automations you built, and even connect their own accounts to them."
- "Host n8n as a service and allow your clients to build workflows"
- "Allow external end users to build or configure their own workflows through your product, whether via a custom UI, our API, MCP, or an AI agent acting on the user's behalf."
- "Fork n8n's code to launch your own automation product"
- "White-label n8n by removing our branding and offering n8n as is."
- "Use enterprise features that ask for a license key without an Enterprise license."
The test the FAQ keeps returning to is control, not visibility. A product that hides n8n behind its own screens but lets customers design their own automations is on the wrong side: "The custom UI layer does not change the nature of the use," and the test is "about who controls the workflow logic and whose commercial interests are being served."[3] Running what someone else designed is allowed: "Triggering or executing pre-built workflows via API or webhooks is fine."[3] Designing the workflow is the part that has to stay inside your company.
Three mechanics that are easy to miss.
The clause gets the attention. Three other lines in the same file do quieter work, and each can catch a business that only read the headline.
- The enterprise carve-out is written into the file names.
Before the license proper, the file sets some code aside: "Source code files that contain ".ee." in their filename or ".ee" in their dirname are NOT licensed under the Sustainable Use License." Using them requires "a valid n8n Enterprise License".[1] Because the boundary lives in the file tree, a developer can search for it: in a copy of the repository,
git ls-files | grep -E '\.ee(\.|/)'lists every path it covers. The package named@n8n/ai-workflow-builder.eeis one entry.[4] If anyone patches or extends n8n for you, a change that lands in one of those paths falls under a different license from the rest. Separately, using "enterprise features that ask for a license key without an Enterprise license" is on n8n's own not-permitted list.[3]→ search for the marker before patching; a feature behind a license key means a paid license - Only one branch is licensed.
"Content of branches other than the main branch (i.e. "master") are not licensed."[1] It matters when someone pulls a fix from a branch before it reaches master, or builds from a work-in-progress branch to get a feature early.
→ if anyone patches your instance, ask which branch the code came from - Termination gives you one cure, not two.
"If you use the software in violation of these terms, such use is not licensed, and your license will automatically terminate." "If the licensor provides you with a notice of your violation, and you cease all violation of this license no later than 30 days after you receive that notice, your license will be reinstated retroactively. However, if you violate these terms after such reinstatement, any additional violation of these terms will cause your license to terminate automatically and permanently."[1] The text provides one reinstatement, after a notice, and no second one. A second violation ends the license on the tool your operations now run on.
→ one 30-day cure, then the license ends for good
Two more facts belong next to these. The terms have changed before: until 17 March 2022, n8n was licensed under Apache 2.0 with the Commons Clause, and its documentation says the contributor agreement gives n8n "the ability to change its license without seeking additional permission."[2] And that 2022 change loosened one thing on purpose. In n8n's words, "you are now free to offer commercial consulting or support services (e.g. building n8n workflows) without the need for a separate license agreement with us."[2] Paying someone to build your workflows is not the problem. Who can open the editor and change them is the question to settle.
Self-host, cloud, or someone runs it for you.
Most businesses meet n8n in one of three ways. On the license side, the difference between self-hosted n8n and n8n Cloud is which document governs: n8n's FAQ says the Sustainable Use License "applies to the self-hosted version of n8n only," and that "n8n Cloud is a paid subscription with its own terms."[3] Each way has a different license consequence, so the table gives the license two rows of its own.
.ee. code and key-gated featuresCloud's own subscription terms: n8n's FAQ on the Community license says "this page doesn't apply to it"the provider's contract, plus the license on whichever instance runs itSelf-hosting is where the Sustainable Use License does all the work: n8n's FAQ says it "applies to the self-hosted version of n8n only."[3] The Community edition is free, and it covers running your own business on n8n, including workflows your customers see the results of.[5][3] The line to watch is anyone outside the company building or editing a workflow: a client portal where customers set up their own automations, say, or an arrangement where a partner logs into your editor to build their own.
n8n Cloud is a different contract. The FAQ says so in one line: "n8n Cloud is a paid subscription with its own terms; this page doesn't apply to it."[3] We have not reviewed those terms for this note, so the table sends you to them instead of summarizing them. Read them with the same question in hand: who may log in and build.
Having someone else run it for you depends on whose instance it is. n8n's FAQ explicitly lets a consultant build, run and maintain workflows "on behalf of clients", and charge for it, on one condition: "n8n remains your internal tool, where clients receive outputs, not access."[3] A provider may also install and maintain n8n on your own server, "as long as you don't offer hosting as well."[3] The FAQ's permitted list draws the line for a provider's own instance in so many words: "Build automations for your clients on your instance, as long as your clients do not have the possibility to create or edit them."[3] So under the Community license, a provider can run n8n for you on its own instance, or you can edit your workflows yourself, but not both on the provider's instance. If you want to open the editor and change your own automations, the instance should be yours (self-hosted, or your own n8n Cloud subscription under its own terms), or the provider should be able to show you a separate agreement with n8n that covers it. n8n's documentation says uses outside the license need exactly that: "a separate commercial agreement with us."[2]
Three questions to settle before you build on it.
- Will anyone outside the company ever build or edit a workflow?
If the answer is yes, or "maybe, in the client portal next year", that use falls outside the Community license by n8n's own reading. The conversation is then with n8n about a commercial license, and it belongs before the build, not after.
- Which features do you need, and do any of them need a license key?
n8n's documentation lists features that need a paid plan, among them SSO, environments, external secrets, and version control using Git, and calls its pricing page the definitive source.[5] Check that page the week you decide; the list changes.
- Whose instance is it, and who holds which license?
Write the answer down: who runs the servers, which terms govern them, who can open the editor. If a provider is involved, the answer belongs in the written quote, before any work starts.
→ write it into the quote, or into your own records if there is no provider
What this does not claim.
The FAQ is n8n's reading, and it moves. We quote it because it gives examples the two-sentence clause does not. It is a documentation page that n8n revises, not the license. The license text we quote matched an earlier copy we had kept when we checked it again for this note.
No review of n8n itself. This note is about the license, not about how well n8n runs. No client engagement is described.
.ee. carve-out, the master-only branch rule, and the single 30-day cure. Then pick self-host, Cloud or a provider with the license consequence of each written down, not discovered later.
.ee. files), github.com/n8n-io/n8n. First-party, the binding text. Source of the clause, the grant, the enterprise carve-out, the branch rule and the termination terms, all quoted verbatim. .ee package name. Deciding whether to build a process on n8n, a hosted tool, or something else? Describe the process through the contact form and you get a free written first read: what we would automate first and what we would leave to a person. Process work like this is part of our workflow automation service.